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Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

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Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#31

Post by ApolloFortyNine »

Liquix wrote: post #18

What is the incentive to drive for one of these services at that price point? Couldn't these people make more money (and not have to replace their car in five years) flipping burgers or the like? Are drivers misled into believing they will make more? Is the cost per mile intentionally hidden from them?

Being able to begin work whenever they want, and more importantly not work whenever they want. Friend calls and want's to meet at 8? Even if you have a rider you can go off the clock in ~15 minutes.

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#32

Post by emodendroket »

Liquix wrote: post #18

What is the incentive to drive for one of these services at that price point? Couldn't these people make more money (and not have to replace their car in five years) flipping burgers or the like? Are drivers misled into believing they will make more? Is the cost per mile intentionally hidden from them?

Lack of other options is one, I'd guess.

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#33

Post by derekp7 »

The problem isn't the profit, but that there are a number of people using this as one of their primary income sources. I'm not sure how Uber et. al was originally promoted to drivers, but I've originally seen it as something like "I'm heading home from work, let me turn on my uber app and see if anyone around me needs a ride going in that direction".

Or, "I feel like riding around tonight, no particular place to go, may as well see if I can make a couple bucks by giving others a lift". I know that back when I was around 18 - 22 or so, I would often spend a saturday night just cruising with the radio playing, windows down, and enjoying the ride.

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#34

Post by emodendroket »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #31
Liquix wrote: post #18

What is the incentive to drive for one of these services at that price point? Couldn't these people make more money (and not have to replace their car in five years) flipping burgers or the like? Are drivers misled into believing they will make more? Is the cost per mile intentionally hidden from them?

Being able to begin work whenever they want, and more importantly not work whenever they want. Friend calls and want's to meet at 8? Even if you have a rider you can go off the clock in ~15 minutes.

Presumably for a lot of people the thing they need to work around is not so much friends calling and wanting to meet as their primary jobs with irregular hours.

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#35

Post by notfromhere »

JackFr wrote: post #15
saas_co_de wrote: post #4

It does seem that there are glaring flaws in the methodology: 1) They use average numbers for vehicle expenses which are going to be much higher than what professional drivers with strong profit incentives are going to pay 2) They report on a sampled average of all Uber drivers while acknowledging that the vast majority of these are part time and temporary employees who are not really optimizing their profits. If the…

The results also seem to defy common sense. While it's relatively easy to believe that the income from driving for Uber and Lyft is lower than most people imagine and it is relatively easy to believe that a small fraction of drivers are actually losing money by driving, it is difficult to believe that that fully 1/3 of drivers are continuing to impoverish themselves. I'm not saying it's not true, but without supporti…

Most people aren't math savvy and the long-term costs of riding for Uber are more 'invisible' than the short-term cash that you'll be getting from driving. Uber/Lyft functions by letting car owners get a quick buck in exchange for the long-term value of the car.

People use payday loans even though they're fairly scammy and financially irresponsible, why would Lyft/Uber be any different?

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#36

Post by emodendroket »

filesystem wrote: post #8

“Of the five sources of cost estimated per mile (Insurance, Maintenance, Repairs, Fuel and Depreciation), approximately 40% of costs are attributable to Insurance, Maintenance and Repairs, 40% to fuel expenses, and 20% to depreciation.” I don’t understand how insurance is a relevant cost. Insurance is required to legally operate a vehicle - this is something that they must have for their personal vehicle regardless o…

Tell your insurance you were driving for hire the next time you're in an accident and see how it goes.

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#37

Post by derekp7 »

mywittyname wrote: post #12
filesystem wrote: post #8

“Of the five sources of cost estimated per mile (Insurance, Maintenance, Repairs, Fuel and Depreciation), approximately 40% of costs are attributable to Insurance, Maintenance and Repairs, 40% to fuel expenses, and 20% to depreciation.” I don’t understand how insurance is a relevant cost. Insurance is required to legally operate a vehicle - this is something that they must have for their personal vehicle regardless o…

Insurance for driving an Uber/Lyft is much more expensive than regular insurance, because it's considered commercial. In previous years, people could get away with not having it, but today every insurance company asks specifically if this vehicle was ever used in a driving service and will deny claims if it was found to be.

Is there any insurance company that offers on-demand insurance add-on policies? What would be great is if it could be integrated into Uber/Lyft's app and automatically kick in a per mile insurance rate only while you have a passenger.

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#38

Post by martin_bech »

3 problems.

1. This is at subsidised Uber pricing, where Uber is loosing money at an alarming rate.

2. This means driving for Uber is terrible economicly.

3. This also implies that even getting to driverless cars, Uber will only save 3.37 per hour, not making the business model viable, I would think.

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#39

Post by jgalt212 »

illegalsmile wrote: post #21
Liquix wrote: post #18

What is the incentive to drive for one of these services at that price point? Couldn't these people make more money (and not have to replace their car in five years) flipping burgers or the like? Are drivers misled into believing they will make more? Is the cost per mile intentionally hidden from them?

The few people I know who drive like it because if they have no plans on a Thursday - Sunday night or specific windows of time throughout the week they can turn on the app, drive and make some cash. This adds a lot of flexibility and it's less about the money and more about doing something productive and meeting people. I don't know anyone that career drives for a ride service though.

It's the modern day equivalent of being a longshoreman.

Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says

#40

Post by willnewman »

derekp7 wrote: post #33

The problem isn't the profit, but that there are a number of people using this as one of their primary income sources. I'm not sure how Uber et. al was originally promoted to drivers, but I've originally seen it as something like "I'm heading home from work, let me turn on my uber app and see if anyone around me needs a ride going in that direction". Or, "I feel like riding around tonight, no particular place to go,…

That could have been the original intent, and they may still use that argument, but if so it needs to be squared up with the fact that they relentlessly try and entice drivers to keep driving longer and farther. See: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/02/technology/ub...
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