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Thousands of Chinese motorists could be driving illegally in Richmond

Let the mud slinging start.. RCMP should keep a record of the driver and if the driver is caught x number of times, the cars should be seized by the government to pay for general revenue. I would even go as far as telling RCMP, you want more cops? the revenue from all the cars you seized will go directly to your officer funding.

Quote:

Thousands of Chinese motorists could be driving illegally in Richmond

Thousands of Chinese motorists could be driving illegally in Richmond

Drivers caught in licensing dispute between RCMP, ICBC

By ALAN CAMPBELL, RICHMOND NEWS April 9, 2014 1:34 PM

A legal loophole is leading potentially thousands of Chinese motorists in Richmond to take to the road illegally.
Photograph by: Richmond News , ....

METRO VANCOUVER -- A legal loophole is leading potentially thousands of Chinese motorists in Richmond to take to the road illegally.

Richmond RCMP has, for several years, been fining drivers $276 and towing their vehicle off the road if caught behind the wheel with a Chinese driver's licence.

The vast majority of those drivers, though, have been given the go-ahead to drive for a designated length of time by ICBC, which is using the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) to justify its decision.

According to local Mounties, they have no way of verifying if the information on the licence is correct because, unlike agreements with other countries, they've no access to Chinese driver licence information.

Richmond RCMP has, therefore, deemed the document invalid — a position that, the RCMP says, has been backed up by the courts after numerous drivers challenged the violation and failed.

A recent escalation in the number of drivers in the city being pulled over and found to be carrying a Chinese licence led to Richmond RCMP appealing to ICBC to work with them to find a solution.

"This has been going on for many years, but it can't continue," said Const. Dennis Hwang, of Richmond RCMP's road safety unit. "It seems to be more prevalent now than it's ever been. But the drivers are rightly saying to us, 'How can this be right when ICBC says it's OK?'"

On any given weekend, said Hwang, "you can be sure that almost everyone we stop in Richmond will be carrying one of these licences.

"It's not a legal document because it's not verifiable, there's no agreement between the two governments to share information."

ICBC disagrees, saying an official driver's licence, issued by China, is acceptable in B.C. for any visiting tourist up to six months. If you've established residency, your licence is valid for 90 days, ICBC stated.

When asked by the Richmond News why ICBC recognizes a Chinese licence as a valid document, but Richmond RCMP does not, the insurance corporation's senior media relations advisor, Adam Grossman, made specific reference to the MVA, which uses the words "validly issued" in terms of the licence from your country.

It's those two words that are troubling the RCMP.

"Validly issued? How do they know it's been validly issued when they have no access to that country's driving licence records?" added Hwang.

Many foreign tourists driving in B.C. have an international driver's permit (IDP), which you can only get in your country of origin, and only if that country is part of a core group signed up for the program.

"China is not one of those countries and when we come across Chinese drivers with an IDP, we know that document is fake," said Hwang.

There could be people from other countries, driving around Richmond and the rest of the province, awaiting a similar fate to the ones with Chinese licences.

The Chinese licence issue only came to light in Richmond because of the high proportion of Chinese drivers on the local roads. According to Hwang, ICBC has attended court cases where the RCMP's actions have been challenged by the driver, resulting every time in a justice of the peace ruling in the police's favour.

After ICBC representatives met Tuesday morning with Richmond RCMP to find a solution, Grossman insisted the licence is still valid, but said the corporation has agreed to share its advanced "verification tools" and knowledge with the Mounties in a bid to end the impasse.

Grossman said ICBC has highly-trained and experienced officers, who know what to look for in a Chinese drivers licence to verify its authenticity.

"We simply follow the legislation . . . we're aware of the RCMP's concerns around verification.

"We're going to see what we can do to assist them."

Although ICBC claims it has tools to verify authenticity, it's understood Richmond RCMP still has issues with the document's validity and will continue to fine and tow drivers with such licences until the courts say otherwise.

Click here to read more stories from The Richmond News.
© Copyright (c) Richmond News

coles notes; there are only chinese drivers in richmond. sorry white ppl

"On any given weekend, said Hwang, "you can be sure that almost everyone we stop in Richmond will be carrying one of these licences."

More like there are only bad chinese drivers in Richmond that get caught.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowguy (Post 8452505)

If I were a law-abiding Chinese national driving with a valid Chinese licence because that's what ICBC told me I am allowed to do, I'd be pissed.

Having said that, how many of these Mainland Chinese drivers getting pulled over are tourists still driving within that allowed 6 month time frame? And how many with residency status are still within their allowable 90 day period?

Last but not least, knowing how rampant bribery and corruption is in Mainland China, how many did not bribe their way through to get that Chinese driver's licence in the first place?

good call Godwin.

lol

Quote:

Originally Posted by Traum (Post 8452516)

A friend of mine didn't even need to bride them seeing as his dad works in the Chinese Gov.... they just handed him a licence @@

wow imagine how much safer the roads would be if all these guys get taken off the road.. :ilied:

The queen cant sell the Canadian dream by having potential head tax suckers to go on our bus system to get around.

Yeah, take them off the road! Even with the 6 months and 90 days of driving, past that date, you have to apply for a BC driver's license. I'm with the RCMP here. How do you know if the driver been driving for 3 months or 9 months? I'm sure they can check travel documents, but that's gonna take a huge long time.

Fuck you ICBC, the 6 mo rule is only logical if RCMP can validate the information. This will make the people of China plead to their shitty government to cooperate with ours.

All other governments that do not want to share that information should have a big middle finger pointed at them. GET THEM OFF THE FUCKING ROAD!

obviously ICBC is siding with the Chinese drivers.... they're ICBC's biggest clients :lol nobody pays ICBC more in premiums than shitty fob drivers

1) let bad drivers drive "legally" on our roads
2) wait for accidents to happen
3) hike premiums
4) profit!!

Pretty sure ICBC makes money from selling these people insurance. Maybe even the accidents too. They're the ones that win out of this law. I don't think they're going to change anything without pressure from the public. Yeah, what PiuYi said.

That's just an excuse by ICBC. They are just in it for the money, as usual.

What's surprising is not this, but rather that people are surprised by this.

ICBC is retarded.

They have pretty much taken over as the sole issuing authority for secondary ID within the province ( BCDL , BCID, BC services ) and are screwing tons of people over by not accepting 2012 + Citizenship Certificates from CIC.

Doesn't surprise me that these new immigrants / citizens can't get a proper BCDL when ICBC won't t accept their ID to begin with.

Ive dealt with many new citizens ( not just asian ) that can't get anything from ICBC because they don't accept their existing documentation and they have no where else to go because ICBC is now the only place to get ID.

Stupid ICBC, do they even know the requirements to get a license in China? I'm guessing it's completely different from here.

People shouldn't be asking why ICBC allows this - they should be asking why it DOESN'T. Like someone else said above, more of "bad" drivers who don't know the North American way of driving = more accidents. More accidents = higher premiums. Higher premiums = someone gets to stuff his/her pockets with taxpayer money!

Personally, I think this is ridiculous especially considering the RCMP have literally no way of verifying whether these licenses are real or fake. Take these people off the road and force them to get a BC DL. End of story

If you pull over someone in a rental car I understand a Chinese license but if you pull over a BC bought Maserati with full insurance its pretty clear they intend to stay in this country past 90 days.

Why even focus on ICBC, RCMP is the ones who are enforcing the law.

I say fuck the ICBC greed, they will never stop, because hey money. Put more pressure on RCMP to crack down on these fuckers since RCMP seems to not give a shit if ICBC says otherwise (good on them) and drive these inconsiderate China drivers out of here because they are too scared to drive cause RCMP on their asses all the time. That or they will be forced to properly get a license, WHICH IS WHAT YOURE SUPPOSE TO FUCKING DO!

Sorry guys, bad China drivers turns me to a sailor.

On a side note, I wish we can somehow get RCMP to care more about highway left lane hoggers. They also need to suffer someway or another.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noclue (Post 8452790)

And going past that, regardless of this 90 day thing, it should only apply if you have travel documents WITH you to prove on the spot. Exactly the same if you forget your license, they can still ticket you for not having it on you even though they can check that you do indeed have one. If no travel documents that can concretely prove that you are within the 90 days RCMP writes up the ticket, and GG for them even if they dispute.

Why wouldn't ICBC just give these China licensed drivers something that states how long their China license is good for? That would mean if they got pulled over they could produce a document from ICBC that says they have been verified by ICBC and authorized to operate a motor vehicle here. Then the cop doesn't need to worry about it being fake or not as the ICBC document shows they they have already been verified. Just seems like ICBC is being sloppy, lazy and grey area and letting the police deal with it.

^^ Won't work, cuz you're assuming that every Chinese driver will walk into ICBC to get themselves approved before they start driving on our roads. However, chances are, if someone is really a tourist, they just hop off the plane, rent a car, and start driving.

If we could get the federal government involved, I could see a solution to this problem.

On the customs form, they could work in a simple question into form.
"Do you plan to drive in Canada? If yes, you're license is valid for 90 days from today's date. Legal blah blah blah. "

That covers everyone under the rainbow, not just Chinese. Or similar as to above, only allow temp insurance for cars unless you have a B.C. license.
Posted via RS Mobile

Not all the facts have been presented in the article.

According to the law, you have to use a D/L of your country of residence. You are not allowed to hold a BC license if you hold another D/L in any other jurisdiction. Hence, if you are not a resident of BC, you will HAVE to drive in BC with a license from your home country. As a non-resident, you are allowed to use your foreign D/L for 6 months, or if you are moving to BC, up to 90 days.

Lots of people have ties to Canada but are not residents in Canada. Many of these people leave cars here. In order to be able to drive and insure their cars, ICBC has to allow them to use their foreign D/Ls. This applies whether you have an American D/L, a Hong Kong DL or a PRC D/L. No getting around it unless you can prove that the driver has exceeded the legal stay period in B.C.

Because of these laws, the courts and Richmond RCMP are in the wrong for not allowing foreigners to drive with foreign D/Ls.

There's really nothing on our end we can do to validate these drivers. China needs to release their driver's license info in order for us to validate. If China would not allow us to drive over there, why should we allow them to drive here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bomiheko (Post 8453280)

This. China does not want to participate in the IDP, nor will they allow me to drive there with my BC license, therefore I see no reason we should allow their residents to drive here with their Chinese licenses. Go lobby the government or w/e, but if we can't validate your license you shouldn't be able to drive here. PERIOD.