The Reality of Driving for Uber Full-Time
There were recently a few videos that popped up on my facebook feed earlier where Uber drivers sat down and actually calculated their earnings and expenses over the last month. Ultimately when everything was done and calculated, their profit was far lower than what Uber likes to quote when they advertise. Many of the comments I saw on the video were calling Uber a scam and misleading. While in some ways I agree with them, I also believe people are using Uber the wrong way.
Uber is a company and like most companies will try to maximize its profit because of this, they try to take as much as they can from the drivers, which is currently around 25%. The real problem is Uber does not have many competitors other than lyft and the fee difference isn’t as great as it should be. If Lyft charged 5% from drivers, im sure Uber would lower their fees. In my opinion Uber has such a large user base because they can keep the rides cheap and inexpensive for the consumer, which no doubt affects the bottom line for the driver. Even if Uber didn’t take the 25% that they do, driver earnings wouldn’t be outrageous.
The benefit for Uber drivers is not a high rate of pay, but rather it is the flexibility to drive when you want and the ability to drive part time after your regular 9-5. Many people are driving Uber as a full time job, but in reality it should really be used only as a way to supplement your income. You aren’t limited by how many hours you can work so it really is a great way to get a flexible part time job. Unless your area is in desperate need of drivers and the prices paid are always boosted, most drivers earn at or a little bit more than minimum wage. When it comes down to it, you are probably better off only driving during peak times like during the weekends or around bars at night. Doing this will earn you much more money and you don’t have to spend 12 hours in a car.
If there are Uber drivers that are driving full time and making a ton of money, they usually have hybrid vehicles that massively cut down on fuel costs or they can make extra use of the tax write offs from the depreciation on their car. There are small ways to increase your profit margin slightly, that over a long period of time will help you earn more. Who knows how long this model will even work for drivers anyway, with autonomous vehicles on the way and plans for companies like Tesla to allow you to send your car out as a taxi service while you are at work.
If Uber wants to incentivize more full time drivers they need to either be forced to lower their fees, offer some sort of benefits to their drivers or find some other way to make the income more appealing. Really current Uber drivers should be using the service to help them achieve specific goals, like earning further education and an extra income that will help them in the future. Using it as a full time job and expecting it to exist long term is probably not the greatest idea. There is a possibility that Uber could change and make driving for them much more profitable, but most likely not by a super large amount. We need other car sharing apps like Lyft to pressure them to lower the fees for driving. They recently added tips, which will probably increase earnings, but it shouldn’t be on the consumer to subsidize the living of the driver. We will see what happens in the long term.
-Calaber24p
Hey @calaber24p,
Great writeup. I actually like using Uber, but its a bummer that they are paying out that much. I used Uber all the time when I was in San Francisco and the drivers always seemed very nice. I heard from some news articles that they might be getting their own currency or UberCoin, who knows.
First time I've heard of that Ubercoin possibility. That would be interesting!
Wouldn't it? The possibilities are endless with the virtual coin world.
Most of those people, who are happy with money possible to earn by Uber - have never ever made a precise calculations. And once they finally do - usually they just quit. Here in my country Uber have set the ride prices crazy CRAZY LOW:
€0.59 start fee + €0.33 /km + €0.09 /minute.
Their (uber's) commission is 25%, and driver also must pay VAT from that commission 21%, which makes total 30.25% deducted instantly from every ride payment. Now imagine, if I drive to pick up my rider 4km, and he rides only ~2km, he still payes the minimum, which is €1.50 . From that for driver is left €1.04. To drive 4+2 km, if i deduct all all expenses associated with my 6km drive ( fuel, oil, tires, ensurance, carwash, taxes ete etc ) , what is left is around maybe €0.25. Sometimes even less. And this is for a small car Toyota Auris 1.8L HYBRID. YES, Hybrid. Many with larger cars have much higher expenses.
That all comes to the result - to buy a cup of cheapest cup of coffee in local gas station, I must complete 4-5 such 4+2 km rides ( five?!) Which would usually take 1.5-2 hours.
So, how do you like this - working 2+ hours to buy a cup o coffee in the local gas station ???
That what is UBER here...
Uber is coming to Vancouver later this year! It kind of suck it took them so long , but better late than never. I've always been interested in driving for Uber. Hopefully, I can make some extra money driving for them.
vancounver house is over a million but uber pay penny, i would not drive for them or lyft, find other job if i were you.
haha true
You could drive for Uber "while" looking for a better job. The whole point is freedoms to do what you want and when you want.
Dam, they're not in Vancouver yet...Thats crazy.
Don't take advice from people who've never driven. As a driver there are several things you can look for to see if it's profitable, especially if Lyft is also around. Curious to see if you actually ended up trying it. Can be very profitable if done right.
This is definitly not a job that you could support yourself or family on. Its probly good for college students, retires, and maybe some extra cash to buy something and extra drinks for the chick your trying to get with at the bar that will pop smoke on you at the end of the night and you will never see her again. And she just drank for free.
@spainm87 I was able to support my family (or at least my portion of the income in a two income family). I loved it while I was doing it. I could work whenever I wanted and as much as I wanted. As I stated in another comment, toward the end of my driving "career" it started going down hill and that is why I stopped.
I always thought of it as a part time thing and was seriously concidering it for the near future since I am training for a Pt and once I start working as one will most likely have loads of holes in the daily schedule so that might be a great oppotunity. Thanks for the additional information haven't really got into research myself so that does help! :)
Hey man great post and a real eye👁️ opener. Great post.
Sadly when theres no opportunity we will do whatever to keep food on the table. Its hard because these kind of jobs are clearing up and begin taken over by robots in the near future🤖
follow me @shifty0g
IMHO Uber is a game changer. It's taken over so many countries and the success they are having is beyond measure. Because simply they are improving the lives of their drivers by earning them more money and saving their customers a lot of money as well, so it's a win-win situation here.
I personally prefer Uber on any other service.. for the peace of mind really and it just works!
Actually it is not a win win situation. The taxi drivers are left out of losses.
I like Lyft over Uber for a couple reasons, but yeah I think as far as driving for one of them goes, I definitely think Lyft is better...so I've heard from many drivers that drive for both.
This is interesting. Most taxi drivers used to make a living driving full time. Now that Uber and Lyft are around, would you say that none of them are able to make a living driving full time? Since Uber and Lyft have diluted the pool? It's great on one hand that people can make supplemental income but on the other might put a lot of people out of a full time job.
That's a good description for anyone interested in driving for Uber. I thought about it, to supplement my income. I actually signed up for an account as a driver and downloaded the app to my phone. But, I've never turned on the app to accept riders. When I thought about it, I didn't really feel too safe driving strangers around my county (there's not much of interest in my town except our annual fair, so most people would probably want to go to the airport, about 25 miles away).