Switzerland on an Irish Licence — The Side Switch & a CHF 40 Vignette

Two adjustments decide how an Irish visitor gets on in Switzerland: the side of the road, and a motorway charge that works nothing like the barrier tolls at home. Everything else is close to familiar.

Right-hand traffic

Ireland drives on the left; Switzerland drives on the right. The risk is highest in the first hour: leaving the hire car park, entering a roundabout that now turns anticlockwise, glancing the wrong way at a junction. Do that first stretch on quiet roads rather than straight into Geneva or Zürich traffic, and talk yourself through each turn until it stops feeling odd. Paperwork, by contrast, is simple. Swiss rules accept a foreign licence on its own when its categories are in Latin script, so your Irish licence needs no IDP; keep it with your passport and the rental papers.

The vignette

Swiss motorways have no toll booths. Instead you need a CHF 40 vignette, either a sticker on the windscreen or an e-vignette registered to the number plate, valid from 1 December of the previous year to 31 January of the following year. Buy it before the first motorway slip road. Driving a motorway without one is a CHF 200 fixed fine. A car hired in Switzerland should already be covered; one picked up across the border may not be. The Switzerland vignette guide shows where to buy.

Limits and fines

Default limits are 50 km/h in towns, 80 outside them and 120 on motorways. Fixed fines are set nationally: 6-10 km/h over costs CHF 120 in town, CHF 100 outside built-up areas and CHF 60 on motorways, and larger excesses go to the prosecutor instead. The speeding fine calculator covers other margins. The general alcohol limit is 0.05%, as in Ireland. Ireland’s lower 0.02% for learner and novice drivers has a Swiss counterpart of 0.01% for probationary licence holders.

On mountain passes, use a low gear downhill rather than riding the brakes, and in the cold months ask the hire firm what tyres the car has. Emergencies: 112, police 117, ambulance 144. The Switzerland driving guide has the rest.

Sources

• Verkehrszulassungsverordnung (VZV, SR 741.51), art. 42 (recognition of foreign licences): fedlex.admin.ch
• Ordnungsbussenverordnung (OBV, SR 314.11), Annex 1 no. 303 (speeding) and no. 6001 (no vignette, CHF 200): fedlex.admin.ch
• Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, e-vignette and adhesive vignette (CHF 40, validity): bazg.admin.ch
• WHO Global status report on road safety 2023, Switzerland profile (50/80/120 km/h; 0.05 and 0.01 g/dl): who.int
• WHO Global status report on road safety 2023, Ireland profile (0.05 and 0.02 g/dl): who.int
• Global Affairs Canada, Switzerland travel advice (112, police 117, ambulance 144): travel.gc.ca