What this discussion omits is the reality of who pays first what. Unlike taxi drivers who work for taxi companies, Uber and Lyft drivers pay for all the expenses of owning their own cars and paying for their own gas , insurance, and repairs. Drivers who use EVs May save money on gas but I’ll wager their expenses for wear and tear on their vehicles are equal to those incurred by drivers of gasoline-powered cars. I always tip drivers. As a long-time city dweller who has made use of hired drivers for many years I know the rules of civilized behavior. I use Uber a lot here in Chicago, even though I have a ride-free transit card because public transit is slow and inefficient, plus buses (I never ride the trains here—I had enough of them when I rode the F train from Brooklyn to Manhattan every day I lived in New York) are frequently overburdened by either crazy people or wheelchairs, walkers, or baby strollers. It’s really unpleasant. Plus bus drivers are often rude and/or oblivious. It’s just much easier to call an Uber than try to find a taxi when I need a ride. This problem was worse in New York where I actually had to trick a driver into taking me to Brooklyn by leaping into the car before telling the driver where I was going. The only problem Uber drivers regularly have is that they are supposed to follow GPS prompts from a system that lacks real world knowledge of how to get from one place to another without being directed to alleys that are not through streets. I try to help by providing useful directions since many of the drivers are not native Chicagoans. I hope that eventually these companies could be able to maintain a fleet of employees that were paid a living wage that included maintenance on their vehicles as well as benefits and health insurance and a fleet of part-timers who worked on a freelance basis. That way some people could actually make a decent living while others could supplement their regular pay at other jobs. Kind of the best of both worlds.
I am an actual rideshare driver for Uber and Lyft in Minneapolis. I make between 28 and $36 an hour depending on the day and if people are tipping. I would say 95% of people don’t tip on the app, and I still make about 30 an hour on average… sure, maybe Uber and Lyft can afford to pay us more, but I’m not complaining at all with what I’m getting currently, considering the job is super easy to do.
At about 40 hours per week and $32/hr average thats $1,280 (about $1,075 after taxes). If you drove 1000 miles per week thats 0.67 per mile federal reimbursment or $670 you are using in gas and wear and tear on your vehicle. Health insurance is about $200 per week ($800 a month). Take that out of $1,075 - $670 - $200 = $205. So with a $40 hour work week its the equivalent of $244 before taxes or $6/hour. The only way to make more is drive more miles and work more hours or drop health insurance. Even without health insurance your getting up to $11 an hour. And neither of those numbers are good for you at all.
Not everyone is in this situation. Don't make it a blanket statement like all drivers are in this type of situation. Life is grey, not black and white. Ever.
If you need more money, maybe you shouldn't drive for Uber?
Me? I'll take my part time driving pay at $28-32 an hour to sit in a car and drive people. It's much better than working at, say, McDonalds or even in an office cubicle with an executive team micromanaging me to death.
I once gave a ride to a woman who drove Uber in Atlanta. She said she rented a car every week for a year and drove Wednesday to Sunday until she made the money she set her goal at. She told me she made $100K that year. I did the math afterwards towards her specific scenario and she was right. She totally did. And because she rented a car, she didn't have wear and tear on her personal vehicle.
There's so many ways to do this, and I don't really think Uber is the bad guy here. Would I love to get paid more? Oh yeah I would! Who wouldn't? But I'm also not complaining that I get paid this amount to work WHENEVER I want to, I don't have to deal with a stupid executive piece of shit boss who will get a bonus on the back of my labor while I make no extra money (Uber/Lyft give bonuses and perks all the time), and I get to build MY business and MY dream on the side, which I'm doing incredibly well right now... granted Uber stays so I can supplement my income.
ON THE FLIP SIDE...
We could also make the argument too that $32 at 40/hr a week is only $66,560 a year BEFORE taxes, and that's not nearly enough to live off of in most American cities, so maybe the problem isn't with Uber, maybe it's with this entire piece of shit country in Jerome Powell's economy.
A a friend of mine makes $40/hour at 40 hours a week (he works 60 regularly paid foe 40) and gets per diem to attempt to reimburse him for his driving expenses to and from the job. $125. a day? Everyday. The water pump went on his Ford Explorer which is behind the timing chain. It cost him $4000 and the best the company he works for did for him was rent him a car for a week while he got it fixed. He uses his car like a credit card making money with it but never having enough money to maintain it. That is unfortunately what uber is all about. One person renting a car to use for uber is an anomoly. People using their own cars is real. The type of money Uber is reimbursing is not enough to keep the car going and have a family. So people make short term gain while losing money in the long run when their car explodes. While Uber shareholders make short term gains on extracting more money every year from drivers (like you) than they did last year. Disrupter companies have one goal to figure out ways to get value from middle and poor incomes to rich people. Playing their game without demanding a living wage will only lead to your income getting smaller and smalled.
It would be great to see these types of companies become worker owned co-operatives, so they'd get to keep the profits.
What this discussion omits is the reality of who pays first what. Unlike taxi drivers who work for taxi companies, Uber and Lyft drivers pay for all the expenses of owning their own cars and paying for their own gas , insurance, and repairs. Drivers who use EVs May save money on gas but I’ll wager their expenses for wear and tear on their vehicles are equal to those incurred by drivers of gasoline-powered cars. I always tip drivers. As a long-time city dweller who has made use of hired drivers for many years I know the rules of civilized behavior. I use Uber a lot here in Chicago, even though I have a ride-free transit card because public transit is slow and inefficient, plus buses (I never ride the trains here—I had enough of them when I rode the F train from Brooklyn to Manhattan every day I lived in New York) are frequently overburdened by either crazy people or wheelchairs, walkers, or baby strollers. It’s really unpleasant. Plus bus drivers are often rude and/or oblivious. It’s just much easier to call an Uber than try to find a taxi when I need a ride. This problem was worse in New York where I actually had to trick a driver into taking me to Brooklyn by leaping into the car before telling the driver where I was going. The only problem Uber drivers regularly have is that they are supposed to follow GPS prompts from a system that lacks real world knowledge of how to get from one place to another without being directed to alleys that are not through streets. I try to help by providing useful directions since many of the drivers are not native Chicagoans. I hope that eventually these companies could be able to maintain a fleet of employees that were paid a living wage that included maintenance on their vehicles as well as benefits and health insurance and a fleet of part-timers who worked on a freelance basis. That way some people could actually make a decent living while others could supplement their regular pay at other jobs. Kind of the best of both worlds.
I am an actual rideshare driver for Uber and Lyft in Minneapolis. I make between 28 and $36 an hour depending on the day and if people are tipping. I would say 95% of people don’t tip on the app, and I still make about 30 an hour on average… sure, maybe Uber and Lyft can afford to pay us more, but I’m not complaining at all with what I’m getting currently, considering the job is super easy to do.
At about 40 hours per week and $32/hr average thats $1,280 (about $1,075 after taxes). If you drove 1000 miles per week thats 0.67 per mile federal reimbursment or $670 you are using in gas and wear and tear on your vehicle. Health insurance is about $200 per week ($800 a month). Take that out of $1,075 - $670 - $200 = $205. So with a $40 hour work week its the equivalent of $244 before taxes or $6/hour. The only way to make more is drive more miles and work more hours or drop health insurance. Even without health insurance your getting up to $11 an hour. And neither of those numbers are good for you at all.
Not everyone is in this situation. Don't make it a blanket statement like all drivers are in this type of situation. Life is grey, not black and white. Ever.
If you need more money, maybe you shouldn't drive for Uber?
Me? I'll take my part time driving pay at $28-32 an hour to sit in a car and drive people. It's much better than working at, say, McDonalds or even in an office cubicle with an executive team micromanaging me to death.
I once gave a ride to a woman who drove Uber in Atlanta. She said she rented a car every week for a year and drove Wednesday to Sunday until she made the money she set her goal at. She told me she made $100K that year. I did the math afterwards towards her specific scenario and she was right. She totally did. And because she rented a car, she didn't have wear and tear on her personal vehicle.
There's so many ways to do this, and I don't really think Uber is the bad guy here. Would I love to get paid more? Oh yeah I would! Who wouldn't? But I'm also not complaining that I get paid this amount to work WHENEVER I want to, I don't have to deal with a stupid executive piece of shit boss who will get a bonus on the back of my labor while I make no extra money (Uber/Lyft give bonuses and perks all the time), and I get to build MY business and MY dream on the side, which I'm doing incredibly well right now... granted Uber stays so I can supplement my income.
ON THE FLIP SIDE...
We could also make the argument too that $32 at 40/hr a week is only $66,560 a year BEFORE taxes, and that's not nearly enough to live off of in most American cities, so maybe the problem isn't with Uber, maybe it's with this entire piece of shit country in Jerome Powell's economy.
A a friend of mine makes $40/hour at 40 hours a week (he works 60 regularly paid foe 40) and gets per diem to attempt to reimburse him for his driving expenses to and from the job. $125. a day? Everyday. The water pump went on his Ford Explorer which is behind the timing chain. It cost him $4000 and the best the company he works for did for him was rent him a car for a week while he got it fixed. He uses his car like a credit card making money with it but never having enough money to maintain it. That is unfortunately what uber is all about. One person renting a car to use for uber is an anomoly. People using their own cars is real. The type of money Uber is reimbursing is not enough to keep the car going and have a family. So people make short term gain while losing money in the long run when their car explodes. While Uber shareholders make short term gains on extracting more money every year from drivers (like you) than they did last year. Disrupter companies have one goal to figure out ways to get value from middle and poor incomes to rich people. Playing their game without demanding a living wage will only lead to your income getting smaller and smalled.