# Uber approves passenger vans for UberX throughout Australia



## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

In an unheralded change, Uber has now expressly approved the use of passenger vans on its UberX platform throughout Australia.

See, for example, the recently revised vehicle requirements for Melbourne: https://www.uber.com/en-AU/drive/melbourne/vehicle-requirements/.

I wonder if this is a sign that the introduction in Australia of UberPOOL is imminent.

See also this Canberra thread: https://uberpeople.net/threads/uber...ans-and-utes-in-canberra.230689/#post-3458340.

[Post edited to refer specifically to UberX]


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## Sydney Uber (Apr 15, 2014)

Jack Malarkey said:


> In an unheralded change, Uber has now expressly approved the use of passenger vans on its platform throughout Australia.
> 
> See, for example, the recently revised vehicle requirements for Melbourne: https://www.uber.com/en-AU/drive/melbourne/vehicle-requirements/.
> 
> ...


Dunno why the news has come to you so late. My 2012 Viano has been on UBERBlack/SUV since 2015.


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## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

Sydney Uber said:


> Dunno why the news has come to you so late. My 2012 Viano has been on UBERBlack/SUV since 2015.


I had UberX in mind (which I should have said). That's where the recent change has been.

I have now edited my original post to refer to UberX specifically.


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

.
This is very interesting Jack. How do you stumble onto these vital pieces of information?

I find it intriguing that, in one of my former lives, I worked for/with a major financial services company and the marketing department was always in a constant state of hyperactivity with product / service releases to the vital frontline operatives, with kits of copious amounts of data, involving graphs and carefully analysed and carefully worded screeds, all of which had to have been studied and absorbed and which would have had to have been signed off by various legal departments before eventually being placed before the buying public. I was actively involved in a lot of this due process, which went a little against the grain of my natural inclinations to 'let it rip'.

And yet, here in the Überverse, information trickles out at whim with never a care in the world as to how it may affect the people at the front line or the ultimate customer. Über is indeed a very strange animal.

.


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## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

Who is John Galt? said:


> .
> This is very interesting Jack. How do you stumble onto these vital pieces of information?
> 
> I find it intriguing that, in one of my former lives, I worked for/with a major financial services company and the marketing department was always in a constant state of hyperactivity with product / service releases to the vital frontline operatives, with kits of copious amounts of data, involving graphs and carefully analysed and carefully worded screeds, all of which had to have been studied and absorbed and which would have had to have been signed off by various legal departments before eventually being placed before the buying public. I was actively involved in a lot of this due process, which went a little against the grain of my natural inclinations to 'let it rip'.
> ...


It is indeed, JG. I found out this particular change today at our weekly rideshare lunch in Canberra when a new driver and lunch group member told me that she was driving a passenger van.

I was puzzled about this. Like you in Adelaide, we in Canberra have only UberX (and UberAssist). I then checked the Canberra vehicle requirements and discovered they had changed.

Tonight I checked the position for other Australian cities and found that they too had changed.


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

.
Thanks Jack. I don't know about you; although I am inclined to think we are both pretty open-minded and receptive to change, but at times it seems to me that the Übes just go out of their way to be opaque and obscure in their dealings with the very people who are the heart and soul of the whole operation.

I have had a * similar experience * in information, or more correctly disinformation and I don't believe it augers well for Über in regards to the impending march of of the opposing forces. Unfortunately Über does very little to garner loyalty, in fact it seems to go out of its way to oppose it.

As always, interesting times to live and laugh and love in.

.


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## huxtee (Mar 1, 2017)

I think mini vans have been allowed for quite a while, Uber allows cars like Mitsubishi Mirages and Nissan Micras to do X, don't see why they discriminate againsts large people movers from it. Been on a 9 seater LDV G10 UberX ride a few months back on the Central Coast. Great car, heaps comfortable and roomy.


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## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

huxtee said:


> I think mini vans have been allowed for quite a while, Uber allows cars like Mitsubishi Mirages and Nissan Micras to do X, don't see why they discriminate againsts large people movers from it. Been on a 9 seater LDV G10 UberX ride a few months back on the Central Coast. Great car, heaps comfortable and roomy.
> 
> View attachment 192023


Thanks, huxtee. I too see no reason to exclude large people movers.

Excluding them would also have excluded many of those who have large families and therefore need a larger car from Uber driving.

Passenger vans were expressly excluded from UberX in Canberra (where I drive) until very recently. Your post suggests that they have been allowed elsewhere for some time.

Canberra also expressly excluded utes but that exclusion has also gone. (Adelaide still excludes utes.)


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