How much do you make as a Uber/Lyft driver?

I’ve been doing lyft/uber for little over a year now and I wanted to do some real in-depth analysis on how much I was making. In addition I wanted to share my findings for whoever is interested or thinking about doing ridesharing themselves. Along with giving earnings analysis I’ll try to add some tips as well for new drivers or people interested in getting into the business.

Background

I’ve driven off on on for both lyft and uber for a little over a year now.
For this particular article I will only be doing analysis on my lyft earnings because I’ve been driving exclusively for them last few months. Also lyft keep’s really good records for drivers, including total miles driven, money earned, driving time, etc. from my experience driving for both companies the earnings are fairly similar.

Scope of my analysis

To allow you to understand my calculations I will go over all my variables. The money you make doing ride share can differ a lot, depending on a variety of factors. All the data used is from my own personal driving therefore it might not be totally representative for all drivers. That being said I still think there’s enough consistency in the business where my findings can help people get a general sense of how much someone make’s as a lyft/uber driver.
For me I drive a 2006 for Taurus and the data consists of me driving lyft part-time both in Phoenix and near the San Diego area where I worked a variety of time’s a day depending on my schedule, mostly consisting of working late at night or early in the morning.

Data/analysis

Step one gross revenue/time worked
The following data was collected from my time driving for lyft from March to July 2016.
During that I drove a total of 212.82 hours and make $2862.49 making my average gross earnings per hour $13.45.

Step two fuel cost

Next to account for gas usage. I drove passengers total of 1,990 miles but this figure only accounts for distance I drove people and not the distance I drove to pick passengers up.
In my experience on average I would drive approximately 75% the distance to pick some one up as I would drive them wherever they needed to go making the true figure of how much I drove doing rideshare closer to 3,482.5 miles.
My 2006 Ford Taurus gets about 25 miles to the to gallon and during my time driving the typical cost for a gallon a gas was about $2:50 making my cost per mile about 10 cent’s. In other word’s costing me an me about $348 total.

Step three depreciation cost

When I started driving my Taurus already had over hundred 120,000 mile’s on it.
According to Kelly blue figures my car depreciation per mile for it’s age and mileage is about 2.5 cent per mile making my total depreciation cost about $87 dollars
Step four miscellaneous costs
There are many miscellaneous costs and with doing rideshare. I’m sure there are some I’m missing but for the most part here’s a ruff estimate of the money I spend on keeping my clean by taking it to the car wash and buying cleaning supplies as well as the cost of putting extra oil in my car which is probably around $20 a month or 80 dollars total. For my costs I did not add my insurance costs because the car I use for lyft is the same one I use for personal use so it’s a cost I would be paying either way.

Final breakdown

$2862.5 total revenue

-$348 fuel costs

-$87 car depreciation

-$80 miscellaneous costs

Total net revenue = $2347.5

Total hours worked $212.82/net revenue of $2347.5 = $11.03 per hour.

Tips for people interested in rideshare business

As you can see doing rideshare will not get you rich. But in my opinion it’s a flexible fun way to make some extra cash. With that being said some tip’s I would have anyone interested in trying to be a driver would be.

worth the right times

In my experience working the weekends especially Friday Saturday nights and busier than the rest of the week you’ll tend to make more money on of these nights. also try to work holidays if you can like 4’th of July or hollowing you’ll do significantly better on these days is well.

Decline rides that are too far away

Woking for lyft you don’t have to take all ride requests you get. You only have to except 70%-80% your requests. Driving for lyft you can get requests from people that are up to 30 min’s away from you granted these requests are rare, still time to time I’ll get requests from people who are 20-30 min’s away from me. I decline these requests because with left you don’t know where the passenger want’s to go till you pick them up.
There could be and chance that someone you drive 30 minutes to pick might only want to go a few block an event that would be a loser on the driver’s end. A rule of thumb for me I try to never accept rides from people who are more then 10 or 15 minutes away for me, typically this isn’t too much of a problem and 90% the requests I get are 5 to 10 minutes away from me.

be friendly!

Is a simple and easy but you’ll be surprised for this goes. Being friendly with passengers and making small talk with them is a great way to end up in having some cool conversations with interesting people and also a great way to make some tip’s!