A question we get asked often when people are asking for some more information on car rental with us is: “Do I need an international driving permit or license?” There are a few things we can say about this.
Let us start with the actual document. It is called an “International Driving Permit” and not an “International Driving License”. In fact there is no such thing as an international driving license.
If you do a search online there are websites that offer international driving licenses. We also see these advertised locally in Thailand. In our opinion these are mostly scams or at least invalid/unacceptable documents. The only document that is considered legal and valid is the International driving permit issued by local affiliated clubs, which are appointed by the FIA and IAT in cooperation with the local governments. The validity of the document is usually for 1 year. Inside the booklet there is a photo of the person it is issued to, the classes of the permitted vehicles this person is allowed to drive, and an array of translations that explain that the holder is considered to be able to operate these vehicles under the international agreements.
A very important fact that is often forgotten is that the international driving permit has no legal value when it isn’t carried together with the driving license issued by the holders national government. We very often have people turn up for their car rental with only the international permit at hand.
Practically there are a few issues as well. Specifically for Thailand the international driving permit completely misses its point when it comes to translation, since there is no Thai translation present in the booklet. The English language skills of the Thai police are often limited and apart from that they probably know many of the most common country issued licenses. In our opinion the best reason to have an international driving permit is to escape a possible fine from the police officers that strictly stick to the law (which are very few). Most police checks in Thailand in our experience will not ask for the international driving permit.
The best and only reason that we can think of to really get the document is when you have a license from a country that has no Roman charcters, like a Chinese, Korean or Japanese license. European licenses for example are very uniform in their design and have clear symbols indicating the vehicle classes one is allowed to drive.
As for PURE Krabi Car Rental, we can say that we do not require our customers to have an international permit for our car rentals. Our insurance requires our customers to have a valid driving license issued by their government. Again, in case of a totally different script and international driving permit would be required. But of course always in combination with the original license.
Now, we are NOT advising anyone NOT to get an international driving permit. Officially this is international law (based on agreements from the 1940’s and 1960’s). But since most driving licenses have adapted for international use, the international driving permit to us seems more as a cash cow for the issuers.
More information on the international driving permit on https://internationaldrivingpermit.org/
