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How much does Uber pay its drivers? (1 Viewer)

johnnycakes

johnnycakes

Footballguy
After 35+ years in the accounting and finance industry, I'm fed up with it.  I know that whatever I do next, I'm going to take one helluva pay cut...  I'm ok with that.  At this point, I want to do something different, but I haven't nailed that part down just yet.  [I'm thinking of going back to school for an M.Ed in teaching English to speakers of other languages.]  Anyhow, I'm also thinking about driving for Uber full-time until my next gig materializes. 

How much does Uber pay its drivers?  Who sets the rates.... the driver or Uber?  How much down time is there if driving in a metropolitan area like Boston?  What else do I need to know about this idea?  

Thanks,

Johnny.  

 
I’ve seen several studies about it that all indicated they don’t average much more than minimum wage.

 
Walking Boot said:
All I know is that the pay is so slim, that if you have a gas car instead of a hybrid, you'll lose money driving for them.
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I don't get this. A 20 mile, 40 minute trip to the airport is 50 bucks. Even if uber takes 20 percent, driver still making a buck a minute before expenses.

 
Drivers get 75% of what the rider pays. Tips are not included in this calculation.

In a major metro area like Boston or Philly you can make $1000 per week depending on when and how much you drive. Many drivers make a suitable living doing it full time.

I think it is a great part time gig because you can completely set your own hours and aren't constrained to working for someone else's schedule. That part has a lot of value to me. Simply put it is one of the best part time gigs I have ever had. Your car does take a beating tho. If you can pick up a 2008-09 car to dedicate to driving it can be beneficial for taxes and something you could replace yearly or bi-annualy.

 
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johnnycakes said:
After 35+ years in the accounting and finance industry, I'm fed up with it.  I know that whatever I do next, I'm going to take one helluva pay cut...  I'm ok with that.  At this point, I want to do something different, but I haven't nailed that part down just yet.  [I'm thinking of going back to school for an M.Ed in teaching English to speakers of other languages.]  Anyhow, I'm also thinking about driving for Uber full-time until my next gig materializes. 

How much does Uber pay its drivers?  Who sets the rates.... the driver or Uber?  How much down time is there if driving in a metropolitan area like Boston?  What else do I need to know about this idea?  

Thanks,

Johnny.  
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What did you get your Bachelor's in?

 
Every time I get into an Uber now, the driver is always complaining about how Uber treats the drivers like ####.  It's getting kind of annoying and I'm thinking of switching to lyft.

 
A couple of things.  How can Uber treat the drivers bad?  They never see them and the drivers work when they want.  Are the screwing them on pay?

Second..can the drivers write off their vehicles?  We have taken Uber around downtown Detroit quite a bit and these guys are pulling up in brand new Yukons, Caddys, Suburbans, loaded vans. 

 
sbonomo said:
Are you close to retiring and just are killing time or are you still in your earning years?  
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I like to think I'm still in my earning years but reality is, I'm close to retiring.  I'm burned out with accounting & finance.  Sick of billing for time, etc.  I can afford to take a big pay cut or to go without pay all together for a good six months to a year.  

 
johnnycakes said:
I like to think I'm still in my earning years but reality is, I'm close to retiring.  I'm burned out with accounting & finance.  Sick of billing for time, etc.  I can afford to take a big pay cut or to go without pay all together for a good six months to a year.  
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School sounds like a good option so that you can get a part time gig when you retire.  If you already have a masters so it should be easy to double up on the second one so you can at teach college classes.  I am sure that I will be in your boat in the next ten years (being completely burned out).  I would love to go back and teach economics or entry level accounting/finance as a part-time gig when I semi retire.

 
Scoresman said:
Every time I get into an Uber now, the driver is always complaining about how Uber treats the drivers like ####.  It's getting kind of annoying and I'm thinking of switching to lyft.
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Lyft is just as bad. Drivers in a big city can make a tolerable hourly rate if they work peak hours. The problem with that is peak hours are spread out and limited. If you drive full time be prepared to possibly make lower than minimum wage. And that's assuming you avoid any accidents, own your own car (not a nice one as that would depreciate too fast), and get really good mileage. 

I had a gap between jobs and looked into it. Another buddy does a bit of driving while finishing up schooling. A few years ago you could make big money driving. $40+ an hour. Now? It's ugly out there. You're going to hit low to mid 20's at best, and that's excluding expenses (most people don't fully account for this!). You need to grind insane hours to make barely passable money, and the hourly rate will be ugly. 

You should always tip your drivers.

 
Former Uber/Lyft driver. It pays more or less minimum wage when it's all said and done, with some outliers like if you get a long trip one night.

When I lived in Memphis, Uber paid its drivers $75 just for driving down to Oxford, MS to transport Ole Miss students on football weekends, on top of per-ride bonuses. I'd pull down a good $300-$400 on some weekends easily. That gravy train ended when the officers literally ran us out of town because we were pissing off the taxi cartel that had the local politicians in their pockets for decades and charged outrageous taxi fees to riders. In we come paying no license fees to the city and charging Ole Miss students and fans a fraction of what the taxis did. 

Once the Ole Miss gravy train ended, it just wasn't worth fighting the flood fo drivers on Friday and Saturday nights for scraps. I'd get one ride an hour, tops. No thanks.

 
johnnycakes said:
I like to think I'm still in my earning years but reality is, I'm close to retiring.  I'm burned out with accounting & finance.  Sick of billing for time, etc.  I can afford to take a big pay cut or to go without pay all together for a good six months to a year.  
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Sounds like Uber/Lyft is perfect for you. It’s not great money you can pocket a little and make your own hours.

 
I've only used Lyft twice (to and from work when the roads were covered in ice). The morning guy was telling me he was killing it, $900-1300 on the weekends. Afternoon guy was telling me he was barely covering the cost of gas.

That day, I was trying to support the local cabs (a lot are customers), but sure enough, they were closed. I had the Lyft app on my phone in case of such a situation. Requested a ride and boom, some dude was there in about 5 minutes when the whole city was still covered in ice. It was pretty sweet.

I've determined that cab companies are still around, in part, because so many people don't have checking accounts (I'm not sure how you'd use Uber/Lyft without one). In the restaurant business, I somehow know a lot of people without checking accounts. They use cabs a bunch, and here in this city, cabs actually seem to be doing pretty well.

 
Ilov80s said:
JFC no wonder Uber has been such a success
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I don't understand how uber was allowed to undercut a regulated industry like taxis in many urban centers.  Well, I guess I understand, they bought politicians, but when you see what Uber has done to Medallion prices in NYC, its really disgusting.

 
Smack Tripper said:
I don't understand how uber was allowed to undercut a regulated industry like taxis in many urban centers.  Well, I guess I understand, they bought politicians, but when you see what Uber has done to Medallion prices in NYC, its really disgusting.
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I feel terrible for cab drivers. More cities need to ban Uber IMO.

 
Smack Tripper said:
I don't understand how uber was allowed to undercut a regulated industry like taxis in many urban centers.  Well, I guess I understand, they bought politicians, but when you see what Uber has done to Medallion prices in NYC, its really disgusting.
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Hang on a second. Companies bought up and hoarded a finite supply of taxi medallions, steadily drove up the price of each to over $1 million, someone comes up with a preferred alternative but THEY are the ones that are disgusting?

 
Smack Tripper said:
I don't understand how uber was allowed to undercut a regulated industry like taxis in many urban centers.  Well, I guess I understand, they bought politicians, but when you see what Uber has done to Medallion prices in NYC, its really disgusting.
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Taxis in Seattle were worthless and expensive. Really an awful service. The service Uber provides is infinitely better.

Maybe Uber is awful to work for but no one makes people drive for them. 

 
RUSF18 said:
Hang on a second. Companies bought up and hoarded a finite supply of taxi medallions, steadily drove up the price of each to over $1 million, someone comes up with a preferred alternative but THEY are the ones that are disgusting?
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Yeah, and one of the reasons it became such a success in urban areas is that Uber would go into areas that cabs would routinely ignore and stop to pickup minorities that cabs wouldn't.

One of my friends has worked in politics her entire career and is about as left as you can get. She's even held major positions with labor unions. And she has been a huge fan of Uber because of what she's dealt with from cab drivers her entire adult life.

 
I don't want to come across as being against uber/lyft--as I am not--but apparently they are adding to congestion in the cities where they are present.  Their goal was to help cities with the congestion problem and instead they are magnifying the issue.  Apparently a lot of the people that use uber would have normally used mass transit.   

https://www.wraltechwire.com/2018/02/27/studies-are-increasingly-clear-uber-lyft-add-to-congestion-in-cities/

Also--just commenting on the report where MIT said that uber drivers make less than $4 per hour.  Apparently Ubers CEO challenged the credibility of some of the numbers that MIT used when they made the analysis and MIT is now going to "re-run"  and "revisit" their analysis and should release their findings on Monday.  I'm not sure they will end up much higher--but it will be interesting to see. 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-wage-study/mit-study-that-found-low-pay-for-uber-drivers-to-be-revisited-idUSKCN1GF0RL

 
Ilov80s said:
I feel terrible for cab drivers. More cities need to ban Uber IMO.
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I don't particularly like Uber but some cities, especially San Francisco, created this market because they didn't have enough cabs to service the city.  As a consumer, it is better to have competition and taxi prices were expensive.  Bringing in Uber and Lyft have been much better price wise for a person that uses cabs.

I don't think every city needs Uber/Lyft but some certainly do.  NY seems to have cabs covered pretty well, calling an Uber is dumb a lot of the time and you will actually wait a lot longer than just flagging down the cab.  On the other hand, I've had plenty of Manhattan taxi drivers refuse to drive over to Brooklyn so again this market got created. Refusing to drive somewhere is rare for Uber/Lyft drivers.

 
I would add that while I don't like Uber as a company and use Lyft, I don't like the thought of not having them around.  They should treat their drivers better, I would agree but as a consumer I do appreciate the options.

There were a lot of things broken with cabs.  Ever call for a cab and have no idea if this cab would ever show or not or in what time frame? Talking to a dispatcher who you aren't sure even understood you?  That seems archaic now.  I know exactly where the driver is and when he will get here.  So much better than the way it was.  Cabs were not generally good for someone that uses them.

 
Uber has been an absolute life-safer for my friends and I on several out of town trips over the past few years. Saves us the expense of renting a car or finding our way back to a hotel after a night of drinking.

I do feel bad if they're getting screwed financially, but nobody is forced to drive for them.

 
Capella said:
How did uber get away without compensating drivers for gas or car expenses???? Completely remarkable. 
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Not sure this is any different than food delivery drivers. That's been going on for decades and nobody really seemed to care. Typically there was a "delivery charge" but the restaurant kept as much of that for themselves as they can get away with.... effectively stealing tips from the driver as many customers assumed the driver was getting the delivery charge. At least that's how it used to be a long time ago.

I don't really have a dog in this fight, but I will say on the west coast taking a cab is typically a terrible experience. Nothing like the movies where you walk out to the street and in less than 60 seconds you speeding toward your destination. I've been in situations where it's not uncommon to call and have a 30-45 minute wait for a cab and others where the cab simply never came. Even if you are waiting for an Uber/Lyft it gives you the piece of mind that you can actually see on your phone exactly where the driver is while he is on the way to pick you up. To me the cab situation on the west coast was so bad that it has probably led to a great deal of drunk/impaired driving before Uber/Lyft came along. Anything to keep drunks off the road is a good thing imo.

 
chet said:
Median profit of $3.37/hour.  ooof
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I'm not saying that article is wrong, but I think that you really need to put it into the context of other options. 

Here is an article that claims that in some markets Uber drivers actually make more money than taxi drivers even after expenses are factored into the difference between the two.....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/11/28/fare-deal-how-the-hourly-earnings-of-uber-and-taxi-drivers-measure-up-infographic/#223cb378689a

The bottom line just seems to be driving for a living isn't very profitable if you measure it on an hourly basis. Whether you drive a taxi, an Uber, for Lyft, deliver food, deliver news papers, etc. While some truckers can make a healthy living if you actually accounted for all the hours they spend behind the wheel I'll bet that $ looks less appealing as well. These just aren't jobs that are all that desirable and maybe we shouldn't fear the coming autonomous cars. 

 
Thanks everyone, especially @chet for getting me the real poop.  Those low hourly rates make it difficult for me to include driving for one of these outfits in my future plans.   Maybe I ought to look at what I can make consulting on a per diem basis.  

 
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