Intl drivers license

US, Canada, & Mexico all recognize drivers license's from the other two countries. There is no need for an International Drivers License. If you are legal in your home State or Provence you are legal in all three countries.

However, when I'm traveling in Canada, I inform my insurance company ahead of time, so they can send me a 'proof of insurance in Canada' card. I believe this is because the minimum limits are different between the two Countries.

I used to carry an International Drivers License for my trips to Europe and the Mid-East, but no one wanted to see it. They always asked for my US license, so I stopped carrying the International one.

You do not need an International drivers licence in Mexico. We have been coming here (and driving here) on and off for 30 some years and never had a problem with our BC, Canada DL. The last 11 years we've been coming down with a class A motorhome towing a car and have covered some 22 Mexican states.

I guess the question comes down to "reciprocity", does Mexico recognize the general rule applied north of the border if you are legal to drive the vehicle/combo in your own jurisdiction then you are legal to drive in theirs?

What was the response when you told the lady you'd be driving a vehicle over 7,000 pounds? Also the "air brakes" requirement. I have a Texas Class B Non-Commercial license that allows me to drive a 30,000 pound vehicle with air brakes.

Just about every state in the US has a different requirement for a driver's license. Some have no specifications saying what the license is. Some have no requirement for weights or whatever - other than CDL of professional drivers over 10,000. We have South Dakota licenses where there is no requirement for a special license to drive our 33,000 lb. Bus towing a 4,000 lb. car. Other states have weight requirements and some even require certification if you have air brakes. I read somewhere an estimate that about 40% of Mexican drivers do not have any license. I have no idea if Mexico has any special requirement for larger/heavier vehicles. I cannot speak about other countries further south. Our trick is to do nothing that would cause the police to pay attention to us so we will hopefully never have any need to show them a driver's license. So far in the almost 8 winters we have been driving this Bus in Mexico we have never been asked for a driver's license - other than at the border crossing where they just verify our identity and address etc. We have never had an International Driver's License and did not know there was such a thing.

werwin48 wrote:
There is no a Problem in mexiko. We in germany can operate with our regularly B driver license only 7700 lbs, but this limit is not shown in the int. driver license. The int. driver license is is only valid in connection with regular driver license.
I had never a problem with police in Mexico, since I show only the intl. driver license...

I also have a valid TX driver license, but in some reason it is better I show only the intl. driver license...

yep, that's why I got an intl. license when I was spending a lot of time in Europe. If I got stopped they could look at and have my intl. license and I would still have my "real" license available.
bumpy

An International Drivers Permit is just a translation document. It must be accompanied with your regular drivers license. Then it gets confusing... if you read up on it there are different convention years and rules, also not all countries signed on to the conventions.

There is no a Problem in mexiko. We in germany can operate with our regularly B driver license only 7700 lbs, but this limit is not shown in the int. driver license. The int. driver license is is only valid in connection with regular driver license.
I had never a problem with police in Mexico, since I show only the intl. driver license...

I also have a valid TX driver license, but in some reason it is better I show only the intl. driver license...

Nope. A US drivers license would have done.