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Every where I look, I see a Uber or Lyft stickers on a car and many of them are very nice. Ive always wondered why so many people would put their nice cars through the ringers for pennies on the dollar.
I know it beats working for McDonalds for $8hr and you make your own schedule, but with the extra cost of insurance, wear and tear, more maintenance and not even knowing who you will be picking up now, does this show a different state of our economy where so many are willing to do this?
I hear more and more these people just are not making enough money for what they need to put out to do this work. Maybe in a small town where one does not sit in traffic like where I live, but it sounded like a great plan, but people are finding not the case.
Every where I look, I see a Uber or Lyft stickers on a car and many of them are very nice. Ive always wondered why so many people would put their nice cars through the ringers for pennies on the dollar.
I know it beats working for McDonalds for $8hr and you make your own schedule, but with the extra cost of insurance, wear and tear, more maintenance and not even knowing who you will be picking up now, does this show a different state of our economy where so many are willing to do this?
I don't know how onboarding works now but when I did Uber briefly near the end of 2016, they didn't have interviews.. at least the "interview" was going to an inspection station and getting your vehicle inspected. This is one advantage of Uber over other minimum wage jobs for people with poor interview skills.
Every where I look, I see a Uber or Lyft stickers on a car and many of them are very nice. Ive always wondered why so many people would put their nice cars through the ringers for pennies on the dollar.
I know it beats working for McDonalds for $8hr and you make your own schedule, but with the extra cost of insurance, wear and tear, more maintenance and not even knowing who you will be picking up now, does this show a different state of our economy where so many are willing to do this?
Is it worth it? Short answer NO, long answer NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
You see nice cars because they can't be more than 10 years old in most places and you have to keep them clean and in good shape, not even any dings.
Yes they are paid pennies on the dollar and in the end make less than Walmart employees.
In slow markets where they make you drive a long distance 5 miles away to pick up for a short ride and then you have to ride back home you will not make any money at the end of the year you will lose money and not pay into Social Security and ruin your car. In many places Uber is like a Pay Day loan, you get money today to use your gas and car payment and car repair to make Uber money that they throw away on self driving killer cars.
About your own schedule, you can try to work when you want but the work is not guaranteed, you can go hours without a ride and sit there and be on call to jump the second that dumb chime on your smart phone rings. the only benefit is you don't have to work when you don't want to. But people hate regular jobs so much they will try any scheme. In the end when you retire and only earn $500 a month from Social Security because you were a freelancer for Uber you will regret it.
I tried it for a month and a half and it was awful. Horrible people demanding you stop and let them run errands when you are only paid to drive them from point A to B, then you refuse and they give you 1 star. I saw one time on another site a girl eating fried chicken in the back of an Uber the driver told her she couldn't but she didn't care, all he did was take pictures of her. It's so cheap you get the dregs of society, but the majority were nice customers. I do like it as a customer if I have an emergency to pick my car up from the mechanic. Which I had to do after i quit Uber because my alternator was all messed up from running my smartphone on the charger the whole time, so i lost and extra $500, besides the $300 negative income I had for tax purposes from Uber.
Last edited by LifeIsGood01; 06-10-2018 at 12:32 PM..
I saw a pretty detailed analysis someone did driving for Uber (he calculated gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.) and it came out to $12/hour gross and about $9.50/hour net after expenses.
Good money? Hell no. However that's for a pretty comfortable work environment and a low barrier for entry as long as you're car is okay. One could make a reasonable case that $9.50/hour sitting in your air conditioned car is a lot better deal than stocking shelves on your hands and knees, doing landscaping in the sun, or telemarketing all day to people who hate you.
I saw a pretty detailed analysis someone did driving for Uber (he calculated gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.) and it came out to $12/hour gross and about $9.50/hour net after expenses.
Good money? Hell no. However that's for a pretty comfortable work environment and a low barrier for entry as long as you're car is okay. One could make a reasonable case that $9.50/hour sitting in your air conditioned car is a lot better deal than stocking shelves on your hands and knees, doing landscaping in the sun, or telemarketing all day to people who hate you.
I don't think their numbers are real. You get paid 95 cents a mile and Uber takes 25% of that and your deduction is 53.5 cents a mile which is your expense. So you have about 20 cents of profit for mile, but that profit is lost on all the dead miles getting to a pick up or going back home or to a different pick up, you are only paid for the miles that a customer sits in your car, every other mile is an expense. Plus they nickle and dime you, cancel rides and don't pay you, and make you pay for some of your own tolls. Unless a rider is in your car you don't get paid for the toll, so if you have to pay a toll to get to say Sanibel Island in Florida you pay the $6 toll, then sit an hour in traffic, pick the person up for a short ride and lose money. And yes people have complained that it has happened to them and Uber does not reimburse them. So return tolls are your cost and extra expense out of your pocket 100% loss. The rest of the time you have to send text to the company and fight to get the legit tolls with passengers in the car paid.
Plenty of jobs that pay as much or more than Uber/Lyft and you’re not ruining your car over it.
I would want to know if a vehicle I’m purchasing was used for Lyft/Uber services. Imo it would devalue the vehicle as it was used for commercial use.
I don't think their numbers are real. You get paid 95 cents a mile and Uber takes 25% of that and your deduction is 53.5 cents a mile which is your expense.
He had a very detailed worksheet, and had driven for them for much longer than your month and a half stint.
I wish I could find it, but I have no reason to believe he was fabricating numbers.
He had a very detailed worksheet, and had driven for them for much longer than your month and a half stint.
I wish I could find it, but I have no reason to believe he was fabricating numbers.
The numbers you provided are believable to me. Several of my coworkers do Uber out here in Hawaii. And trust when I say that they would not be doing it (they only drive on the weekend) if they were making pennies on the dollar.
I saw a pretty detailed analysis someone did driving for Uber (he calculated gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.) and it came out to $12/hour gross and about $9.50/hour net after expenses.
Good money? Hell no. However that's for a pretty comfortable work environment and a low barrier for entry as long as you're car is okay. One could make a reasonable case that $9.50/hour sitting in your air conditioned car is a lot better deal than stocking shelves on your hands and knees, doing landscaping in the sun, or telemarketing all day to people who hate you.
What I find interesting about this is nothing mentioned on the depreciation of his vehicle.
I work for a large Washington, DC metropolitan area Toyota dealer in the service department. I do not know why anyone does this for a living and how they are making a profit. The other day a 2016 Camry Hybrid with 150K had to be towed in because the hybrid battery died. That's a $5000.00 repair. On a car that is 2 years old?
I can always spot them. Some customers come in once per month to get service because they drive 5,000 miles per month. I see a few of these. I personally spoke to a couple of Uber drivers (without me bring it up) who told me they are getting out.
It's apparent one can work at a fast food place and make a better living.
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