Uber Turns Over Nearly All Freight Revenue To Truckers Analyst Says

All of Uber's customer service is off-shore, unless you have a serious and significant issue, then it will be escalated to on-shore support. For Rideshare drivers, that means a traffic accident, or the driver being victim of assault. Off-shore support are ignorant, that it sometimes takes you guys using the freight app hours to get help, that's normally, for rideshare drivers, response to issues is often measured in days.

 

All I know is that I paid Uber 15$ on that about 10 - 12 mile ride, which took him about 30 minutes. He also told me that he had no way of knowing for how much he was hauling me. I gave him 5 dol tip, maybe that's what he wanted.
Other lady driver once told me that she liked the flexibility because she was a housewife and this way she could make some money while her kids were at school. Maybe that's more suitable for the likes of her. I gave her 3 dol tip though, she was too talkative while I wanted a ride in silence.
I thought once to try it for fun myself...but never done anything about it.

 

And that's probably what you made gross before fuel and vehicle maintenance. Uber doesn't have a solid business model and their stocks aren't doing well. The amount they are paying their drivers after expenses is closer to minimum wage. Since the companies are nothing without their drivers, they need to figure out a way to pay them more without raising the price for passengers. Charge too much for a ride, and cabbies become more competitive.

For freight, I get a load through Uber once in a while, but stick with Convoy most of the time. Much easier to deal with and I get paid a couple days faster through Convoy. Uber lists a great load sometimes, but usually not much to brag about. I did snag an Uber load for this Friday from NorCal to Denver that pays $3.50 a mile, and found a back haul through Convoy paying about the same. But those loads are getting more difficult to find.

 

Speaking as a freight broker that also works in an office with an asset based carrier, I have a customer who chooses to use Uber over us. They're prices are lower than ours and it's just not worth it for us to match those prices. They are doing 600 miles loads for $550.00.

 

I hate to think what the world would become, if only them and Convoy are left to take freight from.
However, I see that this way of freight brokering could be very efficient at least in the segments where little coordination is needed. From what I have been able to see during almost last three years being on my own is that only a few loads actually required some intervention on the part of the broker/human being...and two of those where from Convoy and Uber and they handled them good...took perhaps too much time as I wished before they were escalated but once they did, they knew what to do. I think that Convoys and Uber and their idea followers - including prominent brokerages such as: CHR, JB Hunt, XPO, Schneider, TQL, Coyote are spending lots of efforts towards app-based load booking. JB Hunt and XPO especially have made a lot of progress there, allowing bidding there too. My point is that app based booking is not doomed to fail.

I don't think that it is a good idea to shrug off Uber Freight based on some ideology. Especially, when you are dependent, as myself, on what spot market has to offer. If you are paying attention and have enough patience to be persistent about it, you can get a rate that is way better from what regular brokers would try to sell if for you.

The only way to escape this automation taking over is going towards more specialized freight. That's where they are not going to be as efficient any time soon.

 

General freight fascinates me so much. I wonder if Uber's plan is to gain the market share while developing the AI needed to schedule with little human interaction

 

That's generally absurd. It's obviously working, or they're taking a big loss on each load. Either way, it can't last forever. The market will invariably shift against them.

I don't figure that it is doomed, either. It's obviously working for a lot of different folks. But I do think you're right on this, as we've discussed earlier - it really only works where there's no real need for coordination. Between that, and personal customer service, there's still plenty of market space for the rest of us.

That's been the general understanding, between them and what Amazon's trying to do. Everyone's trying to capture a piece of the pie, because transportation is a costly enterprise, and it's also another way to make profit. It remains to be seen though, how this will impact things in the next decade or two.

 

In your case, he made money and Uber lost money. Under the upfront pricing that Uber/Lyft use, if they quote you $15, under normal circumstances, the driver would make $9, maybe, plus the tip. Based on what your saying, I'm guessing Uber lost money because the 30 minute time for a 12 miles ride ate up their side of the money.

The flexibility is the only true upside to Uber/Lyft. My wife and I both get up at 2:45 am, Tuesday thru Saturday, she has to catch a 4 am bus. Most mornings, I have to be in and on the road around 4:15 am, so we get up together. But, even on the mornings when I don't start until 6:30, I still get up at 2:45 because her getting out of bed wakes me up. Rather than go back to bed, I'll go out and drive for 2 hours, I've had 2 hour blocks during the week where I've made $15 and I've had them where I've made $80, depends on if I can get airport trips.

 

Uber and Lyft are both getting ready to cut driver pay, while raising charges to the passenger (Lyft has already raised rates in 15 cities). Under the new planned rates in effect in a few cities, driver pay is $.63 pickup, $.53 cents per mile (IRS deduction is $.57) and $.20 cents per minute. There are several drivers in the Denver area who have surveyed riders, and kept tabs, the consensus, they could raise rates to within 60% of cab rates before riders would balk. If Uber and Lyft raised rates to within 60% of cab rates, and paid drivers 50% of that, the companies and the drivers would all turn a profit, at least in the Denver market.

 

That's scary