[JMBF831]

Well...Please tell me you educated your best friend's sister...Otherwise, that's the part I will cry about. A golden opportunity that you failed to take advantage of.

 

[JMBF831]

I did tell her that she should tip them(especially UberX) because they sometimes make less than minimum wage. She's mostly taking Uber in NYC so she probably believes the lies that Uber Driver's make 90k of pure profit every year.

Okay cool, it's really just basic math, I best try to explain it like this

We only make a percentage of each fare (as Uber take their cut) and then we still have normal expenses such as gas, wear and tear, etc.

I take an easy example, say a $10 fare, and let them know Uber takes $1 for a SRF (Safe Rider Fee) they then take another 25% after the $1, so 75% of $9 which equals out to us taking $6.75 (if we are lucky, I know the percentages can go higher than 25% for smaller fares). Then we need to calculate the time it took to get to the customer, the time it took to drop them off, and the time we spent waiting for a call (so they don't think, Hey you drove me 10 min and made $5 that's pretty good, 6 of those in an hour and you made $30/hr, which is what people who don't understand the system will think).

So really, on a $10 far we take home $6.75 (less gas, so maybe less $1.75 at the least) so that's $5 on a $10 fare. If we snag two of those in an hour we are taking in $10 (less the wear and tear costs). So basically, about minimum wage. If we're lucky.

 

[JMBF831]

Whenever the subject of driver income comes up in my car (and it does a lot), I suggest that the passenger enroll as an UberX driver just to see how bogus the whole process is. I don't give them a referral code because I know that more drivers dilute my income more than the bonus is worth. Besides, most passengers aren't interested in driving but they might be willing to sit in front of their computer for about 20 minutes and see what happens.
In Chicago at least, UberX no longer requires photos of the car. PASSENGERS TEND TO FREAK OUT WHEN THEY HEAR THIS. The potential for identity fraud has also proved to be of some interest when the subject arises.

But it still lists the make and model and license plate # right? And the driver's name?

 

[JMBF831]

Some of the blame should be laid on the drivers who show off by greatly exaggerating. I had an uber driver tell me he had 18 rides in 2 hours on Tuesday night. Another claimed he took a pax from Los Angeles to Seattle and back. A third says he makes around 500 every day on x.

Some people are just so prideful and full of bullshit and it hurts the truthful drivers. I bet most of my pax think we all make 90k year when we are lucky to clear a nudge over minimum wage (after all costs). The thing I don't get is that pax are getting in a cleaner, more efficient vehicle for less money, and yet would tip a tax driver $5-$10+ every time, without question, yet when we use our own vehicles, and we are CHEAPER, we don't get any tip. I don't even know if Uber is to blame, or if people are just cheap.

 

[JMBF831]

Let me assure you, Uber is to blame. They told drivers not to accept tips when the rates were higher. I'm not sure if they still tell them that in the training video anymore. They're still finding every way to advise pax not to.

I know Uber has tried to do their part in getting pax to not tip, but truth be told, before I was a partner with Uber I would always tip my driver ($3-$5) and I also never heard about this "don't tip your Uber driver" notion until I became a partner.