Discussing a rideshare worker's take-home pay as "profit" really accepts the framing of the company. Yes it's technically true that each driver is an independent contractor ("Small Business Owner"), but this designation is a farce without the ability to set pricing. The take-home pay isn't profit in practice, it's wages less unreimbursed expenses.
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
#423 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.
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.
Should be higher. Insurance, energy and maintenance will be cheaper at the scale of Uber's fleet. Driving style might be optimized for MPG. Cars will be available 24/7 with no downtime.
Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says
#43It 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…
I'm with you, this study isn't worth a damn. I have friends that make $200-300 per night (in maybe 8 hours) driving for Uber (after Uber's cut). They'll use, what, $20-30 worth of gas in that time? And the rest of the costs (insurance and vehicle cost/wear namely) are negligible (tax deduction does not indicate real cost). Driving revenue in cities is way off the right of their chart. Seems like just another contribution to bunk "science".
Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says
#443 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.
The third point is definitely wrong. Once you have a fleet of driverless cars, you can optimize their routes to perfection, have almost zero down time, so you would need fewer cars in general. And less liability.
Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says
#45Discussing a rideshare worker's take-home pay as "profit" really accepts the framing of the company. Yes it's technically true that each driver is an independent contractor ("Small Business Owner"), but this designation is a farce without the ability to set pricing. The take-home pay isn't profit in practice, it's wages less unreimbursed expenses.
From the driver’s perspective, is there any difference?
Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says
#46“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…
My experience in a big metro area has been that almost every Uber driver does this full-time, and their vehicle is for the sole purpose of Uber. I guess it depends on where you are.
They have another car to drive themselves around when they aren’t working for Uber?
Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
My experience in a big metro area has been that almost every Uber driver does this full-time, and their vehicle is for the sole purpose of Uber. I guess it depends on where you are.
They have another car to drive themselves around when they aren’t working for Uber?
the uber car is leased/rented for the day from uber itself or from a 3rd party who collects prius just for this purpose.
Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says
#48What 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?
Subprime leasing programs.
Initially the lease looks very attractive, because you get a swanky new car, combined with bonuses and stuff that you get as a new driver.
Few months in, the incentive turns into a shackle. You start realizing that incentives are dwindling and the monthly payments are eating into most of your Uber earnings, which was masked by higher new driver incentives initially.
At this point, loss aversion kicks in, and forces the driver to drive crazy number of hours every day, just to make a decent profit over operating costs and the monthly due for the car.
With more such drivers in the market, and an ever dipping price for rides, $/Mile reduces.
That's the incentive.
update: If you think Uber/Lyft in the US is bad, talk to Uber/Ola drivers in India. Many of them are sleep deprived and driving, to make ends meet. And often barely earn enough to justify the costs.
Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says
#49The 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,…
No they wanted full time people, that is why they were giving bonuses if you did 30 rides or something your first week (I dont remember the exact number) but they wanted people on the road a lot.
Re: Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says
#50The 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,…
> 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".
That's not how Uber was originally promoted to drivers at all. Uber was originally promoted to high-end professional car drivers.