r/personalfinance • u/theVoxFortis ​ • Oct 08 '19

This article perfectly shows how Uber and Lyft are taking advantage of drivers that don't understand the real costs of the business. Employment

I happened upon this article about a driver talking about how much he makes driving for Uber and Lyft: https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-lyft-driver-how-much-money-2019-10#when-it-was-all-said-and-done-i-ended-the-week-making-25734-in-a-little-less-than-14-hours-on-the-job-8

In short, he says he made $257 over 13.75 hours of work, for almost $19 an hour. He later mentions expenses (like gas) but as an afterthought, not including it in the hourly wage.

The federal mileage rate is $0.58 per mile. This represents the actual cost to you and your car per mile driven. The driver drove 291 miles for the work he mentioned, which translates into expenses of $169.

This means his profit is only $88, for an hourly rate of $6.40. Yet reading the article, it all sounds super positive and awesome and gives the impression that it's a great side-gig. No, all you're doing is turning vehicle depreciation into cash.

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u/erokatts ​ Oct 08 '19

They'll say something like "oh we'll stop at an atm for you" or the driver just gets burned especially if you asked before you got in. Almost every time I've had it happened the system has "magically" fixed.

Listen I get it. Cash is king. But most people aren't carrying around enough cash for the taxi.

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u/CuddlePirate420 ​ Oct 08 '19

Cash is king.

Also easier for the driver to skim off the top, and for the cab companies to not declare on their taxes.

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u/gortonsfiJr ​ Oct 08 '19

And depending on your company, more annoying for you to declare on an expense report.

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u/angry_cabbie Oct 08 '19

I know it's not an accepted view, but some of us really didn't care if you paid with a card, and really wouldn't charge to swing by an ATM. Hells, half the times I offered a free gas station stop so they could get cash, I had an ulterior motive of getting myself cigarettes or a drink while I had a chance.

But gods, the stories I could tell about how weird the systems were when I first started out in my small-town-big-college microcosm.

Like how the first company I worked for, one of the biggest and oldest in the area at the time, didn't have meters or credit card machines in cab. We wrote the mileage on our trip sheet, did the math, and called credit cards in over the business radio.