Search for anything about Thai traffic police in English and you will find travellers describing payments made at the roadside with no ticket and no receipt. It is one of the most heavily discussed subjects in every forum about driving here. This page does not tell you what to do about that, because there is nothing useful or lawful to tell you — offering a payment to an official is a criminal offence in Thailand for the person offering it as well as for the person accepting it.
What this page does instead is set out the official process precisely: what a lawful traffic penalty looks like from first moment to last, what section 140 provides, where fines are actually paid, and what a legitimate receipt shows. A driver who knows that process is far less vulnerable than one who does not, because they can recognise it, ask for it by name, and tell at once when they are outside it.
- The officer's lawful optionsA warning, or a written ticket (s.140)
- Where fines are paidBank, 7-Eleven, post office, station, or online (s.141)
- Licence seizureNo power since 20 September 2019
- Roadside cashNo mechanism exists anywhere in the Act
The official process, from start to finish
1. The stop
A traffic officer may order a driver to stop under section 142 where the vehicle does not meet the general condition requirements, or where the officer finds that the driver or someone in the vehicle is breaching the Act or the law concerning the vehicle. Police checkpoints in Thailand covers what a routine stop looks like.
2. The documents
You may be required to produce a driving licence and a copy of the vehicle registration. Since 20 September 2019 the licence may be the original, a photocopy or electronic licence information — there is no obligation to hand over the physical document, and no power to keep it.
3. The officer's two options
Where an offence is found, section 140 gives the officer exactly two choices: a warning, or a traffic ticket requiring payment of a determined penalty fine. There is no third option in the Act.
What the law says
Section 140. Where a traffic officer finds a person committing a breach of this Act, whether by himself or by using any device, the officer may give a warning or issue a traffic ticket requiring the payment of a determined penalty fine. The determination of the penalty fine follows criteria prescribed by the Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police, and the form of the ticket is prescribed by the traffic officer.
Section 141. The recipient shall pay the amount stated on the ticket, at the place stated on the ticket or at a place prescribed by the Commissioner-General by publication in the Government Gazette, within the time stated on the ticket; or shall send a postal money order or bank draft payable to the Commissioner-General by registered post. Where payment is made, the case shall be deemed settled.
4. The ticket
A lawful ticket is a printed or handwritten document of which the officer keeps a copy. It shows a ticket number, the offence, the vehicle, the amount in baht, where to pay and by when. An electronic ticket carries two QR codes — one to pay by mobile banking, one to look the ticket up on the police website. Behind all of them sits the Police Ticket Management system, PTM, which turns the paper into a record. On-the-spot traffic tickets in Thailand goes through the form in detail.
5. The amount
The figure on the ticket is not the maximum in the Act. It comes from a schedule issued by the Commissioner-General under section 140 and is normally far below the statutory ceiling. Traffic fines in Thailand and what they cost explains the difference.
6. Payment, elsewhere and later
Payment happens at the place named on the ticket or at a gazetted place — in practice ptm.police.go.th, a Krungthai Bank counter or app, 7-Eleven, a CenPay point, a post office, or the police station named on the slip. Normally within seven days. How to pay a traffic fine in Thailand covers each channel.
7. The receipt
Paying produces a record. You should end up with a printed, numbered, stamped receipt or a till or bank slip carrying the ticket reference, and an SMS confirmation should arrive within about 24 hours. If it does not, the PTM call centre is 1220. What a legitimate Thai police receipt looks like describes what each channel produces.
8. The case is closed
Section 141 says that on payment the case "shall be deemed settled". For an ordinary fixed-penalty offence there is no court appearance to follow.
That is the complete process. Eight steps, two documents, and money that changes hands at a bank, a shop counter, a post office, a police station or online — never at the roadside. Anything that does not fit that shape is not the process described in sections 140 and 141.
What travellers report
Set against that, what visitors describe is well known. Travellers frequently describe being stopped, told of an offence, and offered a resolution on the spot for a cash sum with no ticket written and no receipt given. It is reported often enough, across enough places and years, that it clearly reflects something people genuinely experience, and it is widely reported to be more common in heavily touristed areas and to fall disproportionately on foreign riders on rented motorbikes.
Those are reports, and we present them as reports. They are not law, they are not policy, and they are not something anyone can source to an official document. Nor can they be turned into instructions: there is no lawful version of that transaction, no amount to name and no technique to describe. Offering a payment to an official is a criminal offence in Thailand for the person offering as well as the person accepting — a considerably more serious matter than the traffic offence they were stopped for.
A payment with no paperwork settles nothing. The official record of a traffic offence lives in the Police Ticket Management system, and it is created and closed by documents. A payment that produces no ticket and no receipt creates no record — which means the original alleged offence remains outstanding, and you have nothing at all to show for the money.
Two facts that change the shape of the encounter
Your licence cannot be taken. The power to seize a driving licence at the roadside was removed by the Land Traffic Act (No. 12), in force from 20 September 2019. That system no longer exists, and an enormous amount of English-language advice has never caught up with the change. A demand framed as "pay now or I keep your licence" does not describe the law as it stands.
Paying the ticket ends the matter. Under section 141, payment settles the case. On an ordinary fixed-penalty offence there is no court date, no hearing and no escalation waiting for you. The written ticket is not the start of a long process; it is the whole process.
What you can actually do
Three things, all of them ordinary requests that put an encounter back onto the documented track.
- Ask for the written ticket. "Could I have the ticket, please?" is a request for the thing section 140 provides for. It is polite, it is normal, and it is answerable.
- Note the officer's name and station. Asking which station to pay at is a practical question with a practical answer, and it is on the ticket in any case.
- Pay at the station. The station named on the ticket always works as a payment channel, including for handwritten tickets that shop counters cannot process.
Beyond that, the most effective single thing available to a foreign driver is a phone call. The tourist police hotline on 1155 reaches an English-speaking officer of the same national force, 24 hours a day. They cannot overrule a traffic officer's ticket. What they can do is translate, and that changes the character of a roadside encounter more than anything else a visitor has available. The traffic police hotline is 1197.
Most of this never arises if the paperwork is right. Licence, IDP, a photocopy of the vehicle registration and the rental agreement in one wallet, helmet on, and a stop becomes a sixty-second document check with nothing to discuss. Am I legal to drive in Thailand? is the checklist for before you set off.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a lawful way to settle a traffic offence at the roadside?
No. Section 140 gives an officer two options — a warning or a written ticket — and section 141 provides for payment at the place named on the ticket or a gazetted place. There is no roadside payment mechanism anywhere in the Act.
How do I know whether I am in the official process?
By the paperwork. A lawful outcome produces a numbered ticket showing the offence, the amount, where to pay and by when, of which the officer keeps a copy, and later a receipt or SMS confirmation carrying that ticket reference. No ticket means no record.
Can an officer keep my licence until I pay?
No. That power was removed with effect from 20 September 2019. Guidance that says otherwise is describing the law as it stood before that date.
What should I say if I am asked for something that is not on the ticket?
Ask for the written ticket, and ask which station to pay at. Both are ordinary requests that the process is built to answer. If communication is failing, 1155 puts an English-speaking police officer on the line.
Should I report what happened?
That is your decision, and it is worth being realistic about what a visitor on a short trip can practically pursue. The channels that exist are the station itself, the traffic police hotline on 1197 and the tourist police on 1155. If you are considering it, note the date, time, location and officer's name at the time rather than reconstructing them later.
Does any of this mean I should avoid driving in Thailand?
No. The overwhelming majority of roadside stops here are a sixty-second document check that ends with your licence handed back. The genuine risks of driving in Thailand are on the road rather than at the checkpoint — see is it safe to drive in Thailand? for the honest version of those.