Tourists renting motorcycles in Thailand must have proper license, say new proposals

[0815]

7 hours ago, lujanit said:

Check your travel insurance. Most policies are void if the person riding has an accident if the rider doesn’t have the appropriate license. Lots of visitors get caught out if they have an accident.

Would be easy to avoid problems like this if:
a) Tourists / Renters need to show the mandatory licences (valid national + international) at the rental shops.
b) the shops would provide a Rental Bike Insurance (3rd. party, medical coverage, bailbond ... ) which is available online from 150THB p. day, instead of charging 100THB more for their fake insurances.
But this would mean to stop to be that greedy.

[natway09]

Only 60 years overdue but if they want to kill less farangs  any driver of a public service vehicle caught under the influence of drink or drugs loses his licence for GOOD

[PEE TEE]

I wonder how many Thais have (proper licences) for motorbike and car. mabey about the same percent that have bulbs in their back lights . What do they propose as a proper licence, one from their own country or a International driving permit ? 

I totally agree that anyone who hires a motorbike should have experience of riding as i know the feel good on holiday factor makes some think they can ride when they cant thats a big problem 

[0815]

7 hours ago, boonrawdcnx said:

I think the real joke here is to call a Thai license a “proper” license!

And why would a shop that rents out any bike - small or big - be able to rent it out to anybody who can not produce a license that allows the person to operate said vehicle?

Ah I know why - in Chiang Mai for example there are several roadblocks manned by police around the old city who fine every tourist they catch without a license a 1000 baht! I reckon they make 10’s or even hundreds of thousands of baht on a good day.
And then get this - they can then drive around without a license the entire day!
Also the shops that rent out motorbikes to people who are not allowed to ride them because they have no license to do so are never fined anything!



Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

If you get caught in Chiang Mai without ANY licence, you pay 1000 THB. With the receipt you are allowed to drive 3 days !
Backpacker forums seem to spread this online as the easiest way to ride a rental bike for a few days.
No licence - find a checkpoint (plenty around nearly every day) - pay your fine = licence problem solved > ride to Pai.
I asked a police officer about insurance coverage with their receipt ????. His cool answer was: Another problem but only if have accident.

[0815]

4 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

I believe the UK is 125cc and has been for decades.

But i could be wrong and i don't really care.

My OP was just giving the gist of things, not being pedantic.

I believe pretty much every housewife on the planet who can ride a bicycle, can ride an auto scooter.

If you really believe what you tell in your last sentence, go to Pai sit down in a restaurant opposite the rental shops in Walking Street and watch how most foreigners (Western and Chinese) can handle an automatic scooter.
Another good place to watch is the parking at the Pambok Waterfall.
You will be surprised...

[Jane Dough]

7 hours ago, NanLaew said:

The death toll for Thai's riding on 2-wheels far surpasses the minivan deaths, it's just easier to see and report the one-off minivan with 15 burned or crushed inside or thrown into the paths of other vehicles versus the 15 that die each day in motorbike accidents scattered across the country.

 

But I agree that the percentage of foreigners contributing to the 15-a-day would be quite small, maybe 1-a-week?

15 you have gotta be joking. 45-50 more like

 

Rooster

[DJ54]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

With Thai licences for "big bikes" also likely to come in before the end of the year tourists who may be able to rent a small bike may be prohibited from renting a larger machine, notes Thaivisa. 

 

That is if they can rent one at al

If the foreigner has the proper license for MC why not rent to them? If not allowed at all what will happen to the business renting bikes for touring

[Burma Bill]

Good for "tea money" - just imagine how many more police checkpoints will be set up in the tourist "hot spots"

[Andy Rawai]

Been like this in Phuket for a while. The rental place will give you a scooter regardless. If stopped by police, a valid licence must be shown. Usually no problem for me but the odd police officer plays dumb with international licences, it's worse if you can't speak Thai or English.

If they enforce this at the rental place level, the roads will be safer but the rental industry will collapse.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[Mainhattencitizen]

8 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Money talks and so the renters of bikes will continue to carry on as they have always, unless and until punitive measures are introduced that make it prohibitively expensive to do so. I don't expect that to happen any time soon mind.

To be honest I do not expect anything to happen. It is the Thai way to talk, talk and talk some more and in the end do nothing.

[Jiggo]

Same old same same, be forgotten about in a couple of weeks.

 

Not sent on a SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[Eloquent pilgrim]

On one single day during Songkran this year, police nationwide, checked 1,048,847 vehicles resulting in 239,295 traffic violation charges; failing to present a driver's license accounted for 57,087 of these charges, and I doubt that the vast majority were foreigners.

 

There are probably, quite literally, millions of Thais driving or riding without a valid license, please sort this out first, then you can come for Johnny foreigner. 

[quadperfect]

Thats just it. The bike rental shops will 100 percent go out of buisness. And the copers will lose a huge high season income at the check points flecing for this very issue.

I fully expect a retraction saying because tourism is in a fragile state this law will not be enforced.

Immagine how all tourism whats left from western contrys will just not bother anymore. Not that all ride bikes but i bet a large amount do .All the fun is taken out. Bottom line western countrys have very few bikers. So no one has license .

Beside what of the 50,000 killed in thailand i bet its no more than 100 tourists on bikes.

Thailand really has a hard time with reality.

 

[Funkymover]

yes I agree,, but hey, lets not mention the idiot thai that do not have a licence, have never even done a bike/car lesson, or even the bike test, and of course the moron  parents that allow their children to ride on one.. and  the family all squeezed onto one bike . It's the minority tourists that are keeping the death rates so high,,,  as usual , it's always the farang ..

[Rocking Robert]

2 hours ago, dougiemac52 said:

I have a full motorcycle license from the UK. If this comes to fruition will it also mean that Thai nationals will also need a license? 

If not this can be construed as discrimination a very dangerous path to venture down.

 

You do realize we are talking about Thailand 

[essox essox]

8 hours ago, meechai said:

What a novel idea? Needing a license to drive a motor vehicle on the road??

 

 

very novel INDEED...who would have thought that a licence IS REQUIRED to drive any vehicle on ANY ROAD.....STRANGE !!!

[Arkady]

I was driving in Pattaya last week and a young farang on a fairly large bike that he seemed unable to control nearly drove into me. I don't know if he had a bike licence or not but by the way he was wobbling around he certainly shouldn't have been on it in Pattaya traffic. 

 

Although it probably won't happen because the motor bike rental people would lose out too much, I hope this will become law and will be properly enforced for the safety of tourists and all those around them.  While they are about it, it would also be a good idea to enforce the law on Thais driving without licenses.

[essox essox]

not enough coppers to enforce any laws...Thai drivers or farang.....

[revup]

Consistent enforcement of driver licensing laws is way overdue.

However, accidents happen because of criminal actions - ignoring the rules, not from ignorance of them.

The real answer is to consistently and always enforce ALL of the rules, and that means no turning a blind eye to offences. It means getting out there and actually policing proactively, not sitting in the police box, or having a camera record an incident and maybe contacting the driver by post weeks later. It is not rocket science.

[Call]

9 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

When that say - have a license - are they talking about a plain old driving license, or an actual bike license. If they mean actual bike license, bike rental shops in Thailand will all go out of business. 

And the Chinese and Arabs will stay away. Back to 25 million tourists a year, yes!!!

[Bundooman]

9 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

When that say - have a license - are they talking about a plain old driving license, or an actual bike license. If they mean actual bike license, bike rental shops in Thailand will all go out of business. 

Good!  The Motorbike shops clutter up the kerbs and sidewalks, place chairs or large objects to stop others parking and they are a total eyesore. Sonner the better for me and this is at least a step in the right direction - providing it is enforced. Good for the tourists, those they inevitably hit or crash into, their families and the thieving hospitals who rack up the costs for foreigners. 

 

Now let's see a curb on Thai motorcyclists as well. Licenses, helmets, Tax disks, Number plates, tyres with tread on them, lights back and front, silencing exhaust pipe noise , pollution emissions, drunkenness, gun-toting and machete carrying morons. 

 

A good all-rounder actually.

[HHTel]

'New proposals', 'changes'????

 

It's always been required to have a valid licence.  Do they really mean that it just may be enforced for a while!

[neeray]

9 hours ago, mickyr55 said:

WOW and you think that's clever makes you part of the problem methinks. Confiscation is the only answer start taking the bikes away and destroying them as they do in the UK would really hurt. 

Just a little honest story "buddy" that I thought some members would get a smirk out of.

Did I say that I thought it was "clever"?

That little story was old news (6 years ago).

Today, knowing what I have learned since then, I prefer being a passenger on 4 wheels.

Please don't eat any "sour grapes" today.

[KKr]

absolutely brilliant executive decision!
a great innovation: 
enforce the Law.

[metisdead]

Some off topic posts have been removed. 

[SteveK]

The first time I came to Thailand I was the only person out of a group of people at guesthouse who had a motorcycle license yet everyone was renting bikes. If this is enforced properly, i.e. renters being required to check licenses before renting, it will hurt a lot of Thai businesses so I suspect that it will be used as a way for the police to extract a few thousand from farangs they pull over.

[thaiguzzi]

3 hours ago, 0815 said:

If you really believe what you tell in your last sentence, go to Pai sit down in a restaurant opposite the rental shops in Walking Street and watch how most foreigners (Western and Chinese) can handle an automatic scooter.
Another good place to watch is the parking at the Pambok Waterfall.
You will be surprised...

Average housewives are not stoned hippies and hipsters though....

[BigC]

Biggest problem in samui is the high  rate for taxis

 

Wouldnt  have a problem  getting a taxi around  if they werent so expensive 

[Isaanbiker]

A high level meeting was told that many tourists are dying on the nation's roads. 

 

Who told the high level meeting that? 

[Steve Vincent]

Wouldn’t worry about tourists as the majority have full driving licences,the law currently states you need a international driving licence which costs around £10 in the uk. Thais are the nightmare spent 6 weeks in Pattaya international hospital 7yrs ago because of a motorbike accident - was the passenger Thai motorbike driver was found to be over the limit no insurance no licence ??? Leaving me with a hefty bill... now when travel over always have insurance. Ubon littered with schoolchildren on motorbikes ( no licence ) Thai authorities just confiscate bike and fined... basically saying to you if they didn’t use motorbike they wouldn’t attend school.. 

-

This issue needs addressing and quickly  I’m just fed up with Thais blaming tourists when they can’t keep there own house in order !