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The only way to do Uber
Doing anything Uber is 99% chance of failure.
Failure meaning your going to lose money in the end.
It’s best you don’t get started, however if you going to do it there are ways to lose LESS money than you would do otherwise.
First off do not, despite what Uber and the others tell you, that your going to make great earnings. This is a lie. The truth is those earnings don’t count costs and those eat up almost everything you make.
So to make anything on Uber you have to realize the different services offered based upon what type of vehicle you have.
Bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, e-bikes etc are great for deliveries in small congested areas where travel time and distance is minor. Once you go too far or require a four wheel vehicle, your costs skyrocket and deliveries just don’t pay/tip enough.
Deliveries are the absolute lowest per mile pay Uber has to offer. It’s why many drivers sign up just long enough to eat as much food as possible and disappear. 😆
Next comes four wheeled vehicles that can carry four people. Uber X etc. Lots of demand because it’s cheap for customers, your going to lose because you spend half on gas. So your just cashing out a little vehicle equity for busting your tail for 12 hours straight. Not worth it. Not sustainable. Usually, perhaps with the right third party software cherry picking it might be possible.
Next comes Uber XL, it can carry 6 people with luggage. Rarely used but more frequent at hotel areas and airports. Unfortunately the app, unless a customer makes a reservation, works via proximity mainly so that means you’ll have to sit and wait, hope you get lucky. You and about a few dozen other drivers too.
Uber Black the costs of entry buying in with ones own commercial insurance is quite high, then having a recent vehicle. Those drivers may sit all day and may get one trip. But because there are no driver caps, means it’s a loss keeping up with those sort of costs with little business. Those drivers are mainly interested in developing their own clientele, so using Uber as advertising then taking them personally after that. Something they can do because they carry their own commercial insurance and other Uber categories use commercial insurance on the trip only. Why you shouldn’t take customers for cash unless your doing Uber Black.
Now in some niche markets and where the state has gotten involved in setting driver pay rates, it might be possible to eek out an existence. But the costs to your health and well-being will quickly put and end to that.
There is some ways to make money on Uber. One of them is just to have the app online while your home and resting, playing the long game. Don’t go looking for trips or bother wasting your time sitting in a parking lot someplace being eyeballed by the cops.
You won’t make a whole lot of money, but at least your keeping your costs under control and not running the vehicle air conditioner or heater. Sitting around in a vehicle all day will drive you absolutely nuts eventually, I do not advise it. It’s bad for your health too.
This stay at home method works however you need to earn $1+ per odometer mile in order to be profitable after costs, taxes, insurance, phones and saving for a replacement vehicle. Not many Uber options pay $2 per trip mile necessary to pay for your deadheading home empty which is usually the case.
Then too many trips at low pay, even at a $1+ per odometer mile won’t make you anything neither. I calculate that a driver needs to earn $250 a day in 12 hours of driving, 7 days a week in order to live on the income and be sustainable.
Another way you may make money is holding off going out for something and wait for a ping that could take you close or even to the same destination. Then you could just run the meter with the customer and take them back while you shop also.
Or find out how long they will be and then do what you have to do (end the first trip) and go do what you need to do and hopefully pick up their ping in the parking lot to take them back.
One more way to possibly make money is taken someone along a current trip your already on. However Uber has restricted this ability to only the very highest Uber Pro status which requires doing tons of unprofitable trips to get there. It’s called a Directional Filter and to tell you the truth, it doesn’t work most of the time, so it’s just another tease by Uber to get you to work harder for little in return compensation.
These last two methods are basically current trip cost reductions, so instead of paying .75 cents a mile in vehicle costs and sustainability your now reduced that to say .25 cents a mile if being paid .50 cents a mile by Uber.
But oh lordy Uber doesn’t want you to be such a infrequent driver, they will bombard your inboxes with all sorts of crap to try to keep your attention focused on them and fulfilling their customers needs for cheap unsustainable transportation, basically looking to milk suckers as long as possible.
It’s so bad it’s just best not to get involved if you need money, find a real job instead.
So these methods are about the only way to possibly make any money doing Uber. You try to be profitable and those trips are so infrequent that you might get one all day. 😞
Although many (including myself) have touted high earnings, it’s the take home profit that really counts and what Uber etc., want to hide from newbie drivers.
Good luck 😆
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2 Replies
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A lot of truth here.
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Works great for me. I can get in my car at any hour of the day, and make at least a quick $35. $32 after accounting for fuel, maintainance, and depreciation. Literally, any hour. Not a bad way to waste some time and listen to a podcast or two. Maybe some people need to think more about what their market will support. Can’t make a living chopping fire wood in Key West. Seems like the problem is that not everyone knows to evaluate economic opportunity. If I was in weak market and needed rideshare to support me and my family, I would just drive somewhere where it would do that. If that meant a month or two in a roach motel grinding out 16 hour days until I could afford a house in my new city, that’s what I would do. Also, how are you calculating $0.75 per mile cost? A semi truck is about $2.00 per mile, while getting 6 mpg and needing $6000 worth of tires.
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