Hi all,
Considering my situation, can I drive legally in Taiwan?
I’m residing in Taiwan through my visitor’s visa. I’m guessing since I don’t have any type of Taiwanese ID, I cannot receive a Taiwanese car/scooter driver’s license.
Now lets flip things around. Can I exchange my US car/scooter license for an international one and will I be able to drive here then? How will insurance work?
Plenty of information about this at these two sites:
Ok, so I cannot legally own a vehicle… what if this is a friends/relatives car that is insured under their name? Will it be legal for me to drive this car? Someone told me that in Taiwan, cars are insured and not people. Is this true?
Of course you can drive, given that you have a license of some kind:
That can either be a local one or an international one. Some rules or exceptions may apply depending on your nationality (in some cases you can actually do a transfer without sitting for a test).
[quote=“Rascal”]Of course you can drive, given that you have a license of some kind:
That can either be a local one or an international one. Some rules or exceptions may apply depending on your nationality (in some cases you can actually do a transfer without sitting for a test).[/quote]
This could be misleading - though you can often get away with looking dumb and repeating Ting bu dong. However, officially you need an international driving licence, not a foreign domestic one. And it is only valid for 30 days after arrival. Then you are supposed to exchange it for an ROC license. This might be enforced - 2 examples are:
(1) I was not allowed to drive a rental car even though I had an IDL. My companions, who had just got off the plane at CKS, had no problem.
(2) A friend had an accident -clearly the other driver’s fault. The police were called and he was told that he could pursue it, but would then be liable to pay a fine (NT$ 6000 I think) for not having a local license. The result was my friend had to leave with a dented car and no compensation.
This could be misleading - though you can often get away with looking dumb and repeating Ting bu dong.
What’s missleading? That the international one has to be a foreign one should be quite clear - after all you can’t get one here if you don’t have a local license and international ones are never accepted in the country where they have been issued.
If Taiwan limits the use to 30 days than that’s a local regulation which differs from other countries and thus you have to choose the other option, i.e. make or transfer to a local license.