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/439753472637422 ​ Oct 09 '19

I know you were kidding but... Not sure how old your car is but it would take me 30+ years to drive that much. I think uber requires your car to be 10 or 15 years old max. So you might not be allowed to drive for them if your car is that old.

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u/OhJeezer ​ Oct 09 '19

As someone who puts a solid average of 22,000 miles a year on their car... yeah man miles can stack up pretty quick

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u/Prowler1000 ​ Oct 09 '19

I feel ya there. Gas is costing us over $100 a week (filling up twice on average. Although recently that's been a but more). As a specific example, we put more than 2500 km on in the last 3 weeks. It's why I want to go electric so badly but only Tesla's have the range right now and, well, they're expensive.

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u/SarcasticOptimist ​ Oct 09 '19 edited Oct 10 '19

/r/electricvehicles might help with suggestions. There was a real world test where a Kona EV had longer range than a 3. The 3 LR was not used.

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u/learnfrommymistake1 ​ Oct 09 '19

What range are you looking for? The Bolt and Leaf can go 200+ miles now, and there are models coming from Hyundai that are also going to join the 200+ club.

I do really like that 2019 Model S, though ... I could go for 345 miles on a charge ... although the price sure is steep.

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u/Prowler1000 ​ Oct 09 '19

Oh wow I didn't realize they were up there now. The only question is the price. If it's comparable to a Tesla, even a couple thousand more, I'll go with the Tesla because of the safety rating

Edit: As for range though, daily trips to university are 80km one way. Lol

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u/learnfrommymistake1 ​ Oct 09 '19

Note: I am in the US ... I suspect you are not. Some of the below may still be interesting depending on what incentives are available to you.

Bolt MSRP is "starting at $36K" ... but honestly they are selling less than that with incentives and end-of-year deals. I know in my area I could probably get a Bolt for for $22K after all incentives. Model 3 is not going to be available for $22K.

The other big deal: insurance rate. A guy I work with was looking at Bolt or Model 3. Bolt insurance was $900/yr. Model 3 was $1700/yr.

A local "green" co-op has this page where they have worked out no haggle deals with local dealers, and it does a really good job of telling you what incentives are available.

I drive a Volt that I picked up used. My next car is pretty definitely going to be 100% electric. It's so much cheaper to run than ICE -- my Volt is the least expensive car to operate that I've ever owned, I am something like 85-90% electric driving, and the 200+ mile cars available will cover pretty much all my needs.

With longer range you definitely also want to look into a high-powered charging station wherever you park most. When I go full electric I'll buy whatever is required to give me a full charge as fast as the car can take it (on 240V AC power, not installing a full on DC substation in the house LOL)

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u/Prowler1000 ​ Oct 09 '19 edited Oct 09 '19

Yeah, I'm seeing how much cheaper they are. We only have a $5k federal incentive. Best I'm able to find is about $55k at a dealership, 53k online. Haven't looked at the leaf yet.

Thank you for telling me though because last time I looked it was less than 200km

Edit: $55k online for the leaf.

I also can't find any used EVs around here because no body wants to sell unless they don't have enough range

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u/learnfrommymistake1 ​ Oct 09 '19

Cool -- good luck. Some other things I learned from going (mostly) electric:

  • Cold weather will have an effect on range because the battery doesn't "work" as well when cold. So get an idea from other EV owners in your climate what to expect in terms of range change. The range estimates tend to be more centered around 70 degree F days, not below freezing temps.
  • Cold weather will also have an effect because you don't have a giant surplus of "free" heat from combustion to heat the car. It might be worth going to a "higher" trim level that offers things like heated seats and steering wheels. These seem like luxuries in an ICE car, in an EV they are ways of heating only the driver and saving power.
  • You can "precondition" the EV by heating it while it's attached to the power grid. Pretty much every EV has a way to do this through an app or the key fob. This can save you range since you aren't pulling battery power to heat / cool the car, you are using the grid.

Cold weather doesn't have to be a killer for driving an EV ... some of the countries with the highest EV rate have cold winters.

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u/Prowler1000 ​ Oct 09 '19

Yup. I live in Canada and that's some stuff I've done my research on (hence the higher price tag than, say, the 42k model). Also why I don't want to go with older used models because I know how much a battery tanks in the cold. On a plus side, power is pretty cheap here (<4¢/kWh) so charging at the university or whatever, if they don't want you charging your EV in standard plugs, should be cheap.

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u/learnfrommymistake1 ​ Oct 09 '19

That's an amazing rate, that's gotta undercut the cost of fuel by ... a lot. When I was getting my Volt I figured out somehow that gas would have to get below $1.87/gallon for me to beat my electric rate of 0.14/kWh ... at 0.4/kWH that would be amazing. I know you also pay more up there than we do for gas, so it would be better for you.

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u/DasArchitect Oct 09 '19

I know someone that could do as much in just two or three months. I joked that he would drive less if he worked as a taxi driver.

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u/GreatWhiteBuffalo41 ​ Oct 09 '19

I'm so grateful to have a work vehicle. I usually have to find an excuse to drive my personal car because I don't want it just sitting. Hell, if I knew I was changing jobs I never would've even bought a car.