The Florida Legislature originally amended its law in 2012 to require visitors from outside the United States to have an International Driving Permit in order to drive lawfully in Florida. This change took effect Jan. 1, 2013. The permit affects 3 million Canadian drivers who visit the state of Florida each year.
But the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) abruptly changed tack on February 14, when it suspended the amendment without any apparent prior notification to Canadian authorities. The DHSMV said it suspended the law because it may have violated the Geneva Convention on Road Traffic. The Canadian Office of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Ontario brokers that the Florida legislature would convene in March 2013 to take a second look at the legislation.
“In conversations that we had [on February 15], it’s been confirmed that the Florida legislature will re-convene and review the legislation and, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor vehicles, they will propose giving Canadians an official exemption,” Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (
IBAO) CEO Randy Carroll told Insurance Business. “We’re proposing to drivers to contact their broker and make sure that coverage is confirmed before they take their next trip [to Florida].”
In the meantime, given that the Florida law has been suspended, are Canadian drivers without an international driving permit in breach of an insurance company’s coverage...? (continued)#pb#
“We have the vast majority of our broker [insurance] companies sending out notifications to our brokers to say that consumers are protected,” Carroll said.
The
Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), a national trade organization representing most of the country’s property and casualty insurers, said they had advised their members to respect the coverage of Canadian drivers in Florida without an international permit.
The IBC has no authority over its members to enforce the request, however, and insurers are under no obligation to honour coverage while the Florida law is still on the books.
Non-resident visitors to Florida who wish to drive still need a valid driver license issued from their country of residence. However, Florida will not enforce action based solely on the lack of an International Driving Permit.
An abrupt suspension of a Florida law has brokers making sure their Canadian clients are covered while driving in Florida during their vacations.
