I’ve made rides from as short as 4 blocks to about 75 miles. The money depends upon the distance, the time, and if there is a surge rate in effect. Saturday had the highest surge rate I’ve ever seen – 5.9. A ride that would normally cost $5 cost $30.
When my son and I were in Nashville, TN, we used Uber and were picked up by a 4-door truck. We were a bit surprised, and it took us a minute or two to realize the truck was an Uber vehicle, but once we figured it out it was all good.
There are online services for this: GoShare, BuddyTruk, Pikkup.
But perhaps without the wear and tear on your car from driving for Uber, you wouldn’t need a new car that often. What percentage of the miles on your car are from Uber?
I decided I liked … updating … my car before starting Uber. I traded in a 2013 for my 2016 before even thinking about Uber.
But Ubering is certainly going to add way more miles than I would otherwise drive. Nearly 75% of my miles are Uber miles. I’m just over 15,000 in 6 months. On the other hand, since I’m Ubering, I’m driving a lot fewer miles recreationally.
All in all, I expect this gig to double my annual driving.
This is my big question with being an Uber driver - once you boil down all of the gross, deductions, expenses (hard and soft), and get to a real effective hourly rate, does it pay?
I say this looking back at the experience of my mother, who was the queen of Avon Ladies. Once you did all of the math, she was basically making less than minimum wage per hour. Yes, she was independent, which is worth much, but she could have made more money working at McDonald’s.
(Oh, and I catch an Uber in Madison at least once a week, maybe I’ll run into you some day…)
Maybe you already have run into me. 
I dunno – how do you calculate whether it’s worth it, especially when it’s a second job and all your basics are covered by the first one? You can look at the details I’ve already posted and get a rough idea.
How much does the degree of surge affect your decision to drive?
Not much at all. Generally if there’s a big surge passengers will wait until it goes away. I think it’s mostly counterproductive.
It might be covered by your insurance. There are people that will drive to IKEA for you and pick up your order and I assume they’re insured.
I just bought a new car. I don’t need money because of the car, since I bought it with some money I inherited, but I am looking to add about $400 to the household income, and I need something with extremely flexible hours. My concern is that my car is a subcompact-- very small. It’s a Chevy Spark. When the passenger seat is pushed up all the way, the single passenger behind it actually has quite a lot of leg room, and it has a surprising amount of headroom; also, I have very short legs, so I drive with the driver’s seat up pretty far. Someone behind me who was 5’10 or shorter would probably be OK. But it does not have a lot of luggage room. Suitcases could go in the front seat, if I had a couple going to or coming from the airport, with carry-ons plus luggage to check, but I could not manage three people with luggage.
Two very tall people might possibly be uncomfortable, I can’t really say.
The car is a four-door, and it is a 2016, so in that, it conforms. It also gets really good gas mileage, if the driver’s mileage is figured into the fee at all. Also, the back seats can be laid down, so if I had one person who wanted to pick up something bulky, I could probably fit it in the cargo space, and have the passenger in the front.
Another thing I can offer is that I am not allergic to animals, and am happy to have pets in the car.
Is there a minimum size my car does not meet?
You have to be able to carry 4 passengers, so you need 3 seatbelts in the back. If you have that, your good to go.
It’s great you enjoy your job but I hope you have a long term plan. Uber has made no secret that eventually it wants autonomous vehicles, which would put you out of a job. Doesn’t it bother you working for a company that has publicly declared it’s working to eliminate your job entirely?
My guesstimate is that you’ve got 10 years left as an Uber driver at absolute max, probably less than that.
For anyone wanting to get as much as they can from their taxi driving career, I really enjoyed - Dharma Road: A Short Cab Ride to Self Discovery.
And no other book about zen will teach you as much about driving a cab.
Everybody wants autonomous vehicles. They also want a pot full of gold and a super-model girlfriend.
You say 10 years, but my guestimate is closer to 50 years…
Has any autonomous car yet driven anywhere on a rainy day? Or on 2 inches of snow? Or in fog?.
[yeah,it’s off topic, and we’ve had lots of threads on this, so I’ll go home now… Apologies]
Are there any other reasons that drivers would hate Uber besides the difficulty of making a full-time living? Or is that it? The part-time cash sounds good enough that I would imagine trying it full-time, someone could make a pretty good go of it, but it sounds like that’s not so.
Rain:
Snow:
Fog: Lidar can see through fog much better than humans can
Sure we can quibble about the exact timing but that doesn’t change my point. Any Uber driver needs to be aware that there is a limited time that this will be a viable job so I was asking what Boyo Jim’s thoughts are on that and what his future plans are?
You shouldn’t assume.
While there are responsible people treating it as an actual business like the OP there are also plenty of folks trying to do these things on the cheap with inadequate or lacking insurance.
There are insured, competent drivers of clean, late model cars.
And they make a living doing so.
They’re called “Taxi” drivers.
Uber is screwing both passenger (Peak Rates, anyone?) and driver - no insurance, no tax withholding, no Social Security payments.
How do you suppose they will treat everyone once they destroy the last of the taxis?
After Uber becomes the standard, others will copy it. After all, Uber is just a website…It isn’t an airline.
And , like when booking airlines, most people won’t even deal with Uber directly. They’ll go to sites like Priceline or Travelocity and search for the best deal on a driver tonight.