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Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

theguardian.com

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Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#81

Post by foobarian »

UncleEntity wrote: post #18

> “The companies are losing money. The businesses are being subsidized by [venture capital] money … And the drivers are essentially subsidizing it by working for very low wages.” Last time I pointed that out I was downvoted for some unknown reason. My neighbor was talking about buying a new car to drive for lyft/uber and I was like "the trick is to tear up somebody else's car." We'll see if he heeds my advice though…

I don't get it. Taxicabs such as in NYC are famously expensive to buy into, and yet drivers somehow afford it and make livings on them. So if they are clearly not losing money, why is it that a company that's supposed to be vastly more efficient due to use of computers can't make a profit? Are the tech overheads really that high?

Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#82

Post by [deleted] »

seibelj wrote: post #15
staticassertion wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw one yesterday. There was a driver but like... come one, decades?

When driverless cars are common on midwestern highways every night, they will start moving into complex urban areas. We are very far from cars navigating downtown NYC, Seattle, SF, Boston, etc.

[deleted]

Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#83

Post by sfarnan »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #7

Any Uber drivers want to chime in?

In SF, I'd make $30 to $38 an hour over 40 to 70 hours a week. My friend cleared $2000 week driving 70 hours for Lyft.

My expenses were $400 a week, including car depreciation. I was leasing the car from Uber which is ridiculously expensive unless you do 60+ hours.

If you live with 8 other people and pay $500 month in rent, then you can make good money.

In cities that aren't SF or NYC it isn't worth it. In LA, it's 30% less income than in SF!

Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#84

Post by lsc »

im3w1l wrote: post #30
UncleEntity wrote: post #18

> “The companies are losing money. The businesses are being subsidized by [venture capital] money … And the drivers are essentially subsidizing it by working for very low wages.” Last time I pointed that out I was downvoted for some unknown reason. My neighbor was talking about buying a new car to drive for lyft/uber and I was like "the trick is to tear up somebody else's car." We'll see if he heeds my advice though…

I didn't know MBA's were that squeezed that they need second jobs.

MBAs are different from engineering degrees in that while a MBA from a top school is super valuable, a MBA from a so-so school is, as far as I can tell, worth very little. Keep in mind that one-year MBAs from disreputable schools are often advertised to working people.

I mean, you do learn things; my understanding is that it's sort of a 'survey degree' that gives you a shallow treatment of a lot of different business disciplines. If they would have let me take the MBA without an undergrad, even at a so-so school, I would have done it a few years into my own adventure running a business, and I think it would have helped me. If you have management experience and skills, a MBA even from a not so great school can help. But I think the difference between a MBA from a meh school and a MBA from a top school is overall far greater than the difference between an engineering degree at a meh school and an engineering degree at a top school.

Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#85

Post by gpm »

seibelj wrote: post #31
woah wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you live in NYC, Seattle, SF, or Boston?

Yes, Boston, and when can I order my driverless car to pick me up?

A few months ago if you ignore the safety driver [0].

If cars with safety drivers don't count, nearly a year ago if you move to Pheonix and get lucky [1]. They're apparently planning to launch in more cities "soon" (though I can't find a list or date) [2] and they've recently got permission to start charging passengers and intend to by the end of they year [3].

So I think "decades" is an exaggeration.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/6/16742924/lyft-nutonomy-bo...

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15415840/waymo-self-drivi...

[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/waymo...

[3] https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/waymo-now-a-full-ride-hai...

Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#86

Post by teeteetech »

nraynaud wrote: post #3
astrodust wrote: post #2

Uber is losing billions and their drivers are making peanuts. That sounds sustainable.

I am a bit curious about the dockless bike shares too, I suspect the same thing.

I'm not as certain about that. Potentially optimistic, but I could imagine bikes taking on a larger role as we move to self driving cars.

If you read threads about biking[0], people seem to be motivated to bike more than they are motivated to drive. Although these same people are stymied by negative conditions. Self driving cars could improve biking conditions by opening up roadways, making them safer, providing better point to point transit.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16420271

Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#87

Post by shard972 »

maxharris wrote: post #59
astrodust wrote: post #2

Uber is losing billions and their drivers are making peanuts. That sounds sustainable.

It's sustainable because we're on the cusp of the autonomous vehicle revolution. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/technology/driverless-car... This is similar to how the huge army of people stuffing DVDs into envelopes at Netflix is going away. It might be slow, but I don't think there will be tons of people watching DVDs from them in 2030... https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/23/netflix-dvd-business-still-a...

The problem i have seeing this comparison is netflix was making good money in their original mail business as far as i remember.

Their venture into digital was ahead of the curb, allowing them to be even more successful and expand their business beyond distribution.

If the self-driving-taxi is right around the corner i guess that can save uber, but it's not like netflix was on a timer to like uber is to transition their business model.

Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#89

Post by nerfhammer »

foobarian wrote: post #81
UncleEntity wrote: post #18

> “The companies are losing money. The businesses are being subsidized by [venture capital] money … And the drivers are essentially subsidizing it by working for very low wages.” Last time I pointed that out I was downvoted for some unknown reason. My neighbor was talking about buying a new car to drive for lyft/uber and I was like "the trick is to tear up somebody else's car." We'll see if he heeds my advice though…

I don't get it. Taxicabs such as in NYC are famously expensive to buy into, and yet drivers somehow afford it and make livings on them. So if they are clearly not losing money, why is it that a company that's supposed to be vastly more efficient due to use of computers can't make a profit? Are the tech overheads really that high?

Because they're spending it on other stuff. Lots of those thousands and thousands of engineers are working on developing other products not the least of which is self-driving cars.

Re: Uber and Lyft drivers' median hourly wage is just $3.37, report finds

#90

Post by makecheck »

I guess what makes driving different than other low-wage jobs is that it’s a relatively easy job to obtain if you already have the vehicle: you don’t have to do a bunch of interviews, you don’t need a huge amount of ability, you can start making money pretty much immediately. Having a reliable income can be important (as opposed to jobs that limit your hours, etc.).

Of course, it’s obviously a terrible wage. Anecdotally, the drivers I’ve encountered were all doing it for extra side income and not as a main job.

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