231–240 of 273 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This question would have made sense 10-20 years ago.
No, I'm still confused. What is the problem with being a taxi driver for life and expecting a good wage?
No, I'm still confused. What is the problem with being an elevator operator for life and expecting a good wage?
Remember that the median driver drives very few rides.
The median ride is driven by someone who does it more or less for a living, and who makes a lot more money than this.
Also remember that this single fact was cherry picked from the report to make a good headline, not to give the best understanding of the situation as w hole.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In 200+ rides, I don't think I've ever once been in a $40k+ Uber vehicle unless I've used Uber Select.
hm. It appears I'm off on my car prices. I thought japanese minivans were in that range, and with pool, those are really common. looking, they look closer to $30K than $40K if you don't spring for the extras. doing a survey of car manufacturer websites, my impression of how much vehicles cost appears to be around $10K high across the board. The base model honda accord is only $23K? that is way less than I thought. I…
At least in my area, most of the vehicles have been 5+ year old Toyotas (almost entirely Camrys, and a Prius or two) that were likely purchased with over 100k miles on them. The nicest thing I was ever in was a new Honda Civic.
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This seems rather low. Granted it's been almost two years since I drove for (primarily lyft) and I was making 50k/year for about 70h work a week. And also I gave myself about 6 weeks of vacation over that year and half.
Is that 50k after car depreciation, gas, and maintenance?
I'm not calculating depreciation, but that's dumb, since I used the car I had (for about 4 years prior), and continued using it about 2 years after.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems rather low. Granted it's been almost two years since I drove for (primarily lyft) and I was making 50k/year for about 70h work a week. And also I gave myself about 6 weeks of vacation over that year and half.
Would you mind telling us where you drove? I talked to an uber driver in Orlando who said he made a few hundred on a good night..
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems rather low. Granted it's been almost two years since I drove for (primarily lyft) and I was making 50k/year for about 70h work a week. And also I gave myself about 6 weeks of vacation over that year and half.
$50,000 per year for 70 hour per week works out to $28,571.43 if it were a standard 40-hour work week. Oh, and no benefits and you get to pay for gas and wear-and-tear on your car. So I guess if you're okay spending almost every waking hour working for peanuts and no health insurance, then sure.
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I drove a cab for beer money back in college, and a year or so ago, I had an interesting discussion with a cab medallion owner, after some typical uber driver cut us off. He thought it was a suckers' game where it looked like you were making money - until you had your first breakdown and you had no money and no income. He was pretty confident the average cab driver couldn't plan for this, and the whole thing would co…
So, Googling "they're all from turnip town" led me to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuKvUf7cr0s And I still don't know what it means to be from turnip town. That video has 300 views and is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen.
The implication was the drivers live in cheaper rural areas and come into the city on weekends to make money. Thus they don't know where they're going and are dependent on internet maps.
Back when I drove a cab, there actually was some skill to it - you had to keep all the streets and bars in your head and know the best routes.
revenue: $0.59/mile cost: $0.3/mile monthly profit: $661 Average fuel consumption is ~26.4 mpg so let's round to 25mpg Average fuel cost: $2.5/gallon Average number of working days/month: 21.75 Average number of weekend days/month: 8.65
0.59 * x - 0.3 * x = 661 0.29 * x = 661
x = 2279 miles
2279 miles/22 days = 103 miles. 2279 miles/8.65 days = 263 miles 2279 miles * 0.59 = $1344/month in income or $16128/year. 2279 miles * 0.3 = $683/month in expenses ($273/month in insurance, maintenance & repairs, $273/month in fuel, & $136/month in depreciation). . Average fuel price is $2.5.
2279 miles/25mpg = ~91 gallons. 91 gallons * 2.5 = 227/month in fuel.
Where it gets tricky is we don't have data on the average speed of an Uber driver & whether the 103 miles includes driving around waiting for rides. Let's assume a conservative average speed of 40mph.
103 miles/day / 40 mph = 2.5 hours/working day/month. 263 miles/day / 40 mph = 6.575 hours/weekend/month.
The faster you drive the less you work so if my average speed of 40mph is too conservative, then the average driver drives even less. It seems like this builds an average profile of a driver is one who picks up a rider or 2 on their way to/from their main job & then picks up some extra cash driving a bit on the weekend. The average driver probably doesn't consider Uber as their sole source of income but rather as extra income their making when they otherwise wouldn't be doing anything. Now of course that's probably less money per hour than they could pick up from picking up additional hours somewhere or even something like Task Rabbit. However the average Uber driver probably sees it as more reliable in terms of total revenue than Task Rabbit, it requires minimal effort, & it has extreme time flexibility that a second job wouldn't (just turn on the app whenever you want to make money).
Anecdotally the full time drivers I've asked in LA & the Bay Area told me they're pulling in 60-120k depending on how many hours they put in & the area they drive in. I didn't know this but apparently Uber & Lyft offer a lot of incentive programs that only the most active drivers can t take advantage of that significantly bumps your income (trips/day, trips/week, miles driven, etc). If you're not doing it full time then you're not getting these bonuses which is going to further impact your $/mile (of course I suspect the fares & costs are higher in these areas too). Since 40% of your cost is fuel consumption, drivers doing this full-time are going to prefer fuel-efficient, cheap cars than the average driver doing this on the side. This is obviously a more complete picture than the misleading news reporting might indicate.
*EDIT: As another comment pointed out, the cost numbers are artificially inflated. They're attributing to the entire cost of insurance to driving whereas from the model above the average driver already has a car. Thus they need to actually use the fractional increase in the more expensive insurance they need for the ride share vs what they would get otherwise. I suspect the same problem applies for depreciation where they're not using the fractional increase of depreciation cost due to driving more but just the overall vehicle depreciation which was going to happen anyway. Even the full time drivers probably would have bought vehicles anyway so the depreciation & insurance cost isn't reflective of that anyway.
TLDR: The main problem of the "study" can be summed up as follows: they take income from those who do it occasionally & subtract the costs of the ones who do it full time. Given the threat ride sharing poses to personal car ownership, it's not surprising such a misleading study is sponsored by people who would be impacted by reduced car ownership.
This doesn't surprise me at all and it's because of hidden costs incurred by the driver, combined with an implicit bidding system that drives down wages. Hidden costs: 1. Vehicle wear and tear (cars cost you money when you drive them) 2. Vehicle depreciation (cars cost you money even when you aren't driving them) 3. Interest and fees associated with auto loans and leases 4. Insurance premiums 5. Gas 6. Unexpected/unp…
Subsidized public transportation is nearly essentially for a world-class city, but it anchors the value of a ride in people's minds, which is brutal for the private transportation market. My own labor is valued at a lot more than $12 per hour, but I don't even blink at getting in the car for 20 minutes for $4 - if anything, Lyft and Uber start to look expensive in comparison to the local metro.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use Mr Money Mustache's figuring that each mile costs $1.55, then convert it to Canadian. $1.19 per km. Even a 2000 Camry will depreciate if you put enough mileage on it - if I was shopping for one I'd pay $5000 for under 120,000km, but not even a thousand for over 280,000km. But yes, you can get away with a bucket for food delivery. I'd say the best way to do it is on a scooter, but then you're really putting your…
Those old Japanese sedans are good for far more than 280000 km if you keep up on maintenance yourself. Yes, anecotes are not evidence, but this article is interesting. https://jalopnik.com/5885287/how-i-put-750000-miles-on-my-ho... And besides, you can buy a car for 4k with a lot of miles. At that point it's like a dishrag. You use it to do your job until you need a new one. Blows up by the side of the road? Tell you…