I was genuinely shocked to see how little money my Lyft driver made to take me from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. Are all Lyft and Uber drivers paid this poorly?
Lyft + Uber Drivers Are Paid A Fraction Of What You Pay
I used several Ubers during my time in Miami. The drivers were all from Latin American, none spoke English, and the last guy, a dude from Venezuela, was so engrossed on his mobile phone that he missed the turn off to our hotel and we lost 10 mintues going around in a big circle in the heart of Miami rush hour traffic.
So when it came time to go from our hotel in Miami to Ft. Lauderdale Airport (FLL) for our flight home, I used Lyft. A very pleasant driver named Nadyara picked us up in her Nissan Rogue. She also didn’t speak any English, but she was so kind and even offered my son an iPad with tethered internet to pass the time.
The fare was $39.75, reduced by $5 with a Lyft credit I had.
I noticed, though, that she had her driver dashboard open in the Lyft app and it showed that she would only make $13 and some change for this ride.
$13?!
1/3 of what I paid when she did all the work and also put wear and tear on her car and used her gas?!
I could not believe it. Traffic was horrible and it took an hour to reach FLL. When we arrived I gave her a sizeable cash trip, for which she was very grateful. Regular readers know I really hate the tipping culture in the USA and the idea that consumers should have to subsidize corporations paying their workers far too little money.
But is this normal?
Apparently so, though perhaps not quite as bad. A couple of weeks later I was traveling from my home to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) via Uber. My fare was about $54. I asked the driver how much he would make. He pulled up his app and showed me: $21.
Less than half…
That raises the larger question of why people drive for Uber and Lyft in the first place. I can see why it makes sense for Uber and Lyft to provide the platform if they are taking cuts like that. But how does it make sense for a driver to spend an hour of her time and put wear and tear on her car and use fuel and pay tolls if she’s only getting $13 out of it?!
Without a tip, how can a driver possibly survive? And of course that upends the business model that made me fall in love with Lyft and Uber in the first place:
CONCLUSION
I don’t like Uber or Lyft, but I dislike taxis even more. Practically, that means I typically drive now to LAX or Burbank Airport (BUR) when I fly, but I still use ridesharing apps when necessary. But it really makes me dislike Uber and Lyft if those companies are taking such a large cut.
It also helps to explain–though by no means excuses–some of the bad behavior of drivers.
> Read More: The Uber “Driver Doesn’t Move” Scam Is Pathetic
To Uber and Lyft drivers: does it still make sense for you to drive for these ride-sharing companies?
image: Lyft
Last year was Ubers first profitable year I believe? Is that coming at the expense of their drivers? How long until more drivers drop out, affecting supply and driving up prices then driving down demand?
If the dude from Venezuela is any example , being engrossed in his mobile phone whilst driving , is a prescription for a terrible accident .
That moron can “drop out” anytime , for the safety of everyone else .
I am curious why the drivers don’t set up a not-for-profit cooperative service that competes with Uber, Lyft and other such for-profit corporations. The amount of money that the likes of Uber and Lyft take from the fares paid by us to the contract drivers seems like the drivers are subject to highway robbery. I guess this is part of why the drivers sign up to be with multiple services since then they can sort of try to pick among whichever service seems likely to pay them the most.
@GUWonder: I have a feeling that Uber/Lyft would act similarly to the taxi companies did upon the original proliferation of ride share services: fight to keep them out from places that have restricted permissions to operate like airports, cruise terminals, certain event arenas, etc.
Yes, the incumbent powers afraid of losing their dominance will try to strike out with vengeance against upstarts and probably seek political/bureaucratic assistance to oppose upstarts on top of throwing around a lot of money to crush potential competition.
I hate to sound cruel, but it really isn’t our problem.
To a degree, I agree, but I would struggle to support a company that takes such a large cut and forces drivers to rely on tips to survive. I hate that business model. I’m not suggesting regulatory intervention, per se, but it does inform whether I use Uber/Lyft at all.
@Matthew … +1 . Also seems brazenly nasty behavior on the part of corporate parent .
As for Uber the black car owners are stuck with the loans they took out for the $100k Suburbans. A buddy of mine drives almost 80 hours a week just trying to stay above water.
For those who are driving regular cars (UberX) many leave the platform when they find the better paying job but Uber and Lyft will never run out of the next sucker who thinks he is gonna make bundles until he tries every strategy to maximize profit and realizes it is all futile.Turnover rate maybe high but they will keep getting new drivers and less quality service . When I drove for U we I would never imagine any driver touching his/her phone while driving a customer now you see drivers having a whole conversation on their phone while you are in their car.
Uber and Lyft entice drivers with some first month guarantees and some promotional pay and once you are onboard you will get poorer and poorer with a fast depreciating vehicle .
If you see my income statement you would think it was a developing county paycheck.
Waiters and waitresses?
Y’all wonder why we have SNAP housing assistance and other social programs for the disadvantaged? This is it….
Y’all wonder why employers don’t like hiring from LYFT/ Uber driver pool …. Independents schedule and callouts this is it……
So your paying a lot more than just that fare your also subsidizing health housing and food for some of these full time folk because they can’t earn enough and if they do…..
I hope they don’t declare bankruptcy like alot of drivers I’ve ran across have …. Yet continue to deive Uber and Lyft vehicle rentals since they are locked in to the ecosystem
I hear you – it’s a good point about drivers going on public assistance and thereby all taxpayers subsidizing every ride.
The prolemon I have with uber and lyft is its not actually a free market. They use things like uber pro, and quests to get people to accept as many rides as possible and keep a high acceptance rate so that they limit how much they have to bid to drivers to accept a ride, in addition they use AI to offer drivers likely to accept the cheapest fare to maximize their profits. I’ve done about 300 rides in Boston, one of the larger markets and I can tell you they manipulate drivers with incentives and provide no way for example for you to see your net take. I have calculated a rough cost per mile for expected maintenance, gas etc, and it seems reasonable to me that I should be able to input that into the app and see what they are offering me net of my expenses. They will not do this though because it might reveal the truth which is that net of expenses many drivers make minimum wage or less.
say you’re american without saying your american
When Uber first launched in Raleigh back around 2015-2016, I drove for them. At the time they paid drivers 80% of their fares (tipping was NOT yet built into the app and cash tips were few and far between because riders didn’t understand the economics). When an all out battle with Lyft began, fares plunged to as little as $0.85 per mile. So as you can imagine, fares were small … after my 80%, deducting gas, wear and tear and income tax … most rides were not really paying anything at all.
I’m sure a driver will tell me why I’m wrong, but that fare you see is only part of the equation. There are bonuses for taking on so many rides, there are occasional surges, and there are cash and in-app tips. She may have even intentionally told the app the direction she wanted to go in order to get near FLL where tips/surges are more likely.
That $13 she showed you was only one part of the equation.
I’d love a driver to explain why people drive for Uber/Lyft without complaining because nobody is making them do it and there are plenty of takers.
I feel like this is basically a rideshare-specific version of the question, “why would people voluntarily work for a non-living wage.” Usually, it’s because they think it’s the best alternative to not having a job at all; having a little money is better than having no money.
From there, depending on their political values, folks usually either draw the conclusion that job creators like Uber/Lyft should be celebrated for offering an alternative to unemployment, or that powerful companies like Uber/Lyft should help advance a society where the value of a full day’s work is at least enough to support a family.
You nailed it on the head. I did it for about 6 months for a couple of hours a week. On a per ride basis, you don’t make a ton of money, but there’s a ton of bonuses (picking up in the right area, driving 3 consecutive rides without logging off, etc.) that balance it out.
It’s still not great money, but the bonuses add up.
If I were a betting man, I would think it’s set up that way so that people don’t log on to just give one ride in a direction they already need to go. It incentivizes people to stay on the app longer (and, thus, have more drivers out and about).
Bonuses were plenty during Covid up to Fall ‘22. Nowadays you are better of not working at all. You will be lucky if you make $25/hr before expenses and depreciation. I quit after 5 years because I didn’t wanna kill my car and be worse off.
Where I live you see so many homeless drivers who sleep in their cars at airport waiting lot.
Hi Jerry,
Driver here. I drove in both platforms, using my own vehicle that I am still making payments on. Simply put, I would not accept the ride the driver accepted for the article’s author which is roughly the equivalent of Florida’s minimum wage before the drivers expenses. I only accept rides that are profitable and try to maintain above $30/hr equivalent fares so that I have money to pay my bills. (Check out the new legislation in MA ensuring drivers $32/hr.) I compromise my rates in rare situations like when I’m trying to get somewhere I need to be, but still I try not to. Prior to the new fare system that tells us the rate upfront along with pickup and dropoff cross streets (some markets still use the older model where rides are priced per mile/per minute and no trip information is provided upfront), I accepted 90% of the rides the system sent me. Now, I can only afford to accept < 15% of all rides I receive. The Miami/FLL driver may not be on the platform long because as soon as their car breaks they wont be able to afford the repairs, but I dont know their personal financial situation. The rideshare companies don't care about that either. Someone else will replace us the same day we stop. Quantity over quality is their business models, for now anyway, maybe until enough riders complain, but by then the reality is share prices will drop and it may be too late for them to recover from because all the quality drivers will have been pushed away. (I am interested to see if Uber's new ride quality efforts help improve rider experience and driver pay, estimated for Sept 24 in some markets). I would also like to mention how I used to be under a constant threat of deactivation for how few rides I accepted, or cancelled after I accepted them, by way of emailed warnings from Lyft and Uber. Those have mostly stopped, but still happen from time to time. I also work sub-par hours, when there are fewer drivers on the road, to help keep my pay up. I get a lot of "but you get to work when you want", to which I reply "not if I want to make a livable wage". Coming from 20 years of support and customer service jobs before, for me, I love the interactions I get to have with people now. Before, I dealt with people always at their worst, upset about things outside of my control. Now, I'm sympathizing with them about those things or, at a minimum, content listening to nice music while they are quiet and I get them where they need to go as safely as possible. Typically though, I'm laughing with them on their way to work or when they're finishing up for their day. I'm talking with them about life's blessings and their recent experiences: first dates, second dates, births, deaths, weddings, promotions, friend/family dramas, etc. I've actually cried with passengers in some dark moments they've been willing to open up and share. It is all that human connection, for me, that keeps me doing the gig. I am trying to find another full time corporate gig. I feel like the writing is on the wall; financially it may not be possible to do much longer if these tech companies keep finding ways of taking more $ from riders while paying drivers less. FWIW Last week was the first week, in my 3yrs of doing rideshare, I actually saw a few rides presented to me at my state's minimum wage hourly equivalent.
$32 an hour that will not help anyone as less people will use the service since they will be the ones paying it not Uber or L companies.. The state and federal government and their new laws so not consider what rally happens..think robots like the $25 an hour for fast food restaurants in Calif…
That’s shockingly low. The IRS mileage rate, meant to account for the depreciation and operating costs of the average car, is $0.67/mile. On your 25.7 mile trip, that’s $17.22 in estimated costs for driving her car that distance. I know the platforms promote the idea that drivers’ costs per mile are less because the assumption is that you already own your car, so insurance and age-related depreciation would be incurred even if you didn’t drive for the platform. The reality is that as several studies have shown, these platforms just monetize the capital value of your car and don’t really pay you anything for your time/labor.
Typical tech company … typical exploitation .
Good point.
How fast does Uber/Lyft make the funds from trips available to drivers? I am assuming some of the drivers do this because it brings forward cash flow they need and don’t really care about tapping the equity/capital in their cars when they are prioritizing getting in cash sooner than later to pay near term bills or pay down expensive debt.
Your driver was certainly not a legal resident. One driver told me she arrived from Cuba the week before. You also get what you pay for. I live in Miami, nearly none of the drivers speak English, not even able to count from 1 to 20 in English. They talk on their phones constantly, miss turns and get lost with GPS running. They take the pay because they have no usable skills in the US. Uber knows this and takes advantage of the situation.
I actually think you are mostly correct. I used four Ubers plus the Lyft and all seemed “fresh off the boat” and really did not know their way around.
We have tons of warehouse and logistics jobs where language skills aren’t a major factor and the level of literacy needed to work is on the level of literacy needed to drive a car.
Not sure language and being fresh off the boat is necessarily the issue with drivers seeming to get lost or not following the GPS directions or what I would do if driving myself. Seen much the same kind of problem in Stockholm with Uber and Bolt even when I can tell the drivers aren’t fresh off the boat and the issue is not language.
Since they are not considered employees Uber doesn’t use the E-verify system.
Does the car insurance policy cover all medical bills for the passengers regardless of how many years are needed to fully recover?
A buddy of mine is a Uber and DoorDash driver. What he makes based on milage and time of day is barley enough to cover wear and tear for a compact car. The big difference are the tips which very widely depending on the customer. He finds the wealthier the customer, the smaller the tip….go figure!!
He is wondering out loud if it’s worth it putting 41k miles on a 18 month old car.
I recall some studies that showed that people with lower incomes were more likely to give street beggars money — and probably a higher percentage of their income at that — than the wealthy.
I used to try to talk to some Romanian and Bulgarian beggars in Scandinavian countries, and they seemed to end up finding out that they did better with coins and notes in the cups when begging by stores in the “ghetto” neighborhoods than where I would typically be. And this was back before Sweden became as “cash-less” as it now is. Nowadays, those kind of beggars are much more rare for various reasons but also because it’s hard for them to get money unless they are enabled for bank card payments or the local quasi-equivalent of Venmo/Zelle with a local bank account and related electronic bank ID. So they are now out of luck as cash/coins become less and less common to be carried by shoppers.
I’ve heard it said driving for Uber or Lyft is basically just depreciating your car in exchange for cash — and in a lot of cases that’s not far off. I will also say, having looked into this a bit more, while a chunk of this is profit to the companies, there are also other expenses baked in, insurance for the driver being a notable one.
I will also say that if you follow this at all, many drivers will say the majority of their earnings come from a certain subset of high value rides — surge pricing is huge, premium rides also make far more money, certain times of day in certain places (night life in dense urban cores with bad public transit like San Francisco comes to mind), etc.
All that said, the reality is, Uber/Lyft aren’t terrible if you’re say a retiree wanting to make some extra bucks 10-20 hours a week, or a student in a similar situation, but doing them as a full time job is pretty brutal.
feel free to live 20 dollars tip, now he makes 33 dollars an hour!!
I mean what do you expect after decades of Reaganism, anti-unionism, anti-workerism, trickledown economic policies, and a refusal to increase the federal minimum wage? A massive company is going to pay people what they are worth or what they can get away with?
I think your point is valid. The economy doesn’t reward the actual value creators, it rewards those who have capital and thus power.
They’re not employees moron, they are contractors meaning minimum wage does not apply. I would agree Uber and Lyft treat them unfairly, but what does Reagan have to do with it? Clearly it is just corporate greed.
I’m aware they are contractors and agree that this is corporate greed. As with everything in our society and economy you have to look at the larger and historical context that led us to this point.
The minimum wage is an easy example as part of the larger effort to keep wages low and out of sync with the increases in productivity. These show up through many examples: minimum wage, anti-union laws, increased money in politics, refusal to add worker protections, tax reductions for the extremely wealthy and corporations, refusal to add maternity leave, etc.
Why is Reagan brought up? Because he championed so many of these exact policies and up until Trump was held by the conservative movement as the epitome of conservative values and policy. So many of his policies and ideas remain core to the right today.
@KB … Two points :
The tech companies are much newer than Reagan , and all the tech companies are the same : con jobs , absurdly high executive pay , democratic party political activism and cover-ups . Cannot blame Reagan for tech con jobs .
At the same time , Reagan had no business being against the United Farm Workers Union in California . Bobby Kennedy supported the UFW because he perceived them as hard workers who deserved a living wage . Reagan firing the air traffic controllers , without negotiating with them , was another anti-union move by Reagan .
The ‘they are contractors’ mantra is a fantasy construct made up by a bunch of lawyers. Do you know of many other contractors who have no say whatsoever on the fees that their clients are charged?
There’s case law from the UK (Aslam v Uber) and other jurisdictions which suggests that the contractor status won’t stand up to any real scrutiny. Of course, that’s unlikely to be an issue in a country where the immunity of elected officials extends to things like plotting insurrections.
in the longer run (decades), the more low-pay (even with gamification bonuses) 1099 gig workers who work for uber and the like, the more a society will have a significant proportion of population who are indigent. remember too, these are all pre-tax wages. uber isn’t making any payroll tax contribution for drivers. perhaps there are fewer low pay service workers at *$, McD, taco bell etc and more uber workers. but how does that net out?
those chickens will come home to roost.
subsidize (through representative democracy) and prefer (as a consumer) companies like this at your own peril…
@sam … Good points . Poor members of society will be more and more dependent on the freebees , and not on self-sufficiency .
This is apparent at any hospital emergency room , where the lower paid go for their free ordinary medical care , even if not hospital-related . Then , genuine insured cases needing actual hospital-care are not expeditiously admitted .
I recently took a 150 Uber and the driver told me he only got 80. Yikes.
The Uber CEO made 24 mil last year.
It’s interesting if they have no competition in the USA. Grab, Bolt, Didi, Cabify, Ola, Freenow are the similar services that I can think off the top of my head, I am sure there’s more out there. More than corporate greed, I think that the duopoly is the product of state meddling in favour of the local operators which presumably are quite adept at lobbying and financing politicians within their country.
“My fare was about $54.”
Wow, I need to move to your side of town.
$50-60 is normal for me.
Hi Klint as an Uber black driver in Orange County, I loved your article and views. We pay commercial insurance and drive expensive gas guzzling SUVs
My question to you is what is the solution?! Keep in mind cause of the economy’s dire situation consumers are not using uber black as often. I am a veteran 5 star driver. I have much more insight about this including how uber app is being hacked by asians to steal rides.
I’m curious to hear more about the app being hacked.
The solution is to get more apps competing.
Lot of detail here about their driver pay model.
https://locusmag.com/2024/05/cory-doctorow-no-one-is-the-enshittifier-of-their-own-story/
“Uber’s labor-pricing algorithm makes a continuous stream of judgments as to how much a driver should be offered to do a given job, based on how often that driver turned down other jobs they’d been offered.
If these higher payouts lure drivers to become less discriminating, the algorithm starts to titrate their wages down, toggling the price per mile up and down in minute increments based on the previous offer’s outcome, like a fisher playing the reel in and out as their prey gradually tires. Gradually, Uber drivers are tricked into giving up the side hustles that let them be so selective about their rides, then, as they become more and more dependent on the platform, their wages are drained away to the bare subsistence minimum.”
So disheartening that driving for Uber not only doesn’t approach a living wage, it’s often a lot less than you’d get working fast food. The fare distribution was a lot more equitable until a few years back when the company began a series of moves that continually decreased the income for drivers. Half a dozen years ago an Uber driver could actually make out decently. Corporate greed took that away.
Uber and Lyft pay certain government fees as well as the expensive commercial insurance requirements required by law on behalf of drivers. This makes it appear drivers are being railroaded. Lyft’s rake take is 30% whereas Ubers varies but usually around 25%. Where drivers are being railroaded, especially with Uber Eats, is the customer isn’t being charged appropriately so the drivers can be sustainable. If they did so then their services would only exist in rich areas. So Uber and Lyft choose to be everywhere, even where taxis can’t exist on what little the customers can afford to pay. In rich counties the Uber fare rates (and the pay) is high, drivers can exist on the income. In poor counties the opposite.
Ultimately, how long does it take for drivers to realize they are losing money, or is the issue that they are making money, just not enough to surive?
Without a firm grasp of their costs of doing business with a four wheeled vehicle, if they do manage to make some money by contributing a lot of time and effort, they often succumb to accidents or mechanical breakdowns that either take them out of the game or worse fall into the trap of renting a vehicle to continue while living in it.
Every mile placed on a vehicle, regardless of purpose (deadhead miles or paid) costs about $.28-.35 cents an odometer mile in business costs.
Now factor in a higher accident potential due to the 7-8x higher driving rate than a typical 12,000 miles a year normal joe. This translates into a higher insurance premium on a drivers personal policy. Also a typical car or minivan can usually get 300,000 miles in it’s lifetime (with care) before suffering a catastrophic failure. Means a driver doing this needs to save as much money as possible to have vehicle replacement (and accident downtime recovery funds) in the bank as soon as possible. Since loaners don’t count gig work as a reliable income source, so cash is king. We are looking at saving .40 cents per odometer mile so that in 100,000 miles, (about a year and a half of driving full-time, 7 hours a day) the driver has sufficient funds to buy another vehicle, pay for treatment and living expenses until they can restore their income stream.
Then there is a matter of pay for the driver, which .25+ cents an odometer mile is barely enough.
So altogether that adds up to $1+ per odometer mile travelled on the vehicle. A old trick I’ve learned from my taxi days, make more on the meters + tips than odometer miles traveled that day.
It’s simple formula and easy to follow, however these gig companies don’t adhere to any sustainable formula for drivers. Their goal is to own both the low end and the high end of the market at the drivers expense.
You ask how long it will take for drivers to realize this? Some right away and quit because they have better options at their disposal. Some are retired and do it for just to have something to do and meet people. Others keep going because they are here illegally and can’t hold or get a normal job and trying to earn enough until they can. Some, like myself, was making great money as it appeared initially, until after the end of the year realized I was committing 110 hours a week for only a mere $15,000 in taxable income.
This sort of gig work is not to be considered as a reliable income source, it’s just a way to turn vehicle equity into cash. To make a few bucks here and there as the effort and opportunity presents itself. Why Uber and Lyft use heat zones on the driver app (while the app is offline) to show drivers demand is high in their area and to get them to go online if available.
In order to operate these gig companies as a driver sustainable operation, pretty much like how a taxi company operates (less they lose drivers) driver caps and shifts are required. With these gig companies they depend upon volume of volunteers (and newbies) basically.
Any experienced professional driver is going to be driving a truck, a bus or medical transport or something that pays them a steady wage for their time regardless if sitting in the shop or hauling.
If these gig companies are faced with mandatory employees or too high of a per mile or per minute rates for drivers, they will simply pull out of that market as being unsustainable for them.
The only gig company making a profit is Uber, only because they were first and well funded initially and went worldwide, so they have scale working in their factor.
But eventually these gig companies will run out of desperate people and newbies, or like many businesses before them, just wear themselves out in the public mindset.
Why didnt u ask her, Mr. nosey parker?
In Singapore, these are the comm. rates & the driver takes the rest:
1. Grab 25%~28%
2. Gojek 20%
3. TADA 10%
Honestly, are you so out of touch that you don’t know how Uber and lyft rip off their drivers? This has been known for a while.
I actually hadn’t paid it so much mind and had naively assumed that on average they would get paid the fare + tip with maybe up to 10-15% being taken from the fare as a dispatch service fee of sort.
Some of my more right-wing acquaintances in Sweden had been berating me for quite some time for using Uber in Scandinavia and saying it undercut wages — that in a country with no statutory minimum wage. But given how I already felt that Uber fleeces customers and restaurants with Uber Eats, shame on me for not assuming that the greed would be costing the drivers too. But will I change my use of Uber and the like? Not likely since they provide me with a firm idea in advance about what my costs will be for the trip and also some insight into how long the wait time and journey will be. That too all while reducing the chances of me being scammed by drivers.
@747always: Honestly, does every post have to be a petty attack from you just because you feel I insulted Bharat almost a year ago?
Unfortunately, it is the norm. I paid $125 for an Uber Black at FLL and the driver asked me what Uber was charging. He scoffed and said he would see $40 from that.
With this insulting fare sharing arrangements of Lyft and Uber, they are begging for regulations from state and local governments. or even better: a Lyft/Uber drivers union.
I am an Uber/Lyft driver in the Boston/Rhode Island area. I have a “day job” so I am only a part time/weekend driver.
Let me start off by saying that this is the 2nd highest area in terms of fares – only California being more expensive I believe. There were also laws recently passed in Massachusetts that require the rideshare companies to pay a minimum during certain non-fare activities.
Uber and Lyft typically pay about 70% of the charged fare to drivers here – I often ask my passengers what they are paying – there are times, such as when I have to go for a “long pick up” where I am actually getting paid MORE than what the passenger paid – but I also typically work in Southwestern Rhode Island which is more rural and longer distances to rides.
That being said – about 60% of Uber passengers tip and probably less than 20% of Lyft passengers.
I think if you are taking a short ride, not tipping is fine.
If your ride is over 30 minutes, you really should tip.
If your ride is going somewhere that is going to be difficult for the driver to pick up another ride (for example, out of state/metro area) you should tip.
If your ride is going somewhere difficult to get to – for example, a heavy traffic down town area or conversely somewhere where the driver has to go down dirt or gravel roads, you absolutely should tip.
Tipping in the app is fine – some of us prefer that over cash – Uber will remind you to tip and make it easy for you to tip several days after the fact. Lyft does not so you will need to tip immediately when the ride ends.
Now – if your driver does something bad/stupid, don’t bother to tip.
The other thing a passenger should know – don’t give out 4 star ratings. As drivers we are penalized if we are given less than 5 stars and we are assigned rides based on our rating average. Unless there was something legitimately wrong with the ride, give a 5 star rating.
Great perspective. Thanks for sharing!
+1
As a former Uber driver I can tell you it’s much worse than you think, on top of the low pay they also nickel and dime the drivers and skim off a dollar here a dollar there knowing the drivers won’t bother.
As to why the drivers do it, it’s because they are desperate and need money to pay bills and don’t know how to find another job, that’s why you have mostly non English speaking drivers.
Also Uber sucks in drivers with promotions and a lot of drivers don’t know how to calculate their expenses and think they make money while they lose money and degrade their vehicles.
As much as I despise taxis I will never give my money to Uber and if I ever order an Uber I always offer to cancel the ride and pay cash off the app.
Can you share how to do the “order an Uber ….. offer to cancel the ride and pay cash off the app” without getting charged for the ride by Uber? I thought that if I cancelled a ride after a driver is dispatched that I am likely to get charged for at least part of the fare for doing that.
Basically how it’s done is initially a customer is either new to the area or their current pirate driver wasn’t available, so they throw their trip out to whomever Uber gives them. Once they meet and greet the driver if they like them then they collude to take future trips off the app.
Another way is to indeed cancel the trip when the driver arrives however Uber has current and historical location data gathered by your smartphones operating system to compare the two. So that combined with frequency of occurrence sends a red flag and the driver app will warn the driver, then deactivate them if the behavior continues.
Riders are often more concerned about being banned from Uber than drivers as it has become so big and essential that they are afraid of being stranded, denied service.
For the driver perials exist as well being a pirate taxi, no insurance policy is in effect at all, not even ones personal policy. This if course leaves the driver open to being sued. But like in my post above, a LOT of illegal aliens are doing Uber and they are often working under an assumed identity anyway.
Many newbie drivers sign up for Uber only to be immediately deactivated because some other illegal driver stole their identity.
There is a article on Wired about Priscilla The Queen of the Rideshare Mafia, a very interesting read.
If the driver cancels you aren’t charged a fee.
That’s like asking why would someone take a minimum wage job working in fast food (and which typically does not include receiving tips). It’s low hanging fruit that mostly anyone can qualify for.
I used to be a full-time driver in Omaha Nebraska about a year ago it was extremely profitable before their fourth quarter started last year when that started they gashed the payouts in half and slowly but steadily over this year they’ve gotten worse and worse.
I used to never turn Lyft on over Uber if I was just going to go out and drive Uber always paid better….but literally as we stand here in August of 2024 I turn Lyft on over Uber every time which is absolutely astonishing
Uber’s basically made it so bad that I don’t even turn it on anymore it’s absolutely pathetic the pays is horrendous…the customer service is even worse. Dara wants profits even if we suffer he’s said that publicly. Such a shame use to be such an enjoyable gig. Now it’s unbearable.