Uber Over

I do believe my time driving for Uber is over, for the most part. First, they started charging me $10.00 a week for my phone, which they had already charged me $100 for, I believe was the figure, when I started some months ago. Keep in mind the software in this special iPhone was Uber dedicated, meaning it was no good for my personal use.

Everything was fine though, as it stood then. I was eking out a living with that setup. Then, for some reason, Uber saw fit to start charging the extra $40/month. That made it generally a non-profitable venture. So I sent the phone back, in the envelope they sent me, with the promise to get my own iPhone and resume employment.

Shopping for iPhones it soon became apparent that this is a whole other racket unto itself, the whole smartphone biz, with the two year contracts, fuzzy fine print on thick packets of forms requiring my signature, signing God-knows what, and early cancellation penalties approaching five to six hundred dollars in some cases.

With the iPhone, the only phone that works with the Uber driver app, you can either buy the phone, around $500, depending on the age of the model desired, or pay for it over a two year period, which is added to your monthly phone bill, at around an extra $22.00/month. So you have this two year financing deal and a two year contract, on a phone that will be obsolete in two years, where the whole cycle will then be repeated.

Dear Uber and iPhone providers, feel free to take a hike.

Uber Saturday

I changed my previous strategy from last Saturday - yes I'm down to driving for Uber one day per week because any day but a Saturday is pretty much a waste of my precious time - to that of starting in the wealthier suburbs and then staying put where that next ride took me, which in this case was from one spot in beautiful Franklin to another spot in Franklin, TN to start. Last Saturday I was dropping people in town and then driving back to the suburbs, which resulted in similar earnings, but put an ungodly amount of miles on the car.

Anyway, my time in Franklin didn't last long and the next ride was a long one into the heart of downtown Nashville, where I spent the next six hours in a constant state of ride-sharing. In fact, last night was one of my best blocks of drive-time ever driving for Uber, as far as mileage-to earnings ratio is concerned. I grossed about $160 for seven hours in the car, an average of $22.86/hour. After deducting Uber's 20% and some gas money, about 160 miles/25 mpg=6.4 gallons x $3.16 per gallon of premium gas equals approximately $20 in gas. So, subtract $52.00 for a net income of $108.00/$15.42/hour, and that's the best I have done with Uber.

I don't think I'm going to top that. Wait, I take that back. Earnings were somewhat dampened by a pro hockey game downtown, which tied up traffic before the start and after the end of the game. I did manage to take one hockey fan to the game, so it wasn't a total loss. Also, I tend to avoid answering most requests from the Vanderbilt college campus, as these kids tend to be snooty entitled brats, in my experience, that I tend to gladly avoid, at least lately. So, I'm avoiding one sixth or so of the city and still staying plenty busy, but earnings could be even higher.

For example, I was passing through the Vandy campus last night on the way to my favorite coffee shop and I did accept one ride request, figuring, what the hell, why not? So four seemingly drunk college guys pile in for a short trip and the one in the back seat says to the other, "my Suburban shit one of these the other day", cutting on my midsize car like it's small or something. That was my last ride out of that neighborhood, for sure.

Dear children of the rich pricks of America..........

I really hate you guys. 

Uber Damsels in Distress...

So I went to drive for Uber Saturday night, normally the best night of the week for earnings. I started around 6 p.m. and I got pinged right away by a couple of Welshmen who needed a ride from their Air Bnb rental house to the downtown area. It never ceases to amaze me, the people who visit here from all over the world.

Anyway, from the minute I went online, it was a fairly constant flow of rides, mostly medium and long rides, only because I made a point of staying at least 20 minutes from the center of town, where people were steadily grabbing rides back into town, until about 11:30 p.m. Then I changed my strategy, to lingering close to the downtown bar areas, where people were starting to head back to the outskirts.

I cruised by one popular and crowded spot, where I noticed a gorgeous young woman in white, attempting to hail a cab with her obviously drunk boyfriend, with no apparent luck. The problem with Uber is that I could not actually offer them a ride. I would have to wait for them to click on the app on their smartphone, if they had actually already signed up for Uber, and hope I was the closest driver.

So I made a right with the line of slow-moving traffic, to go around the block and maybe park close by, when my phone lit up with a ride request. Amazingly, it was right back in the same area where I had just seen the girl. I clicked to accept the request and proceeded to turn around.

When I finally got back there, I waited for "Stephanie" to find me parked in front of the Hard Rock Cafe, the only empty curb-space available, information which I had texted to her. After about a five minute wait, guess who opens the passenger door and hops in next to me, but this same girl in white!

She thanked me profusely and asked me to take her to a club on the other side of town. Remembering her partner, I asked if there was anyone else on the way and she said "no", she was the only one. During the trip, she called someone and seemed to be arguing with them about treating her badly and how she had no time for such treatment.

She hung up and informed me that I was a lifesaver for giving her a ride, because her boyfriend had got drunk and become quite abusive and she had been unable to find an available cab to get away from him and go hang with her friends instead. Then she had requested Uber and I had shown up in "under two minutes" and how great that was, to be able to just call a "personal driver" to escape the situation. This was actually the third time I can remember, that I picked up a woman that was in an abusive situation and whisked her away.

So, I may not be getting rich from Uber, but this part is pretty cool.

Uber Update Sept. 10, 2014

Was offline from Uber for about three weeks after picking up a farm labor job out of state. This job was so tough and it was so stinking hot (Central Florida) that I was glad to get back to Nashville and my air conditioned vehicle Wednesday evening from 5 to 9 p.m.

Uber had sent me an email threatening to deactivate my account if I didn't put some hours in, so I rushed right out and fired up the app. After about an hour or so, I picked up my first rider in Franklin, TN and took them all the way to the Ryman in Nashville, for a $28.00 fare. Then I hung out in Nashville for another hour before I picked up four young business hotshots from Los Angeles who needed a ride from the West End to a local hotel, for around $5.00 fare.

Then I hung around for another 45 minutes, but no more rides and I called it a night.

Mileage: Approx. 110 miles
Gross Earnings: $33.00
Gas: $11.00
Uber's take: 20%

So, let me see, .2 multiplied by 33 = Uber takes $6.60. So 33 - 11 - 6.60 = $15.40 net income

15.40/4 hours = $3.85/hour income.

I assume Uber will charge me $10.00 this week for the use of their software, so $15.40 - $10.00 = $5.40 net income/4 hours = net income $1.35/hour.

There are the numbers so far, day one.

Sincerely,

Me

Uber Update July 26

Again I had what I thought was a stellar night driving for Uber (Friday night), picking up a steady flow of riders, starting at the airport to pick up a handsome young couple, who brought me straight downtown, where the action was already in full swing around 7 p.m.

The best part of the job is definitely meeting all kinds of people, if only for a few minutes, including a few bachelorette party groups of gorgeous young college-age girls, never to be seen again, which ultimately serves strictly as an extraordinary type of torture for me in my middle age.

Looking at the hard numbers this morning, I was again struck by the disappointingly low net income, which means that the pressure is on to find something else, before my car blows up, from all this driving. Here are the numbers:

Mileage: 155.9 To be fair, I do have to drive 34 miles just to get to Uber territory, near the "big city", so that's 72 miles out the window from the start. If you're going to do this, make sure you live closer to town.

Including my 72 mile handicap, with gas at $3.26 this week, and my car that gets 23.5 mpg/city, that works out to 6.63 gallons to go 155.9 miles, or $21.62 in gas. Without the 72 miles, that would be 155.9-72=83.9 miles if I was already living in town. 83.9/23.5=3.57 gallons of gas, equals $11.63 in gas.

Ten trips at $98.19 in fares, less Uber's 20% equals $78.55 net earnings. Less $21.62 in gas equals $56.93 total net income for 7 hours in the car, which comes out to $8.13/hour, so welcome to minimum wage! It just makes me feel really good about all the time, energy and sacrifice I put into earning those two college degrees of mine. What a joke. I do know who's laughing all the way to the bank here and it begins with a big "U" and probably an "F" in there somewhere too.

To make things more depressing, I heard a rumor that the U is going to start charging drivers $10.00 a month to lease their Uber-phones, whether you drive or not, so deduct another $520/year in expenses.

Despite being quite depressed over these numbers, I managed to up my spirits enough to get back out there Saturday night, normally the best night of the week for Uber earnings, and banged out another 7pm to 2am shift in the city, shuttling young people around from bar to bar and from the bar and back home again. The numbers for Saturday night were as follows:

Mileage: 148.5
Gas: 6.32 Gallons @ 23.5 mpg x $3.34/gallon = $21.10
Trips: 12
Hours: 7
Gross Earnings: $137.49
Uber's Take: 20% x 137.49 = $27.50
My income: $109.99 - gas @ $21.10 = $88.89 = $12.70/hour
Average Income per-mile over the last four day period: $2.28/mile(before expenses)

I managed to up my average hourly net income from min. wage to $12.70/hour and that's the best night of the week. So, theoretically if every day was like Saturday and I drove for 7 hours a day 7 days a week and I put 54,020 miles on the car (148 miles x 365 days a year), the absolute best income I could manage over an entire year is just a hair over $32,000 dollars. So there it is.

More realistically, if I just stick with driving Friday and Saturday nights, most of the year, I can bring in an extra $110 + $57 = an extra $170/week multiplied by about 40 weeks a year comes to an extra $6,800/year in earnings, although you would add some major mileage on your vehicle.

In conclusion: Uber, a great part-time gig on your own schedule, one or two weekend nights a week. Not a full-time job, unless your car is invincible, runs on electricity and never needs maintenance.

Uber - Week One

So far, so good, although my nightly earnings have come as a disappointment. I usually log-in and check my stats the morning after a six to eight-hour night on the clock downtown. Last night for example, my latest, busiest weekend night driving in downtown Nashville, I had a steady flow of passengers from around 6 p.m. through 2:30 a.m. Big bucks, right?

 So I wake up and look at my take and it's $170-something, which is great, but this is no $60,000/year business. Something else that perplexes me is the sometimes whole point drop in ratings after what seems like a night of great interaction with my passengers.

I never get a clue that anything is less than perfect from my people. The car is a clean and air-conditioned, late model Volvo. These kids are young-in their twenties mostly and seemingly well-off for the most part, so maybe they're basically rich and hard to please. That's my guess.

Listen you little brats! Consider yourself lucky to even have an affordable, air conditioned private ride show up in 5 minutes, instead of calling an over-priced taxi from a pay-phone, which may or may not show up in an hour, which was the only way to get anywhere when I was your age and poor as shit, back in the eighties!

So it's good work for a little pocket-change, but eventually your car's gonna' blow up. This ain't new car income and you're gonna' be calling Uber yourself, for a ride too. Basically, you're sucking the value out of your car and transferring it to your bank account.

My favorite ride was the two hookers I picked up and dropped off downtown, where the one did a little dance for me in the street before they walked off and I did notice everybody present who was close by on the street on 5th avenue just stopped and stared at me for a moment, slack-jawed, even the local cop.

I'm going to change my strategy from accepting every ride request, to just taking the rides that are within a ten-minute drive of where I'm at. I did that Thursday and it was a high income, low mileage night. When the ride request comes through on the iPhone, it gives the estimated minutes of drive time that passenger is from your location. Uber has been pressuring us to accept every ride, even those that are 15-20 minutes or more away for pickup.

I followed that strategy last night and it was a lot of miles on the car. Plus I think the one girl I picked up a distance west of town must have gave me a low rating, because she was very short with me, after I got a bit lost trying to find her house, which did not come up on my GPS unit. So this is the thanks I get, for driving 20 minutes to pick up this kid.

Regardless, I'm going to enjoy the steady work, while it lasts. Seems like Uber's days are numbered and everyone is trying to sue them or regulate them out of business anyway, as is the custom in this country when anything good is happening.

First time Uber riders, get $20 off!

Driving for Uber

Having been chronically underemployed during the year 2014, due to my trying to escape my previously ill-advised involvement in the chiropractic personal-injury racket, I am always searching for ways to make money, as it seems I am unemployable in my old age for anything other than "self employment", which means I'm on Craigslist a lot, searching in desperation for any opportunity to earn a buck.

Regardless, I spied this ad for Uber drivers on my local Craigslist, so, naturally, I applied. To my surprise, I actually got "hired" after a lengthy month-long background check and they promptly sent me an iPhone programmed for the Uber share a ride system. This is where you take your vehicle to your local city where Uber is operating and hang out until some stranger, who is already signed up for the Uber system, requests a ride through your Uber-issued iPhone.

Then you have 15 seconds to tap the phone screen and accept the ride. Punch the requested address into your GPS (purchased with your own funds) and, hopefully, it directs you to the waiting fare. There, you pull over, greet the customer and get the destination address, which you also punch into your GPS, unless you already know your city really well. Proceed from point A to point B, after touching the go button on your Uber-phone and it records the time and mileage and computes a fare, after you touch the stop button on your phone at the end of the trip, of which Uber takes 20%. The rest is deposited a few times per week directly into your bank account.

Sounds like the perfect job, right? No day is the same. Meet lots of interesting, tech-savvy people. Set your own hours, get immediate feedback on what you earned on any ride given, work in any major city.

My experience after three nights? Here are my numbers after being available from 4 through 8 p.m. two nights and 4 p.m. through 2:37 a.m Friday night:

• Total Miles: 493.2. So I put about 165 miles on my car per working night. To be fair, I drive 34 miles just to get to the city before turning on my Uber-phone, although I did turn it on immediately Friday night and actually scored a rider halfway to town. So I am spotting myself 68 miles every day that I work, regardless.
• Total Rides: 34. So I'm averaging just under 12 rides per session.
• Hours: Weeknights, I work 4 to 8 p.m. Friday night I worked 4 p.m. to almost 3 a.m. 8 + 11 is 19 hours on the clock.
• Earnings: After three days, my stats show total earnings of $371.82. So, let's see. The reward for totally killing my car for three nights is 371.82 - gas at about 23 mpg comes to about 22 gallons of gas at an average price of $3.45/gallon currently for regular = around $76.00. 371.82 - 76 = $295.82 net income. I forgot to mention that my GPS cost $200, so I have netted only about $95.00 so far. So it looks like about $100/night profit.
• Keep in mind that commercial insurance is recommended if you ever want your car to be repaired by your insurance company if you get in an accident. Research shows that insurance runs around $1,000/month,which of course, I don't have, although Uber does cover your passengers at one million dollars each, so if I'm in an accident, I'm out of a vehicle.

In conclusion, I see ride-sharing services as a nice novelty and the software system is ingenious, but I think it's a fad whose time is limited, especially by the time these drivers have an accident, or have to buy a replacement vehicle for their beat-up Uber-wagon and realize how they've actually been run over by the costs involved. It looks like the passengers and the company are making out great, but, ultimately the driver is getting totally screwed.

In summary; It looks like a good strategy to make some quick cash, if you have a good vehicle and a clean driving record and are somewhat tech-savvy, but it's no full-time job.

The End