Uber driving

Lyft is better IMO. You can add a tip to the bill after the ride is over and also the fact that they're not Uber scores them points with me. Uber is run by a bunch of smarmy computer geek jerk offs.

 

I did taxi for 9 months in NYC back in 2015. $2.50/mi plus the base fare which varied but around a few bucks. (Plus tolls if applicable). Always been a tough way to make a living but with Uber, Lyft, et al there just ain't enough customers to go around any more to go home with a decent cut when it's not Friday or Saturday night, or the December holiday season. Back before all that extra competition came around it wasn't hard to go home with $200-250 at the end of the night but now forget it.

 

I've been driving for Uber/Lyft for about 20 months now, when I started it was every free hour (that I wasn't in the semi), but just like constant 70 hr weeks in the semi, I got burned out, After taking a few weeks off here and there, I now only drive Sat. and Sun. mornings from 3am to 10 am and one or two weekday mornings before work.

The problem with both services, they oversaturate a market with drivers. Uber is the worst, read somewhere recently there are 10,000 Uber drivers in the Colorado market alone, the majority in Denver, but, that's also taking into account drivers who've signed up and chosen to not drive, and not deactivated their account.

Every market is different, every market has vehicle age requirements, in Denver Uber X is 2004 and newer. Mileage rates also vary in every market, some pay better than others. The other thing to keep in mind, and this varies by market, depending on when you signed up, determines your percentage of pay. In Denver, if you started before Dec. 1st, 2015 you get 80%, if you started after that, you only get 75%. Given all the bad press lately about Uber, a lot of passengers are starting to switch to Lyft, although not always enough.

When I first started, $600 a week for 30 hours was normal, now, the market is so saturated, it's $400 for 30, some people make more. The hours I work are also an overlap time when there's not always a lot of drivers out, most weeks, between Uber and Lyft combined, I'm doing about $270 for a combined 15 to 18 hours. I also kinda of have certain areas I stake out in the suburbs of Denver, that helps.

The other part, you pay your own gas and maintenance, what does that cost? My pickup gets about 15.2 mpg doing all the local running I do. It's not uncommon to rack up 300 miles for those 18 hours I work. There are times you drop someone off in an area and get nothing, you end up dead heading back towards known good areas and HOPE you get a ping. Also, you have to keep up on keeping your vehicle clean, in a lot of markets, you deal with entitled millennials who've been coddled their whole lives and if your vehicle isn't spotless, they will rate you bad. Or if you don't carry on a conversation with them, it's the same, your rating is effected.

Both services have different classes, varying by market. Uber has X, Select, XL and Black. Lyft has Lyft, Plus and Premier. Uber also has Uberpool (which is a good way to go broke in a hurry) and Lyft has Lyftline (not quite as bad as Uberpool), both of which means passengers share the ride even more and the price is adjusted (and the already cheap fares get cheaper).

As mentioned above, Lyft allows tipping in the app, depending, about 50% of passengers do. Uber used to tell people not to tip, and drivers not to accept tips. As a result, maybe 20% of Uber passengers tip.

 

You got to know how to work the airports and surge rates and you'll do good.

I'd just buy a newer Kia and drive it until the wheels fall off and keep my old 4Runner for everything else.