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Calling Their Bluff

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Re: Calling Their Bluff

#21

Post by ricudis »

YZF wrote: post #9
lmm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDPs are still very much useful and needed - short of the world agreeing on a single standard for what a driving license should look like, they're a lot more practical than expecting everyone to understand 192 different formats (and a few crazy countries like the USA even issue dozens of different license formats within the country). Delegating it to some random driving-related third party is slightly weird but not t…

There are many countries where just having a standard-ish license with English is perfectly fine. I think last time we had a thread on this topic someone mentioned a few countries where that wasn't true but most of Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, (edit: UK), and a bunch of other countries will just take your local plastic license as long as it has English on it.

I have never driven a car outside of my own country, and I always wondered how they even allow you to drive a car without getting re-trained in a country where the driving system is so different than where you obtained your license (I'm looking at you, Commonwealth countries). Isn't it difficult to adapt to left-side driving while having used to right-side? It surely needs a little bit of adapting as a pedestrian.

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#22

Post by avh02 »

dhsysusbsjsi wrote: post #2

UK now charges £16 for Australians.

please take a look at what they charge people who have to go through a whole visa process (for me, it starts at 179 USD to _apply_ (which may be rejected))

excluding all the time i'd have to spend and documents I'd have to collect

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#23

Post by robert_foss »

nicbou wrote: post #17
postepowanieadm wrote: post #4

There's a strange (for someone from Eastern Europe) zone around public services where shady individual thrive: like buying vignettes - you may buy "directly" from the state (nemzetiutdij.hu, eznamka.sk, edalnice.cz) or by some middleman that brings nothing to the process but has a ~20% commission.

In Germany there is also a strange zone where people bring sanity to government processes that have no business being this complicated.

Very true, if only more sanity was brought.

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#24

Post by pnt12 »

ricudis wrote: post #19
nicbou wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany there is also a strange zone where people bring sanity to government processes that have no business being this complicated.

In Greece, traditionally, we tend to consider Germany as the almost ultimate place in regards to reliability, efficiency, etc. It's a bit soothing to discover that almost everywhere everybody has the same issues (the difference in magnitude matters, of course)

Nowadays that's actually Switzerland (at least I hear great things about Zurich, except the cost of living).

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#25

Post by postepowanieadm »

nicbou wrote: post #17
postepowanieadm wrote: post #4

There's a strange (for someone from Eastern Europe) zone around public services where shady individual thrive: like buying vignettes - you may buy "directly" from the state (nemzetiutdij.hu, eznamka.sk, edalnice.cz) or by some middleman that brings nothing to the process but has a ~20% commission.

In Germany there is also a strange zone where people bring sanity to government processes that have no business being this complicated.

Germany is special.

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#26

Post by deruta »

pnt12 wrote: post #24
ricudis wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Greece, traditionally, we tend to consider Germany as the almost ultimate place in regards to reliability, efficiency, etc. It's a bit soothing to discover that almost everywhere everybody has the same issues (the difference in magnitude matters, of course)

Nowadays that's actually Switzerland (at least I hear great things about Zurich, except the cost of living).

I've, in turn, heard much praise for how Estonia is doing it.

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#27

Post by cjs_ac »

ricudis wrote: post #21
YZF wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many countries where just having a standard-ish license with English is perfectly fine. I think last time we had a thread on this topic someone mentioned a few countries where that wasn't true but most of Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, (edit: UK), and a bunch of other countries will just take your local plastic license as long as it has English on it.

I have never driven a car outside of my own country, and I always wondered how they even allow you to drive a car without getting re-trained in a country where the driving system is so different than where you obtained your license (I'm looking at you, Commonwealth countries). Isn't it difficult to adapt to left-side driving while having used to right-side? It surely needs a little bit of adapting as a pedestrian.

> Isn't it difficult to adapt to left-side driving while having used to right-side?

You get used to it after a few minutes. It takes a bit more concentration, especially when turning out of one-way streets, but it's otherwise fine.

There are mutual recognition agreements between many pairs of countries. The UK, for example, will allow you to directly exchange a licence from an EU or EEA, a British Crown Dependency, or a 'designated country' (Andorra, Australia, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Japan, Moldova, Monaco, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Republic of North Macedonia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe) for a British licence with no need for a retest. Most of those countries drive on the 'wrong' side of the road.

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#28

Post by cjs_ac »

YZF wrote: post #9
lmm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDPs are still very much useful and needed - short of the world agreeing on a single standard for what a driving license should look like, they're a lot more practical than expecting everyone to understand 192 different formats (and a few crazy countries like the USA even issue dozens of different license formats within the country). Delegating it to some random driving-related third party is slightly weird but not t…

There are many countries where just having a standard-ish license with English is perfectly fine. I think last time we had a thread on this topic someone mentioned a few countries where that wasn't true but most of Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, (edit: UK), and a bunch of other countries will just take your local plastic license as long as it has English on it.

An IDP isn't a driving licence; it's an internationally-agreed and -recognised document that asserts that 'this other document I have is a driving licence.' I think the main value of an IDP is that it avoids this sort of situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DQBc3eFUlU

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#29

Post by closewith »

cjs_ac wrote: post #28
YZF wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many countries where just having a standard-ish license with English is perfectly fine. I think last time we had a thread on this topic someone mentioned a few countries where that wasn't true but most of Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, (edit: UK), and a bunch of other countries will just take your local plastic license as long as it has English on it.

An IDP isn't a driving licence; it's an internationally-agreed and -recognised document that asserts that 'this other document I have is a driving licence.' I think the main value of an IDP is that it avoids this sort of situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DQBc3eFUlU

Although it wouldn't have helped in that situation, as the Polish don't need IDPs in Ireland.

Re: Calling Their Bluff

#30

Post by magnetometer »

nicbou wrote: post #17
postepowanieadm wrote: post #4

There's a strange (for someone from Eastern Europe) zone around public services where shady individual thrive: like buying vignettes - you may buy "directly" from the state (nemzetiutdij.hu, eznamka.sk, edalnice.cz) or by some middleman that brings nothing to the process but has a ~20% commission.

In Germany there is also a strange zone where people bring sanity to government processes that have no business being this complicated.

I've never experienced any government process where paying a third party would have simplified things. I've also never heard of any third party offerings for that purpose. Could you share some examples?
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