Whatever you do, don't pay a Thai visa agent to go through the process. They cannot bribe anybody and know as much or less about the process than you do. Read the guidelines and provide all of the evidence requested and more, also put it in a logical order with an index. Good luck.
yes I agree Graham, same as most things in Thailand.
Is that true about it being mandatory to get the 5 year licence, as that seems crazy. After 2 years you should have a pretty good amount of driving knowledge without doing the 1 hour video.