Thinking of drving for Uber, Lyft or GrubHub?

[ray1970]

Yeah, I don?t think these services were ever intended to be full time jobs. I think the spirit of the service was to allow people who likely already had real jobs to supplement their income but giving rides in their spare time.

[Not_A_Llama]

Yeah, I don?t think these services were ever intended to be full time jobs. I think the spirit of the service was to allow people who likely already had real jobs to supplement their income but giving rides in their spare time.

Sorta disagree - if you used uber in the early days, it was *only* for limo service guys that had dead time between fares. It was basically Uber Black/ Uber XL all the time. You'd pay a touch more than you would for a taxi, but get limo service. Great for when I was going to the airport on the company dime, or sending home a drunk client. Cold water bottles were key.

Today, if I'm getting a ride during the day, most of the uber drivers I get are ex-cab drivers who do uber fulltime as a job. At night, entertaining clients, it's a grabbag.

The folks I *really* feel bad for are the amazon flex drivers. Especially with the traffic we have around town now.

[Martinjmpr]

Sorta disagree - if you used uber in the early days, it was *only* for limo service guys that had dead time between fares. It was basically Uber Black/ Uber XL all the time. You'd pay a touch more than you would for a taxi, but get limo service. Great for when I was going to the airport on the company dime, or sending home a drunk client. Cold water bottles were key.

OK, that makes perfect sense since, in that circumstance, the costs of fuel and depreciation are already factored in and Uber just becomes another "client."

Today, if I'm getting a ride during the day, most of the uber drivers I get are ex-cab drivers who do uber fulltime as a job. At night, entertaining clients, it's a grabbag.

So do Uber and Lyft pay MORE than what an "average" taxi driver would make if he was working for a taxi company? You would think they would have to in order to account for the additional costs that an Uber/Lyft driver has to absorb (whereas if he was driving for the Checker Cab co., the company would own the vehicle and pay for fuel, maintenance, depreciation, etc. which would result in lower net wages for the employee.)

Also how does insurance work? I know Uber/Lyft cover the driver's liability (they'd pretty much have to) but what about collision/comprehensive? If you get into a wreck while Ubering does Uber cover the cost of repairs?

[Not_A_Llama]

Traditionally, most taxi drivers rented their cars from the company. It was a pretty high hurdle to meet, and things were pretty dire for a long time. In other cities, there's a medallion system that's even more onerous. The situation was bad enough here to catalyze the east Africans into starting their own companies, which is why Metro and Yellow are pretty hard to see around town these days.

Uber takes are of everything but the deductible while you're on their clock: https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/insurance/

[Irving]

Cab companies are notorious for being shitty with respect to shoving all of vehicle maintenance and ownership costs onto the drivers, so can drivers aren't making any money either.

The real issue with livery (driving around people) is the elevated risk of injury of the passengers. I'm surprised the GrubHub lady's insurance didn't pay her claim since she was just driving around food, compared to people.

Since liability and comp/collision are separate, if the parent company pays anything, it's likely just liability at whatever the minimum is required by the state and/or PUC.

[CHA-LEE]

I have taken Uber a few times and its interesting to hear the drivers take on their "Side Gig". Most of them are new to offering the service and are excited about making some extra money in their free time. I doubt that many of them proactively assess the long term expenses or liability of doing that stuff to make an educated decision on doing it. They only see the short term potential to make some extra cash while ignoring the reality of what the long term risk or cost will be. Kind of like how people these days make decisions about pretty much everything else. Why worry about tomorrow when you can get instant gratification today???

Some lessons can only be learned the hard way...........

[GilpinGuy]

It would be interesting hear from some actual Uber/Lyft drivers. I've had a handful of poker dealers go part time because they make more driving than dealing, and dealers are making $25+ per hour between minimum wage and tips.

[Irving]

As someone who has been a delivery driver, and now puts a ton of miles a year on my vehicle, I can say that additional repair costs for usage are way over blown in my opinion. To the point that they aren't even a consideration.

[buffalobo]

Do you take into consideration the replacement of vehicle?

It will wear out eventually.

[Martinjmpr]

As someone who has been a delivery driver, and now puts a ton of miles a year on my vehicle, I can say that additional repair costs for usage are way over blown in my opinion. To the point that they aren't even a consideration.

Do you take into consideration the replacement of vehicle?

It will wear out eventually.

See, that's kind of what I'm thinking. It seems like the foundation of the whole Uber/Lyft business model is the assumption that modern vehicles are so reliable and can go so long between major repairs.

Even if you had the Intertoobz in the 1970's, for instance, an Uber would never have worked because maintenance and repair costs on the vehicles of those days were enormous. Probably not a lot of people remember when cars had 5 digit odometers and when keeping a vehicle over 100,000 miles was a big deal.

Nowadays 100,000 miles is nothing. There are Toyota 4runners out there with 150k on them and people are offering them up for $12k or more. A Honda or Toyota can likely go 200k before it needs a major repair and as long as the Uber driver is OK with the diminished value that the high miles brings, it's likely that a major repair won't be needed.