@Michael ******

You ever been driving in Chiang Mai?

That is the law but try to tell it to an officer of the law who's only interest in interpreting the law is how much tea money it yields.

Legally you don’t need an IDP in Thailand if your residence country has ratified the 1968 Vienna Traffic Convention (which large part of the countries are, but some aren’t like the US) since Thailand has ratified the same convention in May 2020. In fact, one can argue that the IDP wasn’t legal requirement even before that but some Thai police had the interpretation it was (not going to go into details of that in here).

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@Paul ******

The IDP issued on the basis of the 1949 Geneva Convention is valid for one year, and on the 1968 Vienna Convention for three years. However, these conventions only determine the maximum continuous length how long a foreigner has the right to use their domestic licence or IDP in a foreign country as for purposes of international traffic, everything else is left to each national legislator. Usually the status from “international“ to “domestic” will change according to the individual’s residence. In the Thai Motor Vehicle Act it is determined on the basis of visa type (non-immigrant visa) but other Thai laws may provide more specific requirements.

Yeah, with some of the officers it is just waste of breath trying to argue with them about legal matters and much more convenient to comply with their rules rather than challenging them in higher instances.

@Nick ******

No, I don’t live in Thailand but been visiting there as a tourist multiple times. So far the police have required an IDP only in Chiang Mai, and even then I have managed to shake them off a couple of times by mentioning the Geneva Convention and showing my old school driving licence issued in the 90’s.

As far as I know, Thai law does not require you to have an IDP as long as the country which has issued your domestic driving licence is ratified the 1949 Geneva Traffic Convention, which most countries are.

Thai Motor Vehicle Act – B.E. 2522 (1979) Section 42-2 states that:

“In case there’s a treaty between the Thai government and a foreign government regarding mutual acceptance of driver’s license, an alien who doesn’t have an immigrant visa may drive a motor vehicle with a driver’s license issued by such a foreign government, or an automobile association authorized by such a foreign government.”

Thailand has ratified the said multilateral convention and to my knowledge there isn’t any other Thai law which would supersede the above mentioned law.

In practice, however the interpretation of the police in some places, especially in Chiang Mai, has been that it is an excellent cash cow to require all tourists to have an IDP if they come anywhere outside ASEAN nations.

If staying longer than 3 months then it’s another question (Thai licence required by the law but in practice never enforced), as are insurance matters.