Every motor vehicle registered in Thailand must carry compulsory third-party insurance — พ.ร.บ., spoken as por ror bor and written CTPL in English — before its annual road tax can be renewed. It is statutory cover under the Protection for Motor Vehicle Accident Victims Act, it costs a few hundred baht a year, and it attaches to the vehicle rather than to whoever is driving it. If you own a car or a motorbike here, you have it whether you thought about it or not, because you could not have taxed the vehicle without it.
What matters is understanding its shape, because it is narrower than the word "insurance" suggests. Por ror bor covers people, not property. It pays for injury, disability and death. It will not repair your motorbike, it will not repair the car you hit, and its medical ceiling is low enough that a serious crash will pass it inside a day at a private hospital. It is a floor, not a safety net.
- What it coversBodily injury, disability and death — no property damage of any kind
- Paid without proving faultUp to ฿30,000 medical per person, ฿35,000 for death or permanent disability
- Medical once liability is settledUp to ฿80,000 per person
- Death or total permanent disability฿500,000 per person
- Going without itA fine of up to ฿10,000, and no road tax renewal
This page is for someone who owns the vehicle. If you are a visitor trying to work out what cover you have on a hired scooter or a rental car, start instead with compulsory versus voluntary insurance in Thailand, and for hire-car damage liability go to rental insurance excess in Thailand.
What por ror bor actually pays
The cover works in two stages, and the distinction between them is the most practically useful thing to understand about it. A first tranche — the "preliminary" compensation — is paid quickly and without waiting for anyone to establish who was at fault. The larger sums only arrive once liability has been settled, which in Thailand can take a long time and often runs through negotiation rather than a court.
| Benefit | Limit per person | When |
|---|---|---|
| Medical expenses, preliminary | Up to ฿30,000 | Paid without establishing fault |
| Death, permanent disability or loss of organs, preliminary | ฿35,000 | Paid without establishing fault |
| Combined preliminary maximum | ฿65,000 | — |
| Medical expenses | Up to ฿80,000 | Once liability is established |
| Death or total permanent disability | ฿500,000 | Once liability is established |
| Loss of organs / dismemberment | ฿200,000–฿500,000 by schedule | Once liability is established |
| Daily hospital allowance, inpatient | ฿200 per day, maximum 20 days | Once liability is established |
| Combined maximum | ฿504,000 | — |
There is also a ceiling per accident rather than per person, reported by one licensed insurer as ฿5,000,000 for vehicles of not more than seven seats and ฿10,000,000 for larger vehicles. We have that from a single source, so treat it as indicative rather than exact — it only becomes relevant in a multiple-casualty crash in any case.
฿80,000 is the number to hold in your head. That is the medical ceiling per injured person, and roughly £1,850 / $2,300 / €2,000. A head injury from a motorbike, treated at a private hospital in Phuket or Bangkok, can pass it in the first twenty-four hours. Anyone who reads "the bike has valid por ror bor" as "I am covered" has misread it badly. What Thai hospital treatment actually costs after a crash is set out in Thai hospitals after a crash.
What it does not do
- No property damage, at all. Not your vehicle, not the other party's, not the wall or the roadside stall. That is what voluntary cover is for.
- No cover for theft or fire. Again, voluntary insurance.
- It does not follow you. The policy belongs to the vehicle. Ride someone else's bike and you are relying on that bike's por ror bor, not yours.
- It is not travel insurance. It will not repatriate you, will not fly you home in a medical seat, and will not pay a private room bill beyond the ceiling.
- It does not fix the liability question. Beyond the preliminary payment, someone still has to be found responsible, and the amounts above are what the injured party can claim, not what you personally are protected against paying.
Buying it and renewing it
Por ror bor is sold by every licensed Thai motor insurer and by brokers, agents, some banks, the counters at DLT offices and the drive-through tax windows, and online. The term is a year. The premium is set by class of vehicle and is a few hundred baht for an ordinary motorbike or private car — small enough that it is not worth shopping around, and the certificate is standard, so there is no meaningful difference between one insurer's compulsory policy and another's.
What you buy is a certificate showing the vehicle's registration, the insurer and the period of cover. Keep it with the registration book, and keep a photograph of it on your phone. A hospital admitting an injured person will want the vehicle's details, and the person who has them may not be you.
Buy it and the road tax in one visit. The two are chained: compulsory cover must be in force before annual tax can be paid, so the sensible pattern is to renew the insurance and then walk to the tax counter — or use a broker's desk that does both. The sequence, including where an older vehicle's inspection fits in, is in Thai road tax: what it costs and how to pay it.
The penalty for going without
Operating a vehicle without compulsory insurance carries a fine of up to ฿10,000. As with almost every Thai motoring penalty, that is a statutory maximum rather than what appears on a roadside ticket. The consequence that actually stops people is administrative: without valid cover the annual tax cannot be renewed, and once the tax lapses the vehicle is progressively harder to make legal again. What that spiral looks like from the far end is described in what happens if you drive uninsured in Thailand.
Why owners buy voluntary cover on top
Because compulsory cover leaves out everything that costs money in an ordinary accident. Voluntary motor insurance in Thailand is sold in a ladder of classes — 1, 2+, 2, 3+ and 3 — and every one of them adds third-party liability for injury and property damage on top of por ror bor, with the higher classes adding cover for your own vehicle, and theft and fire. The differences are sharper than the numbering suggests and are set out in Thai insurance classes 1, 2+, 3+ and 3 explained.
For a cheap second-hand scooter the calculation is different again, because comprehensive cover on a machine worth ฿25,000 rarely makes arithmetic sense while third-party liability very much does — that is the subject of which insurance class to buy for a used motorbike.
If you are injured in a crash
The preliminary payment is the part that is designed to work fast, and it is worth knowing it exists: medical costs up to ฿30,000 per person are payable without waiting for anyone to decide who caused the crash. The hospital will normally deal with this directly if it has the vehicle's insurance details, which is the practical reason to keep the certificate to hand. Everything beyond that — the police report, the insurance surveyor at the scene, the settlement conversation — is a separate process, covered in what to do after a road accident in Thailand.
Frequently asked questions
Is por ror bor enough insurance on its own?
No. It covers injury to people up to modest limits and covers no property damage whatsoever. Anyone who owns a vehicle here and can afford voluntary cover should carry it as well.
How much does compulsory insurance cost?
A few hundred baht a year for an ordinary motorbike or private car. We are not quoting the exact tariff figures that circulate online because we could not confirm them against the Office of Insurance Commission; any insurer or broker will quote you the current premium in a minute.
Does it cover me if I was at fault?
It covers the injured people, which may include you. The preliminary medical payment is made without establishing fault. The larger benefits depend on liability being settled, and the cover does not repair anybody's vehicle either way.
My bike is insured. Can my friend ride it?
Compulsory cover attaches to the vehicle, so it does not evaporate because someone else is riding. But that is a narrow point about one policy: whether your friend is legally entitled to ride at all, and whether their own travel insurance would pay for their injuries, are separate questions with worse answers.
Do I need por ror bor on a vehicle I never drive?
If it is registered and you intend to keep it road-legal, yes — the annual tax cannot be renewed without it, and letting both lapse is how a stored vehicle turns into a problem.
Is it the same for a motorbike and a car?
The cover and the benefit limits are the same in structure; the premium differs by vehicle class. Motorbikes are the cheaper of the two by a wide margin, and are also the vehicles most likely to need the medical benefit.
Does compulsory insurance cover a passenger on the back?
The scheme covers accident victims for bodily injury, which includes passengers. The limits are the same per person, and they are the same modest limits — a pillion passenger with a serious head injury is in exactly the position described above.