Live data from Hacker News

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

npr.org

121–130 of 224 posts

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

#121
The flaw in these studies are the assumption that the person would not have a car unless they were an Uber/Lyft driver. This has a huge impact on the final per hour calculations.

If the vehicle is a fixed cost for the person regardless of whether or not they are a driver, then factoring in the cost and depreciation of the vehicle isn't really a fair measure.

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

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s say I’m a dry wall contractor. A general contractor comes along and offers me $20k for a job. I say “$25k?” and he says, “No, $20k.” If I take the job I am not magically transformed into an employee of his, simply because I lacked the bargaining power to negotiate the rate. The reason I am still a contractor is that I have absolute control over whether to agree to do that job at that price. There are obviously…

MMmmmh, but you do not lose your job as a dry wall contractor. You lose your “uber driver” job if you do not accept uber’s fares. What am I missing?

"Dry wall contractor" is a pretty generic job title. "Uber driver" is very specific including the "location" where the driver is working. To make the analogy fair you'd have to do have a "Dry wall contractor for Boeing" or similar.

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

#123
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has deals with car rental agencies in several places that doesn't "allow" you to "eat out" your vehicle equity (I've seen Enterprise in CA and, I think, one other place, and Otto in London). The viability of such deals suggests that the numbers work out even without spending your equity.

Uber was more expensive than a Taxi for me in Paris. Uber gave me a 10-14 euros quote. And for the same distance the taxi took only 7 euros. I'm pretty sure the math might be working on some places. I'm only suggesting that it is possibly not working on other places and users are not aware of that.

Uber does minute-to-minute dynamic pricing, so any one ride isn't indicative of the actual cost. It may well be more expensive, but one or two ride anecdotes would not prove it.

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

#124
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber has deals with car rental agencies in several places that doesn't "allow" you to "eat out" your vehicle equity (I've seen Enterprise in CA and, I think, one other place, and Otto in London). The viability of such deals suggests that the numbers work out even without spending your equity.

Uber was more expensive than a Taxi for me in Paris. Uber gave me a 10-14 euros quote. And for the same distance the taxi took only 7 euros. I'm pretty sure the math might be working on some places. I'm only suggesting that it is possibly not working on other places and users are not aware of that.

There's been a few times where the yellow cab flat rate to JFK was cheaper than Uber in NYC as well.

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

#126
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber was more expensive than a Taxi for me in Paris. Uber gave me a 10-14 euros quote. And for the same distance the taxi took only 7 euros. I'm pretty sure the math might be working on some places. I'm only suggesting that it is possibly not working on other places and users are not aware of that.

Uber does minute-to-minute dynamic pricing, so any one ride isn't indicative of the actual cost. It may well be more expensive, but one or two ride anecdotes would not prove it.

Their lowest range was 40% higher than the Taxi. That's quite an amount.

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

#129

The flaw in these studies are the assumption that the person would not have a car unless they were an Uber/Lyft driver. This has a huge impact on the final per hour calculations. If the vehicle is a fixed cost for the person regardless of whether or not they are a driver, then factoring in the cost and depreciation of the vehicle isn't really a fair measure.

Registration and excise taxes are a fixed cost. Insurance may be a fixed cost. (Although you may need a different policy and some policies have discounts/surcharges based on miles driven.) But most costs of car ownership are primarily related to the number of miles driven.

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

#130
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Absolutely false, I pay nothing extra to drive for Uber and my personal insurance knows exactly what I'm doing: https://www.intact.ca/on/en/personal-insurance/vehicle/car/u... The relevant quote that applies to me: "When Uber drivers are using their vehicle for personal use, Intact Insurance, Novex, Jevco and belairdirect customers are protected as usual under their personal auto insurance policy at no additional cos…

They talk about two distinct policies here, a personal policy (which still has to permit ridesharing, according to the illustration), which applies at any moment the driver is using the car for personal use (i.e. not logged into the Uber app to accept trips), then another policy, provided by Intact, which covers the Uber trips.

This page seems to be more about a kind of interface between the two policies, not that Uber coverage is provided for free.

Post reply on HN