Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
CNN Sucks!
Classless CNN's Fredricka Whitfield gets bitch-slapped by 80 year-old Joan Rivers in this priceless interview:
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Central Air vs. Wall Unit
My central heating and air unit conked out around April this year, just in time for the stinkin' hot Spring and Summer season in the Middle Tennessee Valley. So I call in my A/C guys from Hiller and they were just power-selling me on getting a new central air unit, sending in three guys at once to grill me at the kitchen table, one salesman and two tech guys it seems. Just a hair over $8,000 they told me. When I balked at the price, they happily told me I could get a loan for this. An $8,000 loan? Oh boy, where do I sign up? These guys must think I'm as dumb as my biceps are big.
Well, I bought my first house to make money, not to end up in the poorhouse, so I told them thanks, but no-thanks and promptly went out to Lowes and picked up the second biggest wall air conditioning unit that Frigidaire makes, for around $430.00. I then installed it into the downstairs window, hidden behind the squat rack.
Well let me tell you, after a month, I could not be happier with this unit. Blowing gales of cool, dry air, it cools the entire downstairs, around 850 square feet with 9ft high ceilings and even cools the upstairs a little bit, although I have to help things along with a few floor and ceiling fans.
Better yet, utility bills are about 1/4 of what they were, despite it being way hotter and humid outside than back in March, and the unit runs half the day, at least, with the rest of the time on "Eco" setting.....
Well, I bought my first house to make money, not to end up in the poorhouse, so I told them thanks, but no-thanks and promptly went out to Lowes and picked up the second biggest wall air conditioning unit that Frigidaire makes, for around $430.00. I then installed it into the downstairs window, hidden behind the squat rack.
 | ||
| Frigidaire Model #FFRE15l3Q1 |
Better yet, utility bills are about 1/4 of what they were, despite it being way hotter and humid outside than back in March, and the unit runs half the day, at least, with the rest of the time on "Eco" setting.....
 |
| Huge electric bill, March 2014 |
 |
| June's tiny electric bill, minus that cash cow scam- central air |
Sunday, June 29, 2014
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.
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! |
Saturday, June 21, 2014
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:
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
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 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
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