Uber’s own page for Kuwait City says the app lets you request a ride in the city around the clock, seven days a week. In February 2026, at the National Forum for Transportation and Smart Services, the company’s general manager said Uber intended to enter the Kuwaiti market in the first half of 2026.
But the part that matters to a driver before it matters to a passenger is what changed in the rules.
What changed
In July 2026, Ministerial Decision 893 of 2026 was issued by Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousuf, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior. It regulates passenger transport and brokerage through electronic applications, and sets the conditions for doing it.
Seven conditions on a Kuwaiti driver
- Character: no conviction for a felony or a crime touching honour or trust, no serious traffic accidents, and no driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs — proven by a criminal record certificate.
- Age: at least 21.
- Condition of the car: air-conditioned, clean inside and out, meeting safety and soundness requirements.
- Age of the car: no more than three years from manufacture, and out of service at seven.
- Ownership: the car must be owned by the applicant personally.
- Capacity: room for three to seven passengers, not counting the driver.
- Licence: a driving licence appropriate to the activity, plus an annual authorisation from the General Traffic Administration.
What the car rules mean in practice
The age rule is the one that costs money. A car enters the activity in its third year at the latest and leaves it in its seventh — so a car bought at the oldest permitted age has four working years in the trade.
The personal-ownership rule closes off driving a car registered to somebody else, and the capacity rule rules out two-seaters.
If you already hold a taxi permit, the older permit rules still stand on their own; we set them out in Two Taxi Permits: One for Kuwaitis, the Other Ends the Day You Leave the Job.
What we checked ourselves
We put a route from Salmiya to The Avenues into Uber’s own booking page. It accepted both ends as points inside Kuwait and carried on to the “Choose a ride” screen, then stopped at a login prompt. So Uber is offering rides on Kuwaiti routes — but the tier names and their fares only appear to a signed-in account.
What is not confirmed yet
As this is published there is no official announcement of a dated Uber launch in Kuwait, and no published list of companies licensed to run the activity.
Photo: a phone in a dashboard mount in a car. The photograph is not from Kuwait. Photography by Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Ministerial Decision 893 of 2026, as reported by Al-Jarida; and Uber’s Kuwait City page.
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