lol typical. You obviously did when you made a false statement the previous post. You guys act like sheep
News flash, Guy. Driving for Uber is totally voluntary. When the big bad Uber corporation is mean to me, I'll just not do it anymore. Until then, I'm enjoying this completely voluntary, entertaining way of making extra cash. Guess what? I came to that conclusion without even having to consult some Uber forum.
Rofl, astros123, can you answer a question honestly for us? After you spent the last 3 pages berating uber. Are you south Asian?
Just submitted my online application to become an Uber driver here in Houston. Once everything gets processed I'll bump this thread. Is there any way I can give like my Uber ID number / so people on the board or other people I know can specifically look for my vehicle when they need rides?
Astros guy, I will tell you this. If Uber becomes unattractive to driver then guess what? Something else will jump in and take it's place. It's creative thinking and a free market that created Uber and if they can't maintain and innovate then they die. Companies aren't perfect and when they sag they get beat just like the Taxi cab industry. Chill.
SO how much can you realistically make working about 20 ua week. May be 5 hours each Sat and Sun and 2hrs each of the other days?
keep fighting the good fight astro...don't stop until you bring uber and it's oppression-ist state down! Spoiler
With that much business, there are going to be some complaints. People comment on bad service/employee treatment and rarely do on the good service/treatment. I had a driver not show up but I emailed Uber and they gave me $30 credit, no questions asked. They have good customer service and I am told that they pay drivers pretty well. I know someone from their corporate office and from what I hear, they treat them very well because they want them to provide good service and expand the business. They lose money on a lot of rides and still pay the drivers fairly. Every driver that I have had has been great and friendly. They did say that they are not allowed to drive to the airport though.
I don't believe you can call specific drivers. It's done by proximity, so you'd just have to have people call you then request a ride while they are in your car.
Let's say I have a sedan that can seat 4, uses premium gas and gets around 24 mpg. Would I be able to profit as an Uber driver?
I'm curious too. I see a lot of revenue quotes but I don't see actual profit numbers. $1200-1300 a week is pretty decent but gas is costly and then there is car maintenance. How many miles do you have to drive to get that much a week? Then we can use the IRS mileage reimbursement to give a general idea of actual money made.
On a typical Friday or Saturday night, it is common to gross 30-40 dollars/hr. Uber gets 20% of that and you have to factor in gas.
It really depends on the time you're working. I think you could probably make around $60 per 2hr day and maybe $100-200 on the five hour days during the weekend on average. At night you're probably going to get more calls, but lower fairs. During the day you have a better chance of getting longer rides and make more, but you have longer down times. I like living dangerously, so I pick people up and drop off at both airports in DFW. I make around $75 per trip on average working the airports. I've never had any problems with airport officials. My best fair during non-surge hours was $115 plus $20 cash tip. Picked up a judge and his mistress from a restaurant close to Love field, dropped him off at DFW airport and took her home in Coppell.
Yes, you can stay profitable. You just have to learn to be efficient to maximize your profits. I drive a Lincoln MKX, so my gas mileage is around 24-26 also. I usually spend around $180 per week in gas. The trick is keeping your car cool on the inside, without running it as much on down time so you don't waste gas just sitting there. No one wants to get into a hot car during the Texas summer and I also don't want to be all sweaty and stinky when I pick up my clients. I also spend around $50 a week for car wash and water (Fiji) for riders. I'm almost to a point where I need new tires, so I will try out there new partnership with Firestone, where they give sell you tires at 10% above cost.
So if you average $180 a week in gas and your car gets an average of 25mpg, you drive approximately 1300 miles a week. IRS gives $.56 a mile for reimbursement that covers gas and maintenance, so your cost on that basis is $730. So if you average $1300 a week in revenue minus $260 for Uber's 20% minus $50 a week in car wash and bottled water minus $730 for IRS cost basis, you profit about $260. You average 50 hours a week working so that comes out to $5.20/hr. If you dismiss the IRS rate and just go off the actual gas cost and ignore maintenance costs, you profit ($1300-260-180-50) $810. Based on 50 hours a week that comes to $16.20/hr. Better but not great. I think it's a cool idea and if you're sitting at home making $0/hr then obviously this is better than nothing. But I think it's good to see how much people are actually making from this so they can make informed decisions.
