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Ridesharing from a FReepers POV (It is literally a blessing from God and saved my life!)
FreeRepublic ^ | 6/2/19 | Celerity

Posted on 06/02/2019 5:10:20 PM PDT by Celerity

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To: BansheeBill

Shipping is paid for the buyers or built into the sale price.

Of course the buyer winds up paying for it. I’m just saying that the bear’s share of profits are taken by the marketplace. They do that because they are providing the market place.

Just like a landlord at a brick and mortar store.


21 posted on 06/02/2019 8:26:47 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: Tacrolimus1mg

I wouldn’t even consider bringing a classic into it, unless you want to just open a classic car livery company.

They are out there, but the money I’ve seen them charge vs the risk and wear on these older cars is NEVER inline.

I wouldn’t do it. The Civic is a good choice, but if it’s an automatic transmission it won’t take the abuse.

Remember, your transmission takes abuse even when you use your brake pedal. Literally every force in the car passes through the transmission in one way or another.


22 posted on 06/02/2019 8:30:58 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: kingu

I’ve thought about focusing on the medical transport. My only vehicle right now is an SUV operating on 4 inches of lift and bully bars for steps.

Not friendly for anyone looking to go to the doctor. But it may be something I consider if things change.

Either way, I hope to be out of the industry soon. I do like it though so I may even just clock in every once in a while and get a change of pace.


23 posted on 06/02/2019 8:33:03 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: SamAdams76

Now may actually be the time to get in on final-mile and ridesharing professionally. I just haven’t figured out the angle to make a success yet.

I don’t know. I’ll keep my ears to the ground on that one. I love driving. I was always upset that driving professionally caps out at about $40k a year. And that’s in a good area.

Well, driving your own car anyway. Pizza and the like. Actually I made a ton of money delivering pizza when I was a kid.


24 posted on 06/02/2019 8:37:02 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: willyd
Yeah, he should confine this useful information to his profile page.

25 posted on 06/02/2019 8:39:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Just thought some people would like to know.

Not one of them ? Ok. I don’t know what to tell you.


26 posted on 06/02/2019 9:02:42 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: Celerity
Nope, I thought it was very helpful and useful, and was trying irony in response to someone else's post. That's often a big mistake online, I should know better./blockquote>

27 posted on 06/02/2019 9:06:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Celerity

In 2014, Uber had a cashless transaction policy with no tipping the driver. The pay was 15% off the top. In 2015 that was increased to 25% off of the top. Recently, Uber pretty much did away with their surge pricing multiple and went to a dollar figure to which the most I have seen is $13 for a one way trip. At the same time, they cut our per mile fee by 25% but increased our per minute fee by 16%. When we did have a Surge multiplier, Uber took 59% of my largest fare, not including their booking fee. After maintenance, miscellaneous expenses most Uber drivers which is the regular Uber fare, the lowest tier, barely pull out 5 dollars an hour. If you are making 13 an hour, I call BS because you are not figuring in all of your expenses. I follow the regular Uber boards and they would agree that doing Uber you very rarely pull in 13 an hour anywhere, especially since Uber decided to cut our surge pricing. This cut alone was a cut in thousands of dollars. One good surge ride and I could be done for the night. No need to pull a 12-hour shift to make 150 to 200 a night. With all the driver pay decreases, the per minute increase for drivers is the first in five years of driving Uber. Uber, on the other hand, has steadily increased its side of the coin. They have increased their booking fee countless times. They take far greater than 25% of the fare. It is usually between 30 to 55 percent. They implemented the take rides on your way to a destination. This is great but now, they dock your next ride 30% but the passenger pays the same amount.

Recently they tout that they offer drivers a reward system, which is done in tiers. The lowest tier starts off at 4.85 stars. This is based on your customer feedback. I know riders give Uber drivers 1 star just because they are a-holes. I also know drivers after contacting Customer no-support see their ratings drop over a period of time when they have received five stars from passengers. Drivers that do both, Uber and Lyft and Juno, usually have one phone per service so there is an expense for that. To receive Lyft bonuses, it is tightly controlled and usually most drivers don’t reach them. However, you need to know your town, is it a Lyft or an Uber town because the town I drive for is an Uber town. I have gone nghts where I have a constant one-in-the-queue with Uber. Normally, there is about 9 Uber rides for every 1 Lyft ride here. This is not the same everywhere. I no longer pull up my Lyft app because I have no need.

Airport is good but you failed to mention how many drivers wait at the airport. XL far outnumbers the Lux vehicles. Which is why you drive XL too because you get more rides with XL. I have told passengers that they have to call another Uber because there just wasn’t room in my vehicle with luggage and passengers. If you get caught overloaded, meaning more passengers than seatbelts, you stand a good chance to get ticketed and when ticketed with Uber on the clock, you lose your opportunity with Uber.

When doing events, I always talk to my passengers about safety. Especially since the woman in Vegas was robbed and kidnapped and the girl was killed. I tell my passengers about the safety protocols. Even still, passengers will get into nefarious fake Uber cars. Or they will be in a group and the first Uber/Lyft that arrives they take that one and they don’t cancel the other.

Oh sure Uber might have saved your life, but you are being blind or this is simply a recruiting ploy put out by Uber which seems most likely. I know 15 drivers who quit Uber and Lyft after surge pricing was cut. Approximately 40 to 60 percent of Uber drivers don’t last a year because the model isn’t profitable.

I have had people in my car from famous professional football players to singers to famous celebrities to corporate Uber. I don’t drop names. They all ask questions and I always answer them truthfully. I don’t sugar coat. Most are unaware of Surge pricing being cut. If I had a dollar for every time a person tells me they will tip me on the app, I would be in the money. The new rate the passenger thing is a joke too because even though you can rate them, they can see what you rate them then they have 24 hours to rate you or change their rating. Give someone a 1 star and they see this, you get a one star back even if your service was top notch.

Most ride sharing drivers are retired individuals and for a good reason too. Who wants to spend 12 hours in a car day in and day out making less than minimum wage. I don’t always drive at night but its a hard schedule when you switch t midweek. To go from early morning wake up to deliver Airport riders to bar riders and event riders. Surge was the best thing there was for an Uber driver. I tell my passengers don’t worry about it anymore because it rarely gets over 5 dollars except during high pop events such as the Indy 500 but even then it only went as high as 13 dollars for surge pricing at the end of the 500. Think about that, 300 thousand potential riders and a surge bonus of only as high of 13 dollars. A year ago the same ride would have been double, triple of the fare. Uber does not take money from tips. I have never seen them do so. Most riders still give cash tips though. My last tip was 20 dollars on a 7 dollar ride. I always tell people it is their choice to tip and how they do it is at their convenience. When Uber had a policy against tips, I always refused the tip. I have heard passengers say they were required to tip. (To those not Uber drivers, Uber is a service and as a service provider, you should tip accordingly, just like you would a waiter or a person helping you with your bags at an airport.)

My worst passengers are former Uber drivers. They never ever tip and they always think they know more than you do when it comes to Uber and Lyft. I had one former Uber driver pull up Waze because all left turns were blocked by police cars for a bicycle event going on. He thought by pulling up Waze we could get around the police cars or we could go up to the police officer and the officer would let us go through the bicyclists to get to his club. I have done the drug runs, but you usually don’t know they are until you arrive in some trailer park and they tell you to wait. I was once asked to turn off my app and they would pay me fifty dollars to take them where they want to go. When that didn’t work, they offered up their wife and to use my imagination. I have had women profess they want to get pregnant in my car. One was a mother of three and the man she wanted to have the baby with was not her husband.

SO yeah I got stories and I am not delusioned by the realities of the job. However, there is no way, after all, is said and done, you are pulling $13 an hour on XL, even with a luxury SUV.


28 posted on 06/03/2019 1:04:54 AM PDT by zaxtres
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To: SamAdams76

Uber Eats is simply horrendous. Think about this. You get pinged to pick up some food for someone. You don’t start the meter until you pick up the food to deliver it. Most people don’t order food from outside of their neighborhood. So you get pinged, drive 17 to 30 minutes to a specific restaurant, the food is not ready when you arrive so you ave to wait another 5 minutes. Or if the food is ready, it’s cold by the time it gets to the customer. You drive maybe five minutes from the restaurant to the address. And you rarely get a tip. At night, this would entail a trip to McDonalds, where there is a line of cars and the slowest fast food workers in the city. You drive 17 minutes, wait 45 minutes in line to pickup the food, (all the while not getting paid) then you drive to the address all for a 3.50 payment and no tip.

Amazon flex is better for deliveries. You can work when you decide but there the blocks are between 1 to 4 hours and you know up front what you are making per hour. Except when you finish you may have to return the package to the station, You don’t get paid for this if your block finishes. They tell you to count on delivering 15 packages per hour. Sometimes they will go over that and sometimes you will go under. I have delivered one package in a 4-hour block and got paid for the full four hours. Unless it is a package delivery, where i pick up the packages then do my route, I don’t go the stores.

You can make 50K gross. However, that is reduced by expenses and is tax-deductible.


29 posted on 06/03/2019 1:24:21 AM PDT by zaxtres
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To: Celerity
How many miles do you drive on an average day?


30 posted on 06/03/2019 3:34:54 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Kill-googl,TWTR,FCBK,NYT,WaPo,Hlwd,CNN,NFL,BLM,CAIR,Antfa,SPLC,ESPN,NPR,NBA,ARP)
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To: Celerity

My children have used Uber and I certainly understand the role it fills well.

As I understand it, your insurance company’s restrictions should be your concern, not the state’s (in terms of coverage). Higher mileage and constantly carrying unrelated passengers are things that insurance companies should know when arriving at your pricing, and you didn’t indicate that your primary car insurance company is aware of this use of the vehicle.

Living a dozen miles west of NYC, I understand the issue taxi drivers have; they pay 6 figures for a medallion, while Uber/Lyft pay nothing (so may charge less). I don’t know how to level that playing field.


31 posted on 06/03/2019 3:48:00 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: zaxtres
Here is something I see in the future for densely populated neighborhoods: Mobile Restaurants on wheels.

For example, a pizzeria might purchase an RV-sized vehicle and configure it with a a full-sized pizza oven. Maybe even a brick oven, complete with venting to the roof.

As the pizza chefs make their pizza, the vehicle is driving around the neighborhood taking orders via mobile app of nearby residents. They will have an onboard delivery person who will take the finished pizzas and deliver them house to house as the "pizza van" cruises by.

I think the biggest sticking point is getting permits to have a travelling kitchen. But they already kind of do it with food trucks (that park before they cook the food). They just need to find a way to cook while in motion.

32 posted on 06/03/2019 5:18:59 AM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: Right Wing Assault

I drive about 100 miles a day. My area is going to be different than yours though.


33 posted on 06/03/2019 5:26:13 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: zaxtres

“Sure Uber might have saved your life, but you are being blind or this is simply a recruiting ploy put out by Uber which seems most likely.”

You need to re read my post. I don’t say anything like that.


34 posted on 06/03/2019 5:29:23 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: zaxtres

Yah, I’ve found that delivering food sucks. Anywhere i have to drive 20 minus to get a sandwich is stupid. If you dive a car that’s too old for the regular services, this might be for you.


35 posted on 06/03/2019 5:32:04 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: zaxtres

I make $13 an hour after expenses.. for now. I also said that a typical car had about 3 months lifespan before something bad happens and my 13 an hour goes to like 8 retrospectively. I also warned fellow creepers who may be considering such an option that it’s likely not going to work out long term.


36 posted on 06/03/2019 5:34:52 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: Celerity
I just thought of a business use-case that Uber/Lyft should adopt.

Millions of people commute to work by automobile. During rush hour, the majority of the cars heading into the city are single driver vehicles. Now the whole "car-pooling" concept never took off, probably because it was pushed by clueless bureaucrats who thought all they needed to make it work was a slogan plastered on billboards.

Here's how it can actually work. Commuters can load the app and set themselves up as commuters (as opposed to regular drivers) who can simply load in their workplace address. The ride will only be available to commuters who work within a block or so of that workplace address.

So basically the driver leaves his home in the morning and turns on the app. The route to work (without giving up the home address) is projected and those who live along the way can "flag" this vehicle for a ride.

In this manner, a commuter might pickup 2-3 additional people on the way, earning money to defray the expenses of the commute for that driver (i.e. parking, tools, gas, wear and tear) and the passengers will also benefit as the ride should be considerably cheaper then either taking their own car or taking a metro train, etc.

Repeat for the trip home.

The more people that do this, the less cars on the road and the faster the commute for everybody.

What will really help this work is if Uber/Lyft could work out consistent and reasonable rates for commuting fares (as opposed to the "surge pricing" model they use for one-off trips). This would encourage commuters to use the service. Maybe Uber/Lyft takes in less money with this application but they are earning goodwill by reducing congestion on the roadways during rush hours (give them tax breaks as well).

Also, Uber/Lyft needs to have a fail-safe, so if a commuter dedicated to car-pooling cannot find a ride in that day with another commuter, he/she will be guaranteed the same fare in a regular Uber ride.

Obviously there will be some kinks to work out but I think this model is a good one that will work well.

37 posted on 06/03/2019 5:36:36 AM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: kearnyirish2

When i talked about insurance at states, i only meant insurance regulations. I have a policy that covers this job. I got it through uber themselves.

They also have access to insurance


38 posted on 06/03/2019 8:40:59 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: SamAdams76

That app exists.


39 posted on 06/03/2019 8:42:00 AM PDT by Celerity
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To: SamAdams76

Ooh, also, so everyone knows..
.. I’ve been sitting for an hour with no calls. My food order today was a pain. It’s a lousy day so far.

It happens.


40 posted on 06/03/2019 8:48:05 AM PDT by Celerity
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