Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai Driving Licenses. A major issue, especially among newly minted expats here in Thailand; folks that are just arriving, especially retirees. A lot of folks want to go ahead and get a driving license for various reasons. Some people actually want to drive. In my opinion is I am not a big fan of driving in Thailand for a number of different reasons but in my opinion one of the best things a Thai Driving License is good for you is as ID. It can be a very useful second form of ID rather than having to carry one’s passport around all the time. 

As far as this video is concerned, we're talking about waiting times for Thai Driving Licenses. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattyamail.com, the article is titled: What will 2023 hold for Pattaya Tourism? There's a small excerpt in here, I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail but to quote this excerpt. Quote: "The waiting period to obtain driving licenses can be longer than a month." I thought that was really interesting. I had not seen many folks that had had that issue. Now I have seen folks, we have talked to people and dealt with people that have been trying to deal with getting a Thai Driver's License and they told me "yeah it took weeks. I kept having to go back to retake the test often times." I've heard a lot of horror stories where the test is wrong or like the translation of it isn't really quite right and it causes a lot of opacity with respect to the right and wrong answers that are required in these tests. I don't know if this is stemming from a spike in demand and the system is having a problem sort of coping with that demand or if it is more from the standpoint of the process has just gotten generally harder and now this is what you are dealing with.

I am here to tell you, dealing with the equivalent of the DMV back in the United States here in Thailand which is the Land Transport Department or Department of Land Transport, yeah it's very similar insofar as it's not a place you want to spend a bunch of time up here in your life dealing with trying to get a Thai Driving License. But yeah getting a Thai Driving License can cause folks a great deal of consternation. Not really surprising to me that the wait time is rather long. I suspect it will probably continue to be that way at least through the end of high season presumably especially in tourism related areas. How this sort of plays out over the longer term remains to be seen. We will certainly keep you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.