I posted the nearly the exact post after my first 20 rides. The negative folks also beat me down. I wondered if they are so smart, why are they still driving?
Near ride #100 a drunk tried to put me in a headlock on the freeway at 65mph. I survived, and will continue to drive until I find a real job in my field. I am in San Diego, and the price drop brought the market down to $1.85/mile at this time, so we can still make some money. I am green as grass, but choose to "endeavor to persevere", because it is this or 7-11 with the glut of laid off engineers in San Diego. After my first week I realize this is no give away, but nothing is. I am used to working long hours with few results, so engineering kind of prepared me for Uber. I did over work myself, and am learning to pace myself. Don't listen to the "nattering nabobs negativism" yet, I have not. If you are still making enough bucks to pay the bills like I am, go forth with the rest of us newbies until we have to do something else. Just keep doing what you need to do to pay the rent. If Uber fails for us, we will figure out something else.

 

...Near ride #100 a drunk tried to put me in a headlock on the freeway at 65mph. I survived...

You can't just drop this little nugget without telling us the rest of the story here.

 

I wonder if sacto barbs a secret admirer of Travis? She seems to admire the likes of andreas and co who adore the Uber bigwigs.

 

Here is what I reported to Uber:

"PAX was a young guy, very drunk. He had had several shots at the bar just before entering my car. He got drunker as the ride progressed. He stated all people were liars, and I was a liar. He kept grabbing my neck, and finally put me in a head lock. I warned him not to touch me again or I would drop him on the side of he freeway. He would not keep his seat belt on. He punched the windshield of my car several times (no apparent damage). I dropped him at his location. Drove a block down the street to make sure he didn't wander off in the rain, and made it inside. He was that drunk. I thought I was in actual danger. I am 61 years old, and am not interested in a fight. This guy should be blocked from Uber. I gave him a 1 star rating, because Uber does not have a "dangerous PAX" rating. Don't let another Uber driver experience this PAX, as he is dangerous. "

 

Uber got right back to me via email:

Hi Mark,

Thanks very much for providing this information, I am very sorry to hear about this incident. We appreciate you remaining professional throughout this ordeal. I have noted this information on the trip log and also passed this along to my manager so they can record the incident on the rider's profile and take appropriate action.

Unfortunately, there are riders that are disrespectful for no reason and at no fault of the driver. We understand these situations happen and take that into account when evaluating 5 star ratings. Thanks again for providing this information.

Please feel free to reply with any other questions or concerns!

Best,

xxxxx (name deleted)
Uber Support

 

Frndthduvl:
You are correct. The base fare is $1.85 with $1.10/mile and $0.20 per min.
https://www.uber.com/cities/san-diego
Cut and paste error. Sorry.

 

I am convinced that Uber was conceived by a dude that behaves exactly as this pax behaved. A piece of scum that cannot control himself when binge drinking. A ******bag dude that dreamt of having his own army of drivers at the ready at anytime he demanded their services.
Drivers that he could order deactivated for any reason if they didn't consume the excrement that he spewed from his drunken pie hole whilst being shuttled from bar to bar.

We are just a toy for someone that, because he is unable to control himself, created this system as payback for all the times he behaved as this pax did and was denied rides by taxis.

 

Easy money??...ROFL! Thats how i felt on my first day.

Wait till you get customers who takes you to SE DC on a 35 min drive or Fairfax to route 123 on a 40min drive with no PAX on the way back at 11pm at night.

A ride to Dulles airport at 4pm, will net you an 1 hour drive back in traffic with no customers.

There is no easy money in life, unless you hit loto #s or your parents own an oil company.

If you want to make money with Uber, then you need to work +40/week, other wise get another job.

Its easy money, only because your friends dont have to deal with 8-5 helicopter bosses who watch them over their shoulders every min.
At the end of the day, its just as hard as any job. With Uber, you dont have one Boss, you have 20 Managers per day that you have to deal with, "SILENTLY" judging you every single minute as you drive. Each rider is a whole new bag of crap boss to deal with.
If you cant work under worst pressure, then Uber is not for you. And you will get slave drivers that will make your day a living hell.

Thankfully, ive driven Limo in the past, so i know how to deal with the worst of the worst.

Get back to me after you hit 100 rides.

 

Done just over 250 rides. Once again - easiest money I have ever made.

 

Ok, so its been about 2+ weeks and I have done over 250 rides. Once again - this is easy money. Have made a ton of cash. From the majority of posts - most of you guys must be doing something wrong, stupid or just flat out miserable and like to complain. My advise - stop driving. Does uber care for me? Probably not all that much. But do I care about them? Nope. You have to look at this as your own thing - not a partnership with uber - there isn't a parent figure that is going to help you and hold your hand.
My average has been right around $26 an hour since I started. I don't drive around looking for fares, I park to keep the miles down. The first hour pays for a tank of gas that lasts me 2 days of driving. The rest is money in the bank. I go between Northern VA and DC and it is nonstop business all night. I haven't had to wait longer than 1 minute for a fare to come in. I see other uber drivers out there too, so someone else must be making money too. And yes, I have a portion transferred into my savings for the tax man.
What I have learned - GWU is a nonstop gold mine.

 

I am convinced that Uber was conceived by a dude that behaves exactly as this pax behaved. A piece of scum that cannot control himself when binge drinking. A ******bag dude that dreamt of having his own army of drivers at the ready at anytime he demanded their services.
Drivers that he could order deactivated for any reason if they didn't consume the excrement that he spewed from his drunken pie hole whilst being shuttled from bar to bar.

We are just a toy for someone that, because he is unable to control himself, created this system as payback for all the times he behaved as this pax did and was denied rides by taxis.

Ouch.

 

2 weeks? Come back in six month, easy money, and maybe someone would listen to you.

 

Ok, so its been about 2+ weeks and I have done over 250 rides. Once again - this is easy money. Have made a ton of cash. From the majority of posts - most of you guys must be doing something wrong, stupid or just flat out miserable and like to complain. My advise - stop driving. Does uber care for me? Probably not all that much. But do I care about them? Nope. You have to look at this as your own thing - not a partnership with uber - there isn't a parent figure that is going to help you and hold your hand.
My average has been right around $26 an hour since I started. I don't drive around looking for fares, I park to keep the miles down. The first hour pays for a tank of gas that lasts me 2 days of driving. The rest is money in the bank. I go between Northern VA and DC and it is nonstop business all night. I haven't had to wait longer than 1 minute for a fare to come in. I see other uber drivers out there too, so someone else must be making money too. And yes, I have a portion transferred into my savings for the tax man.
What I have learned - GWU is a nonstop gold mine.

Looks like you've got a little over a month invested now. Do you still feel the same? Have you figured out yet that as a business operator you have to calculate more expense than gas? Has anyone damaged your car yet? We seriously we like to know how you feel now.

 

May 17 was my one month mark. I could not drive for a week due to my father being in the hospital. Otherwise I drove almost every single day. My question for all of you that dog on Uber. Why do you drive for them when you dislike it so much? If it doesn't work for you, move on. Quit. You all must be doing something wrong. What is your average net per fare? Average distance? Etc? Do you all calculate these? How often do you get cash tips? I average 1 tip per night for a total of $4.
For the person saying wait until I have to drive from SE to Dulles. Been there many times. Had a surge on a few of them and pulled in over $70 each trip. Toward the end of one night I even got a ride to Fredericksburg, VA from NW DC. Which was perfect for me as I live in VA. If I get sent out of the area (DC/Arlington) I don't fight my way back to the city to drive there. I drive in that area and most of the time I get rides back to the city. I try to drive at least 6 hours a day. I start my regular job at 10am in DC, so I leave my house around 430am an head into the city to drive before my regular job, then drive after work as well.
And yes, I know about more expenses outside of gas. Depreciation, cost of the items I offer to riders, etc. This is not my first business. The potential for making money can be incredible. So instead of sitting on your ass and complaining in this forum - get out there and make money. Or better yet - please stay here and I'll make the money.

 

It's feels just like watching a slasher movie. You scream at the screen, "don't go in there, he's hiding behind the door!" Slash.

 

Getting up at 4:30am before his regular job and driving every day. My God, this noob had no life. He calls it making money! Just wait to change your oli monthly, then brakes and rottors, wait till you have to buy new tires, moneymaker my ass. Yo ain't seen it all, your life is a life of a dog and you loving it. Wait until you start noticing money missing in your pay statement, wait until you have to communicate with Uber CSRs, wait until pax **** your rating up, you start getting tickets and your wheels fall of. You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait till your back hurts and God forbid you get your ass in an accident. Live dogs life until it happens.

 

Hey, he enjoys it for now! The Uber hype illusion is alive and well.

 

Its like VEGAS .... worst thing that can happen is to win on your first trip!

 

That only applies if a driver is actually earning a profit.

Hey, it's realistically possible to net out as much as $4 an hour pay with a $27 per hour gross. As a second income that $4 is taxable.

 

But if you're applying expenses properly, you can almost reach zero sum.

 

Your optimism is certainly refreshing. But your failure to adequately and properly calculate your true costs sounds like a broken record. My two pieces of advice today would be.

1. Never lose your optimism
2. Take a cost accounting course

 

I agree with #1.

But unless #2 is specifically about livery costs, there are some traps. The biggest, ignoring the USDOT, AAA, IRS, or others actual data for the true cost of operating an automobile. It amazes me how so many part-time Uber geniuses and have outsmarted them all.

 

Problem #2. Confusing cash flow with profit.

Uber's cash flow for a driver can be pretty darn good at times.

But profit rarely equates to at least minimum wage, Most drivers have no clue that they're working the equilivant of $2/hour.

If a driver's immediate need is for cash flow, Uber can be a good source for a short time (few weeks). As long as they are informed enough to know that long term (even part-time), they are going to lose.

 

Excellent point, again. If a person needs quick cash (e.g., Xmas holiday shopping) then driving for U/L is a better idea than a payday loan. But the problem (and you know this well, J. D.) is that ACTUAL hourly wage doesn't come close to what Uber claims you'll make. Sure, a driver can cash flow $25 per hour. But the profit per hour is typically $8 to $10. On a really good weekend with plenty of surging and lots of trips, I have maxed out at $14.50 per hour in profit. But my cash flow per hour was 2.5 times my profit per hour. But I was never naive or foolish enough to believe for a second that I was earning $35 in profit. And no matter how many times we scream this from the rooftops, uninformed newbs with rose-colored glasses and sorely lacking math skills will believe they're earning more than $25 per hour in profit. NEWS FLASH: No Uber driver anywhere ever earned $25 per hour in profit.

 

I have worked in sales and have gone through a lot of sales training. Every single sales trainer that I dealt with all said the same common thing that 1 of them called the coffee club. They all said to avoid the coffee club. The coffee club are the people that stand around and do nothing but ***** and whine about why they aren't making money, about why its the company's fault, its this and that and how they just get screwed. When you become a member of the coffee club, its time to move on....

 

Welcome to the coffee club zombieguy!

 

I understand cash flow vs profit.

I enjoy the freedom of working when I want around my already busy schedule and it supplements my income.

I drive in the Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale area and here are my secrets (lol).

I only drive Friday, Sat nights or when I think it will be busy (graduation at ASU, Big games or concerts etc etc)

I only take UberXL AND lyft Plus trips.

I don't serve water, gum, cookies or anything else.

I have a cooler of drinks for myself and when passengers have asked me for a bottle I say that's my personal stash I bought before I started driving today, but I can stop at the QT or Circle K for you to buy some for yourself if you like (99% decline).

I arrive fast, I take the GPS route to the location and make small talk when they speak first.

I keep my paid off 2005 Honda Pilot clean and smelling good. (yes I know its going to be deactivated in 2016)

I keep track of miles in a spreadsheet starting millage vs ending mileage and actual miles driven.

I make good money ($17 - $18 hr profit most weekends), so I am under no illusion that it's easy money, nor that I will get rich.

I have a 4.83 rating and 500 trips under my belt

If you think you can work 9-5 m-f and make enough to live you are kidding yourself.

All in all if you approach it correctly driving for lyft and uber is a good way to make some cash. Just don't go into debt (cas cards, Credit cards fgor tires etc etc) and make sure to put away 25% of everything you make for expenses (tires, oil changes, and taxes.) I just started depositing Lyft payments to a separate account I don't touch unless needed for above.

 

I drive in the Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale area and here are my secrets (lol).

put away 25% of everything you make for expenses (tires, oil changes, and taxes.) I just started depositing Lyft payments to a separate account I don't touch unless needed for above.

Vincent,

This looks like VERY good advice. Newbies, take notice.

This obviosly isn't your first day. I enjoyed the work but sadly, no Lyft in my town and almost no XL requests. If I didn't take X, (and I thought seriously about it) I'd been sitting a lot. Surges only happened during bar closing time. Mostly college students and minimum fares. Yelch! To make it work, I'd have to move.

 

Uber got right back to me via email:

Hi Mark,

Thanks very much for providing this information, I am very sorry to hear about this incident. We appreciate you remaining professional throughout this ordeal. I have noted this information on the trip log and also passed this along to my manager so they can record the incident on the rider's profile and take appropriate action.

Unfortunately, there are riders that are disrespectful for no reason and at no fault of the driver. We understand these situations happen and take that into account when evaluating 5 star ratings. Thanks again for providing this information.

Please feel free to reply with any other questions or concerns!

Best,

xxxxx (name deleted)
Uber Support

Same canned response I've received. Goddamn, I wish we had this shit when I worked customer service. I actually had to be a human being, not a robot.