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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

#171

Post by s73v3r_ »

cyclonetiger wrote: post #23
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…

This was my problem with the article. It assumes that people own vehicles for the sole purpose of driving for Uber/Lyft. Costs like maintenance, insurance, and repairs are arguably costs that every car owner has to pay for.

Those costs go up with the additional wear and tear of driving for Uber/Lyft.

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

#172

Post by s73v3r_ »

_zachs wrote: post #90

Good thing no one is being forced to drive for Uber. If your main source of income is from being a ride-share driver, the problem isn't with Uber.

That's not a valid argument. Technically no one is forced into prostitution either.

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

#173

Post by eddieplan9 »

It's important to not use the IRS Mileage Rate to calculate real cost. (The linked study does not.) The IRS rate is designed for the worst case scenario for the purpose of tax filing (coz you don't want to penalize someone who has to drive a F-150 in a high-gas-price state in a year where gas price spikes to $5/gallon). Even if we don't consider the fact that the cost of vehicle depreciation, maintenance and insurance is an "almost-fixed" or marginal cost because you are going to own the vehicle and pay for the insurance any way, and let's be generous about estimating the cost here:

At IRS rate of $0.54 a mile, let's say we buy a Prius (which is the most popular car used for ridesharing), for $23,000, and drive it for 100,000 miles and throw it away.

At IRS rate, that's a cost of $54,000.

Gas cost is about $8,000 (50MPG [1], $4/gallon). Insurance $1500 x 5 years ($1200 base insurance + $300 extra for rideshare add-on [2]). That still leaves us $15,500 (28.7% of estimated cost) to cover repair deductible etc. That's almost enough to buy another Prius.

Edits: I mistakenly said the study used IRS Mileage Rate. It does not.

[1] http://mikes-review.com/does-a-toyota-prius-really-get-50-mi...

[2] https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/insurance/best-ridesharing-i...

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

#174

Post by klenwell »

chrisseaton wrote: post #50
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,…

> 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.

I'm pretty sure I heard ads from Uber or Lyft on local popular music radio stations while driving advertising $15 - $20/hr wages.

Some discussion on this site:

https://uberpeople.net/threads/uber-radio-commercial.27343/

Not sure if these are the same commercials I heard.

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

#176

Post by s73v3r_ »

liamhawkins wrote: post #168
s73v3r_ wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they have literally no other choice? When your choice is to lose money driving for Uber, or starve, you kinda lose the ability to stop if you don't find it "useful".

I'm not defending Uber/Lift here, I completely agree that there is a mismatch between the perception of being an Uber driver and reality, but I don't fully understand this argument. If they have "literally no other choice" were they starving before Uber/Lift existed? These companies haven't existed that long, and the majority of Uber/Lift drivers are not former/current taxi driver that now need to use these apps beca…

You've not made a convincing argument for why this kind of fraud should exist.

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

#177

Post by wgerard »

ashelmire wrote: post #163
wgerard wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usage costs for cars are usually tagged at around $0.50-$0.60 per mile [1]. Looking around, seems like the average 8 hour uber driver is putting on about 100-200 miles per shift [2]. So assuming 150 miles per 8 hours, the average uber driver is paying about $11/hr in fuel and depreciation costs. So the net income after that would probably be more like $9/hr. 1: http://newsroom.aaa.com/tag/driving-cost-per-mile/ 2: ht…

The analysis I linked above calculated the net earnings after all expenses as being ~$13/hr on average (and included all registration and insurance costs as well as the AAA figure in expenses). That would mean higher hourly earnings for part-time drivers in big cities (who often only work Friday/Saturday nights).

Hm interesting, the report suggests that 8-hour drivers are doing more like 60 miles per shift (($4.79 * 8) / 0.6).

Curious what the huge discrepancy is there (between self-reported and gathered data), though without being able to see the underlying data I guess we can't tell.

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

#178

Post by saas_co_de »

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 is why this study is so misleading.

They say more than 80% of Uber drivers work less than 40 hours per week so that "median profit of $3/hr" is probably for someone working 10 hours per week.

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

#179

Post by rodonn »

This paper has actual data on earnings from all Uber drivers in all cities in the US. They find that the average earnings are $20 per hour with a standard deviation of $5 (there is substantial variation across cities and especially across time, with late nights on weekends being especially high earning). http://www.nber.org/papers/w23296 The authors are very well respected economists from UCLA and Yale, though it should be noted that one author was a former Uber employee.

This is substantially higher than the estimates in this newer study unless you think that the per hour operating costs of a car are $16 per hour. The new study bases it's numbers on self reported values from a relatively small sample, which is much less accurate than calculating an average using Uber's actual full database.

Another interesting finding from the study I linked is that a majority of Uber drivers work 20 or fewer hours per week and place a substantial value on the flexibility that they get from being able to choose their own hours.

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

#180

Post by jsonderulio »

jgalt212 wrote: post #39
illegalsmile wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is funny on like four different levels.
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