[Coyotex]

What would you rather do? There is no right or wrong answer.

A) stay in your local market. Not as populated, not as many rides, but pays higher per mile/minute.
B) drive to another market (about 2 hours away, VERY slim chance to pick up rides to/from). Bigger area, more population, more chance for rides, less pay per mile/minute.

I know "to each their own", but this debate has been on my mind and was wondering what the more experienced drivers would do. What questions would you ask themselves and if it would be worth it to them.

 

[SuzeCB]

What would you rather do? There is no right or wrong answer.

A) stay in your local market. Not as populated, not as many rides, but pays higher per mile/minute.
B) drive to another market (about 2 hours away, VERY slim chance to pick up rides to/from). Bigger area, more population, more chance for rides, less pay per mile/minute.

I know "to each their own", but this debate has been on my mind and was wondering what the more experienced drivers would do. What questions would you ask themselves and if it would be worth it to them.

Depends. How far to and from the other market?

I'm in NJ. We have one market for the state, but two zones, with one of them, the smaller portion, paying approximately 1.8x more than the rest of the state. Trouble is, it's seasonal. It was very much worth it for me to work there, but I had a strategy that involved working as soon as I hit the higher rate boundary, and move my way further down to the area I wanted to work, with all the bars and restaurants, etc. During the off-season, I'd only go down there for special events, or if I was going to visit friends there anyway.

 

[TomTheAnt]

There's no way in hell I would drive four hours just to go anting. Being a part timer it definitely would not be worth for me to spend all that time just to go drive elsewhere.

 

[oldfart]

I’d do both for a while. A day here and then a day there. And then settle on the one that works best for you

There are drivers in my market (Ft Myers/Naples Florida) that come here from Miami. Our rates are higher, and our market smaller. Apparently it’s worth the 2 hour drive each way for them.

Following my own advice I have worked both ends of my market and have found that I do better in Naples than Ft Myers. So I often deadhead 45 minutes or more to work in Naples or Marco Island

 

[Coyotex]

So I often deadhead 45 minutes or more to work in Naples or Marco Island

Is Marco Island one of the most wealthy places in Florida? If I lived close there, I'd drive it too! lol

 

[Taksomotor]

I would stay locally, for sure. If I wanted that v
bigger market so much that I would drive 2hrs one way, I would consider moving into that area to live.

 

[oldfart]

Marco Island and Naples are both full of money. The joke I tell is about the old guy that visited Naples. When he got home he was telling his friends about the trip. He said “before I went to Naples I thought I was old and I thought I was rich; turns out I’m neither one”

Until I started spending time in Naples , I don’t think I had ever seen a Bentley, now I see them every day.

My problem here is that our season is coming to an end and all our winter residents are heading home

 

[BikingBob]

I drive an hour sometimes to do certain college towns. I know I'll get my rides in and it will be popping. If I stay local I get longer rides at a healthier rate. But there's more waiting and it's six of one, half dozen of another.

 

[1.5xorbust]

Depends on how adventuresome you are. There is a learning curve involved in exploring a new market.

 

[touberornottouber]

I kind of see the exact same situation. Live in the Daytona area (91 cents a mile) but am about an hour away from Orlando (54 cents a mile). I mostly stay where I am. I've tried driving in Orlando but the rates are so low it feels like I always moving but never ever making more than $8-$10 an hour even when I am always moving. Plus the traffic and roads (construction closures and detours constantly changing) are very bad over there. It just doesn't seem worth driving in Orlando.

 

[reg barclay]

I can't envision myself driving 2 hours each way to do Uber anywhere, even if rates were higher there. All the more so if they're lower. But I'm a part timer so driving 2 hours each way to spend 3-4 hours Ubering could rarely be worth it. Honestly though, I can't envision myself doing that for full time driving either.

As to your own area, I think it really depends how sparse the rides are there, and what you're trying to get from it. For example, if you're doing it in spare time for extra pocket money, then sitting around doing the odd ride here and there at good rates might be fine. Otherwise if you're looking for a full time income, you might need to consider a different job or driving in another area.

 

[welikecamping]

I'm not deadheading 4 hours a day. Heck, I barely work 7, and I start by driving 20 minutes away to my fishing hole. After that, I pretty much just go wherever the app takes me - so long as there are rides. rides dry up, I go home and take a nap. I'm lazy that way.

 

[amazinghl]

A. no question.

B, if A doesn't work out, but I'd move so I don't have to commute for 4 hours.

 

[UberTN]

What would you rather do? There is no right or wrong answer.

A) stay in your local market. Not as populated, not as many rides, but pays higher per mile/minute.
B) drive to another market (about 2 hours away, VERY slim chance to pick up rides to/from). Bigger area, more population, more chance for rides, less pay per mile/minute.

I know "to each their own", but this debate has been on my mind and was wondering what the more experienced drivers would do. What questions would you ask themselves and if it would be worth it to them.

I am in a similar situation. An hour away is a pot of gold; yet, I potentially have to drive two hours per day without a passenger. In those same two hours, I could easily pick up between 4-6 passengers. The steady flow (albeit somewhat slow flow at times) is better for my sanity and bottom line than the chaos of driving in the larger area with two hours driving for free.

 

[Broken Spoke]

I'm in a bit of a triangle. Youngstown is 35-45 minutes away from my house. When the bar crowd finishes up you're pretty much done after 3am.

Akron Kent area is 45-50 minutes away.

Cleveland is an hour away, and is three times the size of Youngstown.

There's always something going on in Cleveland where I can take rides all night.

Even with the dead miles, Cleveland has been pretty good to me.

People are friendlier too.

 

[mrpjfresh]

The days of driving multiple hours to drive Uber are over. They pretty much died after the great cuts of 2014 and 2015. With the new destination filter screw job, they'll take even more on your way home, too. Yes, people still do drive to big cities to work and sleep in their cars, but this is out of desperation and no alternative as opposed to a sound business strategy.

Say what you want about that Uberman guy, but he saw the writing on the wall. He started out by long distance commuting like this and at the time, it was lucrative enough to totally make sense. Flash forward to today, he has totally abandoned Uber and even the name Uberman and moved on to greener pastures. And ain't that just perfectly emblematic of Uber in 2019.

 

[itendstonight]

I drive an hour sometimes to do certain college towns. I know I'll get my rides in and it will be popping. If I stay local I get longer rides at a healthier rate. But there's more waiting and it's six of one, half dozen of another.

Major holidays that involve alcohol and gamedays are BIG money in college towns ... lots of surges and even more 1*s from pissed broke college kids haha. I know drivers from big cities that commute to a college town that during halloween, rides were $100 for 2 to 3 miles ?

 

[Seamus]

What I do is keep a spreadsheet so I can keep track of “Revenue per mile” which helps tremendously with decisions like this one you are presenting.

It’s hard to see how dead mileages of 2 hours back and forth could work. After almost 2 years of this spreadsheet it is plain to see the impact of dead miles is devastating to your revenue per mile. If you have a low revenue per mile you really have to question the impact on your car to the perceived benefit of a higher top line Gross.

It boils down to efficient use of your asset (car) and expenses to generate revenue. If you stay local and generate $0.90 per mile vs driving a ton of dead miles which may result in $0.43 per mile are you really ahead?

So bottom line there is no canned answer but do a legitimate business analysis and you will have your answer.

 

[Coachman]

I'm in DFW. There's no bigger market I could drive to. So the question is irrelevant.

 

[Coyotex]

Thanks everyone! Some great thought provoking stuff all through this thread!