Car Tax and Passport

 

Last year Pensri and I made a 3-week road trip through central and northern Laos, and the year before that we drove around the south. Here we parked beside the road in Hua Phan Province, on the way to the former capital of the liberated zone, Xam Nua.

 

We had stopped to admire this view:

 

Incidentally, we had had the car washed during our 2-day stop in Phonsavanh. Earlier it had looked more like this:

 

Anyway, yesterday I realised that my car tax and car passport (International Transport Permit) were both due for renewal and since a long weekend holiday is about to start I decided to get on and do it.  So I gathered the paperwork as quickly as my inefficient filing system allowed and headed into Ubon.

I have a sister-in-law in Ubon and her husband kindly looks after the insurance of my car for me, mostly because when we go back to England we get a rebate on the policy for the months the car will be off the road and he takes care of that. And the car, too, which he always starts every now and again and has checked before we get back. So I had to call on him first to pick up the insurance documents and he reminded me to go to the insurance office to pay the government premium, which this year has been reduced to 600 Baht, + stamp and VAT bringing it to 645 Baht. Last year it was about 750 Baht.

Second stop was the place which carries out a few tests on cars over a certain age (7 years, I think). This took about 15 minutes so I got to the Land Transport office at 12.20 and about 30 different people told me in a variety of English, Thai and sign language  that they were closed for lunch. So a lunch break for me, too, at the excellent Spago which I learned about from Darwin at We Love Ubon .

Back to the Land Transport office after lunch and it only took me 15 minutes to complete all the formalities and get my windscreen tax sticker for 2553 (2010). What was needed here was just the car registration log book and the insurance documents.

Next I renewed my car passport which required some different paperwork but was again very easy. This is the third time I have had a car passport (as everyone here calls it). The first year was fairly complicated and there were lots of pieces of paper involved. But last year they were just putting a computerised system in place and issued me with a new book and assured me that in future it would be very straightforward. And it was.

The only complications arise because I don't officially own the car, my son does. So what I needed here is a form signed by him and me, photo-copies of his Thai passport and my British one and a letter in Thai and English giving his permission for me to drive the car "in Thailand and other countries". So only a small amount of forgery was required. Plus the car registration document which had just been updated. This took another 20 minutes and could have been less if the woman whose signature was required had not left her desk just before my documents were put on it.

So it was a successful day in the cluthches of the Thai bureaucracy. I must say it was all very easy, very pleasant, and everyone was very kind and helpful. At one point a woman pushed in front of me at the photo-copy machine but when she got to the front of the queue the woman operating the machine turned her away and took my stuff. That was nice.

So now I am looking forward to our next trip to Laos. In the meantime I'll post a couple of blogs about those previous trips. I'll do that when things have quietened down following Phana's Rubbish Parade later today and the King's Birthday tomorrow.

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence I must say that I found the Land Transport office helpful when I went to get my first driving licenses, quite why they have one for cars and one for motorcycles now its computerised I don't know.

The boss was even quite sanuk when I failed the written test the first time!

[Lawrence]

Mike --
Did you take the written test in English? And isn't it the case that you can get a UK licence converted into a Thai one without any test?

I have a lifetime Thai licence issued in 1969. It is very dog-eared and as you can imagine the photo could be of anyone. Policemen are always very puzzled by it. I've left it in UK this trip and feel a bit vulnerable without it, though I have my UK one.