[DriverX]

I used to be a grinder until I got a taste of blood red surge driving and saw the light.

Here's the trap I fell into. Like other drivers I know, I had this attitude that if I was going to drive I wanted to make at least $100 for driving that day. SO I'd sit there in my car online taking crap rides or waiting in a parking lot under a tree in some area I though might be busy at 2pm. Or I'd drive to the fishing grounds, downtown or to the airport where there might be some rides.

I'd end up having to grind away for 10 hours and 150 miles just to scratch out $100 so I could finally go home, only to see it surge a couple hours later, after I was too beat and pissed off about the shitty money I made, to go back online and get some surge.

Fortunately, I'm sane enough not to keep doing that over and over again and I figured out that waiting offline for surge over 2x is a much better way to do it. My realization was that you can't force a schedule on a non-scheduled occupation and that I needed to use a different metric to measure my profit. Making $100 in a day is only profitable when I do it in 5 hours. I use my dollars per hour rate over the whole week as my metric and try and hit at least $30 per hour. Drive less to make more, use surge to set your profit limits. You are only required to drive when its profitable for you so stop undercutting yourselves.

 

[Disgusted Driver]

If everyone would follow your advice we would indeed be better off. Unfortunately there are way too many newbies out there grabbing anything they can.
In many markets there is no surge anymore, here in RDU land, it's gone except for a brief 20-30 minutes at bar close on Friday or Saturday night. So sure I shoot for 20-30 an hour but it means I'm down to working less than 10 hours a week.

 

[simpsonsverytall]

The newbies and the desperate grinders screw things up for us, but they also make things easier in some ways.

If you go out there and you are sweating and tense and road raging and racing around dangerously for $5 fares... your health or your car or something is going to give out.

You have to know the hot zones, and the bad traffic patterns and the cold zones, and make decision after decision to try pull off an efficient day.
If you are near a surge zone, maybe that just means chilling at home w/ app on. Maybe planning around major events when possible.

Get paid to cruise and check out the pretty people and you will be happier and more productive long-term.

 

[Squirming Like A Toad]

$30 an hour is nice, and it is in the cards sometimes, but you have to be honest in assessing if it is the market wage for a job that requires the most minimal skills. An assistant manager at Walmart busts his ass for 60 hours a week and makes around $10 per hour because he's salaried, and he works when they tell him to work. We drivers are blessed people in comparison to many.

Where our skills come in is in making the difference between a $10/hr job and $20/hr job, and this is all good advice in the thread. I'd like to add to it the importance of using the pax app and being aware of where the other drivers are. If I see them all congregated downtown I'm not going to get up in their grills, concede them downtown, and with the right positioning I can get 100% of the pings in 25% of the city. Then I can be choosy about which ones I accept. Playing it this way I regularly get my $20/hr without a surge.

 

[MikesUber]

An assistant manager at Walmart busts his ass for 60 hours a week and makes around $10 per hour because he's salaried, and he works when they tell him to work. We drivers are blessed people in comparison to many.

HA! NO ONE listen to this guy's logic.

I WAS an Assistant Manager with Walmart and I worked a clean 40 hours a week and made 45k plus we actually got some benefits. And that was with no prior experience that would've bumped up my starting salary. That's right out of college, first offer money. Man do people love to talk about things they've never experienced.

 

[Squirming Like A Toad]

HA! NO ONE listen to this guy's logic.

I WAS an Assistant Manager with Walmart and I worked a clean 40 hours a week and made 45k plus we actually got some benefits. And that was with no prior experience that would've bumped up my starting salary. That's right out of college, first offer money. Man do people love to talk about things they've never experienced.

Then you had a good GM and a good deal. The guys I knew in Walmart and Kmart got pushed for 60-70 per week and yeah, 45K, but a cashier working the same would have made more.

 

[MikesUber]

Then you had a good GM and a good deal. The guys I knew in Walmart and Kmart got pushed for 60-70 per week and yeah, 45K, but a cashier working the same would have made more.

I'll bump it up to 48 hours a week max because they started a 3 days on 3 days off 12 hour shift thing once. This was in 2011. I never worked more than that. Came in for Black Friday (Annual Event it was called) to work another 12 hour shift but I was always out of there after my shift, don't think it was an "extra" day either. I didn't let anyone tell me otherwise, we do 3 on 3 off that's what you'll have me for and no more.

You have to stand up for yourself, if it became excessive I'd go straight to the Store Manager or even over his head and tell them what's realistic. If other's are content working that time so be it, I value my time more than that.

 

[UberTrip]

I used to be a grinder until I got a taste of blood red surge driving and saw the light.

Here's the trap I fell into. Like other drivers I know, I had this attitude that if I was going to drive I wanted to make at least $100 for driving that day. SO I'd sit there in my car online taking crap rides or waiting in a parking lot under a tree in some area I though might be busy at 2pm. Or I'd drive to the fishing grounds, downtown or to the airport where there might be some rides.

I'd end up having to grind away for 10 hours and 150 miles just to scratch out $100 so I could finally go home, only to see it surge a couple hours later, after I was too beat and pissed off about the shitty money I made, to go back online and get some surge.

Fortunately, I'm sane enough not to keep doing that over and over again and I figured out that waiting offline for surge over 2x is a much better way to do it. My realization was that you can't force a schedule on a non-scheduled occupation and that I needed to use a different metric to measure my profit. Making $100 in a day is only profitable when I do it in 5 hours. I use my dollars per hour rate over the whole week as my metric and try and hit at least $30 per hour. Drive less to make more, use surge to set your profit limits. You are only required to drive when its profitable for you so stop undercutting yourselves.

Lol, at the first glance of your thread subject I was honestly thinking the gay hookup at app, Grindr

 

[DriverX]

If everyone would follow your advice we would indeed be better off. Unfortunately there are way too many newbies out there grabbing anything they can.
In many markets there is no surge anymore, here in RDU land, it's gone except for a brief 20-30 minutes at bar close on Friday or Saturday night. So sure I shoot for 20-30 an hour but it means I'm down to working less than 10 hours a week.

This is not a 40 hour a week punch the clock job. You need to be on call ready to work the most profitable 20 hours, but they are usually all within the weekend. This is not a job for someone with a lot of financial burden like children and debt.

Keeping your time and miles driven low makes a huge difference and exposes you to a lot less risk in the long run. Also you don't need to drive in traffic as much or cancel short trips.... plus it sends a message to uber what your willing to work for and how you value yourself and your skill. THe higher we value our time driving by using surge to set our price, the more likely rates will come up in the long term.

 

[DriverX]

HA! NO ONE listen to this guy's logic.

I WAS an Assistant Manager with Walmart and I worked a clean 40 hours a week and made 45k plus we actually got some benefits. And that was with no prior experience that would've bumped up my starting salary. That's right out of college, first offer money. Man do people love to talk about things they've never experienced.

Why aren't you still there?

 

[NODUMMY]

I used to be a grinder until I got a taste of blood red surge driving and saw the light.

Here's the trap I fell into. Like other drivers I know, I had this attitude that if I was going to drive I wanted to make at least $100 for driving that day. SO I'd sit there in my car online taking crap rides or waiting in a parking lot under a tree in some area I though might be busy at 2pm. Or I'd drive to the fishing grounds, downtown or to the airport where there might be some rides.

I'd end up having to grind away for 10 hours and 150 miles just to scratch out $100 so I could finally go home, only to see it surge a couple hours later, after I was too beat and pissed off about the shitty money I made, to go back online and get some surge.

Fortunately, I'm sane enough not to keep doing that over and over again and I figured out that waiting offline for surge over 2x is a much better way to do it. My realization was that you can't force a schedule on a non-scheduled occupation and that I needed to use a different metric to measure my profit. Making $100 in a day is only profitable when I do it in 5 hours. I use my dollars per hour rate over the whole week as my metric and try and hit at least $30 per hour. Drive less to make more, use surge to set your profit limits. You are only required to drive when its profitable for you so stop undercutting yourselves.

GREAT POST, but shhhhhhhh don't tell them, let them work like slaves and make it easier for those of us with brains. Don't listen to Uber, they tell you with pools you make more money, FALSE. And a number of other bull. Lyft charges less and pays more. I love the opportunity Uber brings to me but I will not be a slave or dummy for everyone....my light bulb just hit yesterday when I made $80 in surges on 5 hours of work