JEDDAH, 12 August 2004 — Interior Minister Prince Naif yesterday approved new regulations to authorize a person to drive other people’s vehicles. A joint panel of the interior and justice ministries and the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry had proposed the new rules.
According to the new rules, vehicles to be authorized for driving must have valid registration and must not be listed among the wanted by any party. It should pass the MVPI test for road-worthiness and its owner should not be wanted by security agencies on criminal charges, the Saudi Press Agency said in a report.
With regard to authorization for driving outside the Kingdom, the law said the authorized should be a person under the sponsorship of the vehicle’s owner if he is an expatriate. An expatriate owner can authorize his sponsor or another expatriate if they work for the same employer.
“A foreign investor, who owns a private vehicle, can authorize any person inside the Kingdom. If it is a public vehicle, he can authorize only those who are under his sponsorship. The authorization period, in such cases, should not exceed the validity of the re-entry visa,” the report said.
A Saudi can authorize another Saudi for a maximum of three months inside the Kingdom and six months outside and the authorization is renewable once. If it is from a Saudi to an expatriate, who works under his sponsorship outside the Kingdom, the authorization period will be three months. If the expatriate does not work under the sponsorship of the vehicle’s owner, the period will be 15 days inside the Kingdom.
An authorization from an expatriate to another under the same employer inside the Kingdom will have a validity of 15 days and is not renewable. An expatriate cannot authorize another expatriate to drive his vehicle outside the Kingdom.
If the owner of the vehicle and the authorized are individuals they should be present at the traffic department to complete authorization formalities. If the owner is a company, a letter of approval attested by the chamber will do.
The son of the vehicle’s owner as well as his father, brother, grandfather and grandsons can drive it inside the Kingdom without authorization. Expatriates can drive the vehicles of their sponsors without authorization.
