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An Uber Impact

blog.uber.com

11–20 of 64 posts

Re: An Uber Impact

#11
post #4

I really wish they could give more data on how they reached their median income stats. I realize they have no incentive to release that. Curious how Lyft and Sidecar measure up as well.

I've conversed with numerous Sidecar drivers and they earn no more than $30/hr-- and that's before deducting expenses (gas, wear & tear, etc.). And most of them work part-time Also, if an über driver makes $70k++ and a software engineer makes $100k++ base... that's kind of sad.

I agree. That is sad. Hence why I ask for more data. I suspect it's not really painting the whole picture.

Re: An Uber Impact

#12
$90K in (gross) revenue (in NYC), before taking into account operating costs (fuel, lease expenses), depreciation, healthcare, self-employment taxes, etc.

It's off the cuff and I'm sure I'm missing a number of categories, while realizing that you can deduct a certain number as business expenses, but I'm fairly certain you're really (edit) not (/edit) seeing anything close to $90K in the end.

Re: An Uber Impact

#13
post #7
post #2

Does this mean more people are taking Taxis?

That, I think is the key question and no data is given. IMHO, I really doubt Uber has expanded the market, but instead taken a share of it, so 'creating' 20,000 jobs is at the expense of X thousand others.

Anecdotally I take way way more Lyft's and Uber's now than I did taxi's 3 years ago with very little change in my expendable income. FYI, im in LA.

Re: An Uber Impact

#14
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've conversed with numerous Sidecar drivers and they earn no more than $30/hr-- and that's before deducting expenses (gas, wear & tear, etc.). And most of them work part-time Also, if an über driver makes $70k++ and a software engineer makes $100k++ base... that's kind of sad.

The Uber driver pays for his car's maintenance and fuel.

And the financing costs for the car to begin with, and in addition doesn't receive the health and fringe benefits of salaried employment.

Re: An Uber Impact

#15
43% of Americans are now covered by Uber. Seems like they've hit most of the densely populated areas. I'm sure it will take much longer than that to hit the less populated areas, if ever. For most cities (read: not large and dense), Uber will probably not work.

Re: An Uber Impact

#16
I doubt the automotive pun was intended, but if it was, it's in poor taste, and if it wasn't, it's a nasty oversight - considering the last time people read a headline about an "Uber impact," it was because a little girl was killed. It's extremely important to consider such things in this kind of language.

Re: An Uber Impact

#17
20k jobs created? Is hired car use really going up that much? If I had to guess, I'd say a handful of new jobs are created while the rest are just taken from existing taxi companies.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with that. I just think the stat is pretty misleading.

Re: An Uber Impact

#18
post #2

Does this mean more people are taking Taxis?

My guess is yes. Uber makes it so easy to quickly and painlessly get a ride that I find myself using the service much more often than I would a normal Taxi in the past. From casual observation I find this to be true for the majority of my friends and even family members as well.

Normal Taxi services are a pain in the ass to book, not connected to my credit card (so you have to go through the whole guilt trip for not having cash, takes longer, etc), and for whatever reason I always had bad experiences with them at least half the time. None of these things are issues with Uber, leading to much more usage on my part. It's just so damn easy, and even satisfying, to tap a few times and have a car magically show up.

Re: An Uber Impact

#19

$90K in (gross) revenue (in NYC), before taking into account operating costs (fuel, lease expenses), depreciation, healthcare, self-employment taxes, etc. It's off the cuff and I'm sure I'm missing a number of categories, while realizing that you can deduct a certain number as business expenses, but I'm fairly certain you're really (edit) not (/edit) seeing anything close to $90K in the end.

I'd also like to see how many hours on average someone making $90K in gross revenue in NYC is working.

Re: An Uber Impact

#20

I doubt the automotive pun was intended, but if it was, it's in poor taste, and if it wasn't, it's a nasty oversight - considering the last time people read a headline about an "Uber impact," it was because a little girl was killed. It's extremely important to consider such things in this kind of language.

When I first read the headline I thought it was a press release about an accident.
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