Drivers License

[mglaser]

If I am moving to Thailand for two years, do I need an International Drivers Permit?

[AJS 7R]

Only if you intend to drive a vehicle.

[Aachen]

You cannot drive 2 years on the International drivers license, but it is a good start to get a Thai license (very inexpensive to obtain).

[manfredtillmann]

check out some of the other posts regarding this topic, depending where you go and who's countries licence you have, which vehicles you want to drive etc etc,

there are a range of options.

if you only want to hire cars at times and your drivers licence is in arabic letters and features a photo of you - don't bother.

if you want to buy a car you will need to get a thai license, eventually. (check posts about how to do). an international permit might help.

there are no clear cut rules about anything here in T, depending on who you deal with the rules can change every day.

[stevenl]

For more than 3 month stay you'll need a Thai licence.

[KhunBENQ]

Which country are you from?

An IDP is a useful helper to get a Thai driving license.

Start here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/920562-thai-drivers-license-checklist/

What you get at first is a temporary Thai license valid for two years (not one as the site still says):

http://www.dlt.go.th/th/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3470:in-case-of-foreigner&catid=131:2011-09-08-02-09-23&Itemid=88

[keeniau96]

I bought my Ford Ranger and drove around with my expired Arizona license for about 3 years before getting a Thai driver license. Got stopped twice (showed my USA license) and no hassle at all. One time for speeding 140 km/hr passing Hua Hin, another time for going wrong way on Petchaburi road in Bangkok (lanes had changed since I had been there before). So not much hassle but best to get Thai license, the process of that being considerable hassle.

[giddyup]

I bought my Ford Ranger and drove around with my expired Arizona license for about 3 years before getting a Thai driver license. Got stopped twice (showed my USA license) and no hassle at all. One time for speeding 140 km/hr passing Hua Hin, another time for going wrong way on Petchaburi road in Bangkok (lanes had changed since I had been there before). So not much hassle but best to get Thai license, the process of that being considerable hassle.

Be interested to know how you would have got on in the event of a serious accident with an expired driving licence. For one thing, insurance wouldn't have paid you a satang, and you may have even gone to jail.

[Kwasaki]

I bought my Ford Ranger and drove around with my expired Arizona license for about 3 years before getting a Thai driver license. Got stopped twice (showed my USA license) and no hassle at all. One time for speeding 140 km/hr passing Hua Hin, another time for going wrong way on Petchaburi road in Bangkok (lanes had changed since I had been there before). So not much hassle but best to get Thai license, the process of that being considerable hassle.

Circumstances would of dictated your bravado also depends if you were in Thailand permanently for 3 years and if what you say is true then you were lucky.

Either way I hope no one would take notice and do the same it's not necessary and it is certainly not a considerable hassle to get a Thai DL.

Another thing a lot of people don't understand is the compulsory insurance requirement in Thailand as long the vehicle has it, although you were unlicenced the vehicle is insured not the driver of it, that's why one of the reasons for road stop checks by police to check whether you have road tax disc, no compulsory insurance no tax disc.

The DLT here have all my vehicles now having expiry dates of compulsory insurance aligning with the road tax disc.

[Ace of Pop]

Please Yourself, but dont Cry when you have a bad accident and the insurance walk away and the Police and injured go for You. They will go a tad easier if its expired a few months as a genuine oversight, but no Test n Thai ticket they will rip yer head off.The same goes for Thai and Aliens.