[AkronReady]

I am working my way through the process of Uber Driver approval. My goal is to drive Uber Select. Is there much demand for it in our market? It is very expensive compared to UberX. I noted after the last Cavs game an Uber Select from The Q to my home (24 miles) was over $300. Do people really pay that?

 

[Michael - Cleveland]

I am working my way through the process of Uber Driver approval. My goal is to drive Uber Select. Is there much demand for it in our market? It is very expensive compared to UberX. I noted after the last Cavs game an Uber Select from The Q to my home (24 miles) was over $300. Do people really pay that?

Last I looked UberSELECT was not available in the Akron market - only in Cleveland. Has that changed?
In Akron, I can do X and XL only.

 

[AkronReady]

No, I am asking about in the CLE market. Airport, Cavs games, concerts, etc.

 

[Michael - Cleveland]

No, I am asking about in the CLE market. Airport, Cavs games, concerts, etc.

SELECT at the airport can be a real snoozer... you can wait for hours and maybe get a ride that's $100+ or it could be $25. Some drivers do that. Personally, I can't stand to wait around that long. While I do drive SELECT, it's become pretty insignificant to me over the last year... my main focus is now on XL. Marlan P. focuses only on SELECT - hopefully he can give you better insight.

 

[AkronReady]

My vehicle will qualify for both XL and Select. Will I be able to start off driving those, or do I have to work my way up? Will there be a way in the app to only be available for certain types of rides? I just want to avoid the UberX crowd. The vehicle I am driving it is not worth the hassle.

 

[Michael - Cleveland]

My vehicle will qualify for both XL and Select. Will I be able to start off driving those, or do I have to work my way up? Will there be a way in the app to only be available for certain types of rides? I just want to avoid the UberX crowd. The vehicle I am driving it is not worth the hassle.

You'll be able to drive whatever your vehicle qualifies for. You'll need to maintain a 4.7 or higher rating in order to continue driving UberSELECT.

 

[driv3n]

Wondering the same thing... Planning to lease a car for Select and hoping there would be some demand in CLE

 

[Michael - Cleveland]

Wondering the same thing... Planning to lease a car for Select and hoping there would be some demand in CLE

The fastest way to worsen your financial situation is to lease a new (or even 'newer') car just to drive Uber.

If you are looking at a lease from a normal source (bank, GM/FORD/ financing, etc.) you will find that when you include the necessary miles in your lease to allow for ride-share (if the company even allows it), those miles will add at least $400/month above and beyond a 'normal' personal lease. That means that if you're planning on leasing a 'select' qualified vehicle that would ordinarily cost your $400/month - you'll be paying $800/month. Which means that your gross earnings from driving would need to be at least $700/wk (probably more) before you could even pay your lease payments and all of your expenses.

You would be MUCH better off buying a 10 year old minivan for $4,000 and using it for UberX and UberXL (Lyft & LyftPLUS).

 

[driv3n]

Thanks for the reply.. the car is a great deal as long as I keep it under 1800 miles a month. I would park it before I give them a dime for over mileage. For a few months when I was younger I did limo/towncar/s-class rides but sold the vehicles very quickly for fear of regulations. I was pretty much uber selecting in an S500 before uber was a thing.. but I had to shut down because that type of thing was frowned upon years ago. Now everyone and their grandmother, literally, is doing it. The only thing I'm interested in would be a nicer car and doing something similar with uber.

 

[Michael - Cleveland]

Thanks for the reply.. the car is a great deal as long as I keep it under 1800 miles a month. I would park it before I give them a dime for over mileage. For a few months when I was younger I did limo/towncar/s-class rides but sold the vehicles very quickly for fear of regulations. I was pretty much uber selecting in an S500 before uber was a thing.. but I had to shut down because that type of thing was frowned upon years ago. Now everyone and their grandmother, literally, is doing it. The only thing I'm interested in would be a nicer car and doing something similar with uber.

If you're planning on driving Uber as a full-time gig and have no other source of income, you are going to lose money doing what you describe above.
First, only around 5% of your rides will be UberSELECT (if that many, based on accepting all ride requests). The other 95% will be UberX - and pay you only around $0.50/mi BEFORE your expenses for fuel/insurance/taxes/tags/repair/maintenance... more like $0.20/mi - $0.25/mi after all expenses. And that's only for the PAID mjles. You WILL drive more than 3 miles to get paid for one mile - when you are driving UberSELECT. A new or relatively new 'select' vehicle (even an entry level one like a Mercedes C300) will cost you a LOT more than that to drive.

Second, 1,800 miles a month isn't nearly enough miles to cover driving Uber/Lyft full-time. It's easy for even part-time drivers to drive 1,000 miles per week (over 4,300 miles per month).

I'm not kidding you... read through the topics here and you will find hundreds of other experienced drivers telling you the same thing I'm telling you - and hundreds of others drivers who failed to heed the warnings, reported how 'great' driving was after their first two days, and then returned here to tell us how they ended up worse off than when they started and how they wished they had listened.

What you have to understand is that you can do a SELECT ride in your brand new Mercedes that you are paying $800/mo to lease - and I can do the exact same ride in my 10 year old Mercedes that I paid $9,000 for in cash and owe nothing on... and you won't earn a single penny more than I did.

More importantly, there are 10 times more UberXL rides available than UberSELECT.
So if you want to go the UberSELECT route, then you'd be making a huge mistake not to get a vehicle that qualifies for both XL and SELECT.

 

[driv3n]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have an online business I run but have a lot of free time. I want to work part-time around bar close and events. I would like to make around $1800/mo take home part time to make this worth it. I have friends that make over 80k/yr in other cities.. that's not my goal. I just want to pay the lease, ins, and have another $1000-1200 left over for some spending money. If it goes well I would do more... but Im setting my expectations pretty low as I will be VERY part time. I also do plan to carefully select my rides, times, etc as I can work (or not work) whenver I want.

I hoped to draw on my limo experience and hope even x would get SOME decent tips. I'd hand out bottles of water, do proper limo stops, etc in a very clean new AWD car. I have a driveway full of 10-30 year old Mercedes so I get what you're saying there. they can also be a lot to fix when one $300 repair after another... on a lease all maint will be included with the exception of tires and brakes.

 

[Michael - Cleveland]

I would like to make around $1800/mo take home part time to make this worth it. I have friends that make over 80k/yr in other cities.. that's not my goal.

a) This isn't 'other cities', b) people lie about their earnings and c) don't confuse 'gross earnings'' (which is what drivers are citing when they talk about what they make) with net profits. It's good to know your goal... but you also have to know what it will take to achieve that goal... and other than what you hear from people here, you won't understand that until you drive Uber for a while.

I just want to pay the lease, ins, and have another $1000-1200 left over for some spending money.

I know BLACK car drivers here who can no longer clear that with Uber. What you are describing sounds more like you want to perform personal driving services - which is great... but you won't be able to count on Uber as your primary source of rides... you'll need to develop your own clientele, I think.

I also do plan to carefully select my rides, times, etc as I can work (or not work) whenver I want.

There aren't enough UberSELECT ride requests out there that you will be able to be picky about the ones you accept - and you do not know where an Uber request is going until you start the ride. If you cancel more than a few rides, you'll first get warned by Uber - and then deactivated entirely from the driver app.

I hoped to draw on my limo experience and hope even x would get SOME decent tips. I'd hand out bottles of water, do proper limo stops, etc in a very clean new AWD car.

I hope it all works out for you - but as I said above, you won't make a penny more on your SELECT rides then someone whose costs are significantly lower than what you are planning. That means you will earn significantly less than your competition (and based on what you're describing, I believe you will lose money).

 

[indianbob]

I live down here in Green, where Select is not available, I do drive a lot in the Cleveland market. Select at the airport you might as well forget. I do well working the suburbs into downtown. When I go up there to work I am lucky if 2-out-of-10 rides are select. Real lucky.

 

[BillyZoom]

Seems to be some good information in this thread, thank you. I have been thinking about buying a car that does both XL and Select. Any suggestions? Seems to be very few that qualify here in the Los Angeles market. -Probably going to -X- it along with everyone else. BZ

 

[driv3n]

I just did a quick estimate of take-home if I took an 'x' fare to Akron... you're right I could never survive on that. (35 miles.. $50 x 75%, minus 8 gas... $37 for 2 hours of work and using up 1/25 of the car's mileage allowance. I could probably survive just doing lakewood / cleveland bar area... and try to avoid long trips to akron with no ride home... but it still isn't looking like it would hit that $1800 mark. I probably will just buy a cheaper mercedes instead. From the sounds of it a $3000 2005 E-Class would do fine and paid for in a couple months. Thank you for your help.

 

[Michael - Cleveland]

I just did a quick estimate of take-home if I took an 'x' fare to Akron... you're right I could never survive on that. (35 miles.. $50 x 75%, minus 8 gas... $37 for 2 hours of work and using up 1/25 of the car's mileage allowance. I could probably survive just doing lakewood / cleveland bar area... and try to avoid long trips to akron with no ride home... but it still isn't looking like it would hit that $1800 mark. I probably will just buy a cheaper mercedes instead. From the sounds of it a $3000 2005 E-Class would do fine and paid for in a couple months. Thank you for your help.

Yup... but then you can't do SELECT
(car has to 2010 or newer to do SELECT in this market)

Seems to be some good information in this thread, thank you. I have been thinking about buying a car that does both XL and Select. Any suggestions? Seems to be very few that qualify here in the Los Angeles market. -Probably going to -X- it along with everyone else. BZ

See the LA Vehicle Requirements List
(as soccer-momish as it may seem, I still think a cheap, 10 year old mini-van is the best thing to use for Uber so you can do XL)

 

[AkronReady]

I live down here in Green, where Select is not available, I do drive a lot in the Cleveland market. Select at the airport you might as well forget. I do well working the suburbs into downtown. When I go up there to work I am lucky if 2-out-of-10 rides are select. Real lucky.

I am curious- is there an are of CLE you find have a higher percentage of Select requests? How about XL- any luck with that at CAK? Is that airport overloaded like CLE?

 

[Michael - Cleveland]

I am curious- is there an are of CLE you find have a higher percentage of Select requests? How about XL- any luck with that at CAK? Is that airport overloaded like CLE?

The only consistent thing I've found is that there are more rides of all types where there are more people. (duh) Density of population. But that also means there are more drivers. When there's a large event (sports/concert/etc) you don't know where people are coming from to get there - or when... but we all know when they're leaving, and where they will be looking to get a ride. Some drivers stick to the crowds - others look to the 'under-served'd areas. Some mix it up. The only way to know what will work for you is to get out there and get lots of miles under your wheels.