I am a DC uberX driver since 2013 and have SEEN IT ALL...so please, AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how much do you earn driving, for how many hours?

I shoot for 20 hours a week or $500, whichever comes first. 9 times out of 10, I hit the $500 first.

OP, are you still driving?

How much did you make from uber annually last year, and were you still driving the same amount of hours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just put my hand up and a taxi is there. I've never used Uber. Tell me why I should?

#1 The ride comes to you exactly where you want it. No more standing out in the heat, rain, or snow trying to hail a cab. Wait instead in your comfy office and you'll receive a notification when your driver pulls up.
#2 It's cheaper. UberX is half the price of a DC cab. UberX is equal to DC cab rates at a surge of 2.1x.
#3 Efficiency. The driver knows where he/she is going because you've input your destination and will use GPS to get there. No more giving turn-by-turn directions to your cabbie.
#4 Cashless and paperless. No more hearing "cash-only" or "credit card machine is broken" from cabbies.
#5 Safer. The ride is tracked from end-to-end and you can even a let family member or friend follow along your route. You are on your own with a cabbie.
#6 If you leave something in an uber, you'll likely get it back. Leave something in a taxi? Kiss it goodbye.
#7 No more "going the scenic route" in the cabbie's favor. If you don't think your uberX driver took a good route, complain to uber thru the app and you'll get a credit for the difference.
#8 Works in 400+ cities worldwide. Great if you're a business traveller or on vacation. Getting a rental car, flagging down a taxi, or even owning a car is becoming a thing of the past.

Lastly, great cabbies also drive uberX and some have even became full-time uberX drivers, which leaves the worst cabbies still driving taxis.

Uber is so wildly successful solely because people have finally had enough of bad behavior from taxicab drivers & their monopoly (Washington Flyer anyone??!?!??) over the past 30 years. Removing the anonymity between a driver and rider solves 99% of problems that could ever arise.

You forgot no racial profiling. I couldn't get a cab in bad weather for the life of me. But during good weather when business was slow, cabs would stop infront of me asking if I needed a ride.

[Anonymous]

OP here, back again!

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible to get a Uberx with my bike?

Sure, but get an uberXL so it’ll fit without a worry. A bike will ding up the interior of the typical uberX Camry (or smaller).

Anonymous wrote:OP, what is your opinion on the Ride Pass and how do people get chosen for it each month?

It’s a gimmick and uber wouldn’t offer the Ride Pass if they didn’t think they’d make money off it. It was initially offered to casual riders to encourage them to use uber more and ditch their car, then was offered to anyone who wanted to buy it until the weekly allotment sold out, and currently not offered at all in DC (so they were probably losing money on it).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how much do you earn driving, for how many hours?

I shoot for 20 hours a week or $500, whichever comes first. 9 times out of 10, I hit the $500 first.

OP, are you still driving?

How much did you make from uber annually last year, and were you still driving the same amount of hours?

Still driving but less nowadays, and still hustling the easy money (but not as easy as it once was).
In 2018, I netted $18k by driving 16,500 deductable miles on 1,942 trips over about 800 hours on the road. That net is after car expenses and taxes...gross was ~$26k. I made a $2,700 SEP-IRA contribution out of that $18k and lived off the remainder. I banked my entire W-2 paycheck.
Last week’s gross:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, back again!

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible to get a Uberx with my bike?

Sure, but get an uberXL so it’ll fit without a worry. A bike will ding up the interior of the typical uberX Camry (or smaller).

Anonymous wrote:OP, what is your opinion on the Ride Pass and how do people get chosen for it each month?

It’s a gimmick and uber wouldn’t offer the Ride Pass if they didn’t think they’d make money off it. It was initially offered to casual riders to encourage them to use uber more and ditch their car, then was offered to anyone who wanted to buy it until the weekly allotment sold out, and currently not offered at all in DC (so they were probably losing money on it).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how much do you earn driving, for how many hours?

I shoot for 20 hours a week or $500, whichever comes first. 9 times out of 10, I hit the $500 first.

OP, are you still driving?

How much did you make from uber annually last year, and were you still driving the same amount of hours?

Still driving but less nowadays, and still hustling the easy money (but not as easy as it once was).
In 2018, I netted $18k by driving 16,500 deductable miles on 1,942 trips over about 800 hours on the road. That net is after car expenses and taxes...gross was ~$26k. I made a $2,700 SEP-IRA contribution out of that $18k and lived off the remainder. I banked my entire W-2 paycheck.

Last week’s gross:

How much are your housing costs?!?! That's a crazy budget. Do you have kids or a spouse?

[Anonymous]

Welcome back, OP! We missed you.

I was wondering, why do ride fees keep getting higher and why are both riders and drivers hit by the same fees, effectively allowing Uber to double dip without consequence?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
How much are your housing costs?!?! That's a crazy budget. Do you have kids or a spouse?

Prior to 2018 I rented a walk-out basement in Fairfax County for $600/month. That left about $1,200/month to take care of all other expenses. Living cheap here is easy if you hustle a bit and resist all the temptations. And being creative about having fun doesn’t hurt.

Today, my housing costs are $0 as I’m now happily married and ended up in upper NW. No kids yet. My wife covers the mortgage, all the household expenses, and whatever else she wants to buy. We bank the entire paycheck from my day job. I cover my few personal expenses with the uber earnings, and then we blow whatever’s left on fun stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome back, OP! We missed you.
I was wondering, why do ride fees keep getting higher and why are both riders and drivers hit by the same fees, effectively allowing Uber to double dip without consequence?

Simply put, because it’s an easy way for them to make money. Scrape a little here, skim a little there, and then pretty soon you’re taking about real money. Uber’s a public company now and they have to (eventually) turn a profit if they plan on existing in the future. Meanwhile, the average driver gets worse, car quality declines, and riders pay more for less. At the same time, capable drivers who know what they’re doing actively root for uber & lyft to bankrupt and go out of business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome back, OP! We missed you.
I was wondering, why do ride fees keep getting higher and why are both riders and drivers hit by the same fees, effectively allowing Uber to double dip without consequence?

Simply put, because it’s an easy way for them to make money. Scrape a little here, skim a little there, and then pretty soon you’re taking about real money. Uber’s a public company now and they have to (eventually) turn a profit if they plan on existing in the future. Meanwhile, the average driver gets worse, car quality declines, and riders pay more for less. At the same time, capable drivers who know what they’re doing actively root for uber & lyft to bankrupt and go out of business.

I knew it! I thought I was going crazy. Cars are disgusting now.

So where does that leave the good drivers? Are they still on Uber/Lyft or are they moving to other platforms like Via (though Via is a mess, IME)? Or are they back to being private drivers through their own companies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Welcome back, OP! We missed you.
I was wondering, why do ride fees keep getting higher and why are both riders and drivers hit by the same fees, effectively allowing Uber to double dip without consequence?

Simply put, because it’s an easy way for them to make money. Scrape a little here, skim a little there, and then pretty soon you’re taking about real money. Uber’s a public company now and they have to (eventually) turn a profit if they plan on existing in the future. Meanwhile, the average driver gets worse, car quality declines, and riders pay more for less. At the same time, capable drivers who know what they’re doing actively root for uber & lyft to bankrupt and go out of business.

I knew it! I thought I was going crazy. Cars are disgusting now.

So where does that leave the good drivers? Are they still on Uber/Lyft or are they moving to other platforms like Via (though Via is a mess, IME)? Or are they back to being private drivers through their own companies?

Via is dead. Only drivers banned/fired from uber & lyft willingly drive for Via. The majority of good drivers left are driving a dozen or so hours every week during the highest demand times, making their easy $4-500, and then going to their 9-5 day job or other hustle to make real DC money. Before uber came along, every good driver was formerly bartending, waiting tables, working retail, or a hotel front desk, i.e. semi-flexible customer service jobs (along with a tiny percentage that were formerly “good” taxicab drivers). The decent drivers putting in those full-time 50-70 hour workweeks are just scraping by to get from one week to the next, because the more you drive uber in a week the less you make per hour. Uber wants only full-time drivers so that the supply is always there (an army of “ants”), but it’s only profitable to cherry-pick the most profitable hours part-time.

Private for-hire car services have been decimated and almost all of the survivors lease out their Cadillacs and Town Cars to be used on uberBLACK.

[Anonymous]

Welcome back, OP! Congrats on the marriage.

[Anonymous]

So I still can’t request or search for my favorite Uber drivers by name?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome back, OP! Congrats on the marriage.

+1 Glad you're back and happy to hear you're married!

[Anonymous]

OP, how did you and your wife meet? How are you liking living in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I still can’t request or search for my favorite Uber drivers by name?

Nope. When you need a ride from your favorite driver, he or she will most likely either be 10+ miles away or asleep. The service is meant to be quick and efficient. Most of my uber pick-ups have a 2 minute ETA or less because I camp out downtown where it’s most dense. I usually decline anything with a pick-up time of longer than 5 mins, because time/miles spent driving to pick up the passenger are unpaid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I still can’t request or search for my favorite Uber drivers by name?

Nope. When you need a ride from your favorite driver, he or she will most likely either be 10+ miles away or asleep. The service is meant to be quick and efficient. Most of my uber pick-ups have a 2 minute ETA or less because I camp out downtown where it’s most dense. I usually decline anything with a pick-up time of longer than 5 mins, because time/miles spent driving to pick up the passenger are unpaid.

Do you make more on the single riders or on the group rides?