Driving for Uber in France: what Uber publishes and what the law requires
Uber is a booking platform, not an employer or a licensing body: the card and the register stay in the state’s hands.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
To drive with Uber in France you first have to be a VTC driver in the legal sense: a professional card obtained after the chambers of trades’ exam, a business listed on the VTC register, a compliant car and insurance. Uber then describes, on its requirements page read on 4 October 2026, a nine-step route: create a driver account, book an appointment at a partner welcome centre, obtain the VTC card, set up a company, register for VAT, find a car, insure the business and the car, join the VTC register and order the stickers. A driver attached to a fleet manager only does the first 3. On cars, Uber has accepted no diesel since 31 December 2024. Uber publishes no commission rate on those pages; agreements under the ARPE (the platform labour relations authority) do guarantee at least €9 net per ride. This is an independent site, not affiliated with Uber.
A typical week on an app: what is left per ride
Paid out per ride, after commission
€15.00
| Estimated net per month, before income tax | €1,128 |
| Commission per month | €1,342 |
| ARPE minimum per ride | above €9 |
An estimate from your assumptions, not a platform figure. Micro-enterprise, 46 weeks, example vehicle costs.
Independent site. taxinoir.fr is not affiliated with, partnered with or paid by Uber; Uber is a trademark of its owner. What follows draws on pages published by Uber, read on 4 October 2026, and on official texts. It is for guidance only and may change: check with Uber before making any decision.
What Uber is, and what it is not
Uber connects riders with independent drivers. Service-public lists it among booking platforms (centrales de réservation), alongside other apps. Uber does not issue the card, the register entry or the right to work: the prefecture, the chamber of trades and the Ministry of Transport do. The legal groundwork is in our guide to becoming a VTC driver; this page sticks to what Uber adds.
The steps Uber publishes
Uber’s requirements page sets out 9 steps for a self-employed driver:
- create a driver account;
- book an appointment at a partner welcome centre;
- obtain the professional VTC card;
- set up a company;
- register for VAT;
- find a car;
- insure the business and the car;
- join the VTC register;
- order VTC stickers for each car.
The same page says a driver who wants to work under a fleet manager completes only the first 3 steps and then finds a manager. The manager’s company then holds the car, the insurance and the register entry, which is often how newcomers to France start out.
Uber also lists general conditions: being old enough to drive in your city, holding a transport authorisation, an eligible vehicle, the required documents and a valid driving licence.
Reading those steps against the law
Three points deserve a careful look.
The card comes before everything
Step 3 gates all the others. It means passing the chambers of trades’ exam, €241 in 2026, then applying online for the card, about €60. Since 12 August 2026, recognition of experience has closed. The exam includes a French paper, so non-native speakers should prepare for it. See our pages on the VTC exam and the VTC card.
“Set up a company”
Uber’s wording covers any form of business. The law does not demand a company: a micro-enterprise is enough, and Heetch and Bolt accept it explicitly on their own pages. VAT registration, step 5, interacts with the small-business exemption: below €37,500 of turnover in 2026 you may charge no VAT; above it, passenger transport is taxed at 10 %. The VAT and status tool compares the options.
Insurance and the register
Uber states that both RC exploitation and RC circulation insurance are compulsory. The register costs €170 and requires, for each car, ownership, a rental of more than 6 months or a €1,500 guarantee. See VTC insurance and the VTC register.
Cars, according to Uber
Uber’s vehicle requirements page adds its own rules to the order of 26 March 2015:
- petrol hybrids and electric cars accepted, in line with the regulation;
- no diesel or diesel hybrid since 31 December 2024;
- Comfort, Berline and Van categories capped at a rolling 6 years;
- in Paris, the Green category has been fully electric only since 31 March 2025.
Our guide to choosing a VTC car sets these rules beside other platforms’ and works out the cost per kilometre.
What the law guarantees platform drivers
Relations between drivers and platforms are framed by articles R1326-1 to R1326-10 of the Transport Code. Before each ride offer, the platform must state clearly and fairly the distance and the minimum guaranteed price, meaning what reaches the driver after commission; if the destination is unknown, it must say so. Every 1 March it also publishes 7 indicators on the previous year: average ride duration, average income, average waiting time, broken down by activity band.
Agreements reached under the ARPE set floors, which service-public summarises:
| Guarantee | Amount | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum income per ride | €9 | amendment of 19 December 2023 |
| Minimum income per hour worked | €30 | agreement of 19 December 2023 |
| Minimum income per kilometre on a ride | €1 | same agreement |
A third agreement, announced in the ARPE’s press release of 19 September 2023, covers suspension and deactivation: detailed information on possible grounds, an advance alert so the driver can respond, and compensation after an obvious platform error.
What you will earn: an estimate, never a promise
Uber publishes no commission rate on the pages we read. The calculator therefore starts from three assumptions only you can set: rides per week, the average fare paid by riders and the commission shown on your statements. It works out what reaches you per ride, compares it with the €9 floor, then estimates a monthly net figure using example car costs and micro-enterprise contributions. Every figure is the calculator’s estimate, not Uber data.
For the full mechanics, see how much a VTC driver earns, and the full calculator lets you change each cost. To compare platforms, read driving for Bolt and driving for Heetch too.