UKMS

Interesting and I stand corrected... it does seem to come down to whether you have an address in the UK and it doesn't define what a 'resident' is for 'DVLA' purposes (not that I can find). If I spend 80 days a year at my UK home can/should I have a UK licence ? I'm a non resident for tax but considered a resident for other things (I'm ordinary resident for NHS purposes).

jam25mack

Who the f**k knows..... but at a guess it means if you a resident elsewhere (I.e have a resident visa). Either way, for safety's (and lack of having to worry about speed cameras) sake i'd drive on the UAE licence as you wouldn't want to get in a smash only for those dirty insurance folk to dig out the small print and inform you that you're uninsured. Your call tho.

scrubbedexpat141

Talk to me about the speed camera one.
Surely if your hire car gets flashed, the fine is put into the database, it pops up with Thrifty or Hertz or whatever. They get a fine.
They look at who had the car.
Oh, it was Jam25Mackspeedy. Charge his card (it's probably in the terms that they can just do it.)
Done.

No?

jam25mack

Dunno how it doesn't if I'm honest. I just know I've never had one speeding fine when driving a hire car in the UK on a UAE licence, and I generally end up driving all over when I am back (Norfolk, Wales, Scotland etc) and have seen a flash on more than one occasion. A ticket for driving in a bus lane did however get charged to my credit card last year. Maybe this is because one is a criminal charge and comprises a fine, a punishment and gives you the chance for your day in court, where as the other is just a fine.... I haven't the foggiest. Maybe in X years time when I return I will get hit with all of them at once.... who knows!

You're right tho, you do always sign to accept any fines levied against you.

scrubbedexpat141

**** it.

I'm gonna go through one and see what happens. End of this month I go back.

Split the £60 with me?

jam25mack

Ha ha, no chance. I got 4 here last month. The roadworks on the Kalba road are killing me. I wasn't even doing 100 the other day and it flashed me.....

scrubbedexpat141

Wow.
You've got a heavy foot.

jam25mack

Not really. I do quite a lot of KM a month tho.

These ones on Kalba Road are starting to kill me though as it says 100 and I'm 100% sure I was doing like 95 when it went off the other day..... and I have zero chance of successfully disputing it, especially as its on a hire car who just pay it straight off and whack it on my bill. Its got to the point I'm even considering going the long way round. 25 mins extra is better than 800 AED in tickets.

carcajou

I have received fines at times when I am positive that I was not exceeding the limit.

I have often wondered, how the cameras work, and I wonder if some guy just gets a photograph and then randomly chooses which car is the one that is speeding.

I have had speeding infringements in Australia while driving in a hire car on a UAE licence, that resulted in points put on my Australian licence (but not my UAE one). I imagine they keep a record of names and the system pings that way, but that the UAE system and the various Western ones are not connected.

scrubbedexpat141

Fair enough. I hate those dodgy ones. Not been on the wrong end of any / many though I don't think. Mine are truly deserved and earned.

jam25mack

Same here for some of them.... Many years ago I managed to accrue 24 points in a little over 2 weeks. Thankfully I managed to give away 12 of them so I wasn't on a ban.

scrubbedexpat141

The Mrs got her car impounded for jumping a red light at 5am.

When I say impounded, I mean they say it had to be, she looked it up and I paid the 100 dirham a day fine to not have it impounded.

IKnowNothing

the beauty of driving in the UK on a UAE license with a hire car is, yes you (can) get the fine, but no, you don't get the points.

jam25mack

I took the hit. I had one hire car impounded in Fujairah and another in RAK and obviously one for me to use. So 3 hire cars for the month plus the 1000 fine for each incident made it an expensive month. 12 points were donated to a mate who was leaving so at least I kept my licence. If I remember rightly the points dropped off at the end of the year too, not after a year.

Haven't had a point since.

Sandboy

I got caught in Cumbria, hire car on UAE licence - hire company forwarded the documents to me I wrote to Cumbria Police and they couldn't be arsed to do anything and let me off, no fine, no points