I drive for lyft/uber

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by otherstar

This is pretty much true, and accurate of my own experience driving for three years with them. Thanks to a raise at my f/t job, I was able to quit (that and I started looking closer at how much passengers were paying Uber vs. what Uber was paying me). It can be an OK side hustle, but making a "real" profit doesn't happen because of the expenses that most drivers don't take into account that eats up your earnings.

I traded in a Nissan Quest a few years before I should have had to trade it in (because I ran up the mileage driving Uber), and got almost nothing for it. I bought a brand new car and drove that for less than a year (because of Covid, and because of quitting driving) and it's value is so much less than it should be because it has more miles on it than it should for the age of the car.

The thing that stands out to me the most as something people don't consider is when he talks about how spending that much time on the road increases chances of something bad happening. Getting into an accident where you're at fault is something that can continue to haunt you even if you stopped driving for them. The icing on the cake is at the end where he explains how Uber is basically using today's drivers as a way to finance their development of autonomous vehicles. That alone should keep people from wanting to work for them.

[otherstar]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

The thing that stands out to me the most as something people don't consider is when he talks about how spending that much time on the road increases chances of something bad happening. Getting into an accident where you're at fault is something that can continue to haunt you even if you stopped driving for them. The icing on the cake is at the end where he explains how Uber is basically using today's drivers as a way to finance their development of autonomous vehicles. That alone should keep people from wanting to work for them.

Exactly! I drove for them out of necessity when I started doing it as a side gig, and it did help me out for the first few years (probably not as much I as I think it really did...but I'm not going to go back and do all of that math--though I did check my fares to see how much Uber was taking from time to time and a few years ago, the percentage was acceptable). It was only in the last year after I bought a brand new car and was driving that, and started hearing that Uber was taking a higher percentage of the fare than they used to, and once I verified how that had changed, and once I got a raise at my regular job...I stopped driving and won't go back. Now, if anyone asks me about it, I try to discourage them from driving if they can help it.