Changing a bike's license plate to your province

[cdrw]

FWIW...
A few months ago I purchased an F650GS which was licensed in Phuket.
It took 2-months of hassles to finally get my name on the green book.
The problem was that Phuket and Pattaya use different forms for the
Letter of Residence and neither province accepts the others form!
I had to have someone intercede in my behalf to finally get the green book
updated and in my name.

I was informed that if were to ever sell the bike, the purchaser would
incur the same problems I experienced, and was advised to change the
license plate to my province of residence, Chonburi.

Yesterday's trip to the Chonburi Land & Transportation Office resolved the
potential problem. Along with the bike, I took photocopies of my passport,
the green book and a new Letter of Residence, obtained from Pattaya Immigration.

Initially, at the Transportation Office, a copy was pencil rubbed of the bike's serial number
(like is done for annual license renewals). Then, I took this and all my documents to another office,
where they processed the change of license. After paying 425-Bt, I was given a new tax/insurance
sticker which indicated my new Chonburi license number, a new greenbook (which indicated me as
the bikes' first purchaser; other prior owners names on the old green book were omitted), and upon
handing them the bikes' Phuket license plate was given my new Chonburi plate.

Painless...and it took about an hour and half.

 

[cdrw]

I received an e-mail from Bob Sensale, which commented on my changing of the F650's license plate in Chonburi.

I think it's important to comment on the change of plate procedures as done at Chonburi, if not also similarly done at other provinces:

Bob Sensale wrote: "......It is not the usual procedure, but I am not surprised that they gave you a new book. The bike was originally bought and registered in Bangkok. Just before I bought it, the original owner transferred it to Chiang Mai. Then Keld transferred it to Phuket. Now it has its 4th plate"
------------------
Bob,
The green book that I received from Keld and was finally changed to show me as the new/current owner and contained the names of Keld and the 3 previous owners.
I have no idea as to why they created a new green book for the F650 which indicated only me, and none of all 4 prior owners, when I changed the plate to Chonburi. There was plenty of room in the original book to continue showing the bikes history of ownership. Yet, such does not surprise me.

Early Christmas morning, 2007, my Suzuki dirt-bike was stolen out of the lobby of the hotel I was staying at, in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Having friends in the town, they spread the word and they and the police recovered the bike (sans license plate and with a broken gas-tank lock) at a bar, where the drug-addicted Brit was trying to sell it. I was lucky! Returning to Thailand, I applied for and obtained a new license plate and green book. The new plate has the same number as the old one, but I was issued a new green book which contained only my name, and not that of the two prior owners.

I find the practice of _not_ showing the history of a vehicles ownership to be very deceptive, especially to any subsequent owners!! In both of the above cases, there was more than sufficient space in the green books to continue the vehicles ownership history.

-cdrw/'jay'