We’ve had a few threads recently about Uber & Lyft, but few of the posts seem to be about being a driver. Anyone here have that kind of experience?
What percentage of the passenger fee is remitted to the driver? Does it work out to be a reasonable way to make some extra cash, or is it just a thinly-disguised way to pay minimum wages to a sucker who has to pay for his car?
A related question…Uber seems to have the major US cities covered. What happens in the small towns? Is there any way to find out what kind of coverage exists in remote areas? In other words, if I wanted to take an Uber ride for 10 rural miles, would I be paying a deadhead fee for some driver from far away? Conversely, if I wanted to be a driver in a remote area, would I pretty much have a de facto monopoly and be well paid?
An idiot I’m familiar with was an Uber driver. In order to qualify for higher pay rates, he had to rent a black SUV (not from the Uber people). So, the going rate in Sacramento, CA for a rented black SUV was $650.00 a week. I suppose if you already have a new ‘approved’ vehicle, you can make money driving people around. I wonder how the insurance is handled.
Ah, he was an idiot anyway, with a long history of making stupid decisions in order to make money quickly.
Well Musicat there has been quite an Uber to-do in our mid-sized city (180,000). The city wants Uber to adhere to the same codes and license requirements that the taxi companies follow, and Uber refuses. The city fines, and sues, and Uber says go right ahead. I get the impression that (in this city anyway) Uber is primarily used to drive drunks home from bars. That’s a good thing if it prevents drunks from driving, but I’m not particularly interested in driving drunks around. Though for the right price…
According to Uber users, they wait an hour or more for a cab but Uber drivers are there lickety-split.
I was thinking of a town even smaller, like 5% of your population. I think we have one taxi company, and when he goes to bed or to a Packers game, then there are none. There are some ride sharing vans for seniors or medical trips, but you have to make reservations days in advance and I don’t know the cost.
So either there is no market here, or it’s ripe for exploitation. Hard for me to tell.
Until the most recent Uber thread, I had never even heard of it. Where I live, if I call a cab, it’s here within 15 minutes, and costs $3.00 to anywhere within the city limits. I can’t imagine an Uber driver would make any money here.
Uber appears to only be in certain cities, you can see which ones here. You could sign up to be a driver and see what it says when you chose a city that’s not on their list.
I’m guessing that if you’re not in a designated Uber city, you can’t sign up to be a driver. If you are the sole Uber driver in your city, there would be times that someone might want a driver and you can’t or won’t do it, and their request would be unfulfilled. That’s not how Uber would want things to go.
I could see maybe in the future Uber partnering up with Lyft or some cab companies or something as things change so smaller towns get coverage too, but I don’t think there’s anything like that now.
Even in the cities they cover, they don’t cover the entire metro area. For example, in San Francisco, which they cover better than just about anywhere else, they finally started covering Fremont not too long ago, and they still don’t cover Livermore or Pleasanton.
Yeah, I saw that list, but it only has a few dozen US cities, none of less than 60K population that I noticed. Yet when I asked for an estimate of the cost to go from point A to B, 50 miles outside of the nearest city, I got a map and a dollar amount. It wasn’t outrageous, but I can’t see the driver making any money from it if he had a 50 mile * 2 deadhead.
So just because you are not in that city list doesn’t mean you can’t get a cab. it might mean the cost was prohibitive to a customer and the gain insufficient to the driver, but that’s what I’m trying to find out.
I’m curious about that. What if you need a lift from a covered area, to a non-covered area? Will they handle that?
Dunno if Phoenix, Arizona is an Uber city but I could’ve used a cab alternative there a few years back. I had to take a cab to an emergency room (husband stayed at the hotel with the kids, and I couldn’t drive), and when I was done there I waited well over an hour for a cab (about 1 AM).
The Uber app will show you what cars are nearby whatever location you choose.
Typically small towns would not have any coverage. Most people in rural and suburban areas have their own cars and there simply wouldn’t be enough business to make it profitable.