Any Oppos drive for Uber or Lyft?

"Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy" (camshaft-chris) 08/27/2018 at 10:09 • Filed to: Ask Oppo, Uber, Lyft, second job

0

21

I’m thinking of quitting my second job and driving for Uber and Lyft instead. That way I can make the hours work around the schedule of my first job and family commitments without any issues with schedules or managers that don’t care or ever answer the phone. I don’t really know what to expect or what I need to be cautious of though. Any insight/advice/tips are appreciated! C63 wagon for your time.

E90M3 > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 10:14

0

Do you know how much it costs per mile to drive your car? 

TheRealBicycleBuck > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 10:17

1

Food for thought:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/02/590168381/uber-lyft-drivers-earning-a-median-profit-of-3-37-per-hour-study-says

Rainbow > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 10:18

0

I used to drive for Lyft, and it sucked. Your results may vary, but I got virtually no tips and earned around $30 -40 for a ten-hour day.

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > E90M3 08/27/2018 at 10:18

0

No. I have not calculated that out. I’ve been meaning to though. Any idea for the best way to go about that?

Ash78, voting early and often > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 10:21

3

The direct costs are extremely easy: Just add up all your gas, maintenance reserve, etc. Preferably over multiple years.

However, there are indirect costs that don’t vary too much by mile, like depreciation (which is more age-related).

Lots of ways to calculate it, but if it’s a later-model car a good, safe bet is 40-50 cents per mile. Or if you want to be really conservative, 60 cents (which is closer to the Federal/IRS amount).

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > TheRealBicycleBuck 08/27/2018 at 10:26

0

Interesting read. I see that there is some dispute regarding the findings though. I’d be interested to see if they ever conducted a follow up. And it seems the drivers mentioned in this article were doing this as either a full time job or with multiple part-time jobs. I have one full time 9-5 job that pays my bills. This would strictly be just for paying off my credit card and earning a little pocket money. 

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > Ash78, voting early and often 08/27/2018 at 10:30

0

I currently drive a 2012 Ford Fusion. It’s 100% paid off. Currently valued by KBB around $4k as is . Can’t get much more depreciated than that, lol.

The cost for insurance shouldn’t come into play here either because I already have to have this car insured to be able to drive it to my main job.

The main cost I see here would be the additional gas, and the additional maintenance. I’ll start my calculations for gas cost the next time I fill up. 

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > Rainbow 08/27/2018 at 10:31

0

What size city/town were you driving in? I live in a bigger city (VERY tourist heavy), so I think I might be able to get better results than most. 

Ash78, voting early and often > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 10:33

0

Good call on the insurance. You might want to add some medical coverage or get a blanket policy just in case (since you’ll have passengers and people are litigious). But yes, the good thing is a lot of costs like insurance, registration, etc have to be paid whether you’re taking passengers or not.

I’d ballpark 40 cents a mile if the car is pretty reliable and paid off . I’ve tracked costs for almost 10 years and have never been lower than 40 cents (for an old, paid-off car) or higher than about 55 (for a newer car with higher registrations) .

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Rainbow 08/27/2018 at 10:38

1

That’s awful

E90M3 > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 10:55

0

I’ve got a spread sheet where I track all my costs associated with my car. I put it in terms of cents/mile because I wanted into a rate and a cost by itself isn’t telling me much.

Insurance and deprecation shouldn’t matter much in this equation , unless your insurance dramatically increases because you’re driving a lot. It’s really just the increase of fuel and wear and tear that I would look into. 

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 11:00

0

He lives in Atlanta. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 11:01

3

Just keep in mind that your cost will be greater than you expect if you don’t account for maintenance on your vehicle (as others have pointed out). You’ll be trading the value of your vehicle for some extra cash to pay off your credit card. 

Rainbow > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 11:07

1

I spent all my time in downtown Atlanta. I’m not positive, but I think it’s programmed to favor the more seasoned drivers over the newbies. I’d go to the stadium right as a Falcons game was ending, and I could end up waiting five   minutes for a fare, even though there’s obviously hundreds of them coming in. Then, with my luck, I’d carry the customer five miles away in stadium traffic - and you * barely* earn anything for time. It’s almost all distance. So, an hour later, I drop them off for ten bucks. Not a terrible hourly rate, but then you have to consider I’ll be waiting another 30 minutes to an hour for my next fare, most of which are $5 in big cities. ( People don’t have to go terribly far.)

That said, the airport is where it’s at. It takes up an   hour to get a fare, because it’s first-come-first-served and there are like 300 drivers at any given moment, but that’s where you get lucky... sometimes. Probably half the fares were tourists staying in the city, so $5 -10, but then there were the suburbanites going all the way home. My best fare was about $130 for a three -hour drive.

So yeah, my advice is to stick to the airport, unless there’s a major event going on. I found that protests and other organized demonstrations brought in the furthest people, regardless what they were about. Just find out when and where it ends, and be waiting.

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 11:10

0

Lyft/Uber are a neat way to liquidate vehicle equity.

DipodomysDeserti > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 11:15

1

I did for a bit in between teaching. It was terrible. Uber tries to steal from you all the time by saying you drove less miles than you did, so watch out for that. Drove a cop to a badeball game once and he told me to carry a gun while I drove as there was a rash of armed robberies. A few weeks later I had a guy take out a handgun and leave it in my car with his infant while he ran into his house to get has money (I was picking him up because he ran out of gas). Also had a guy strung out on heroine keep passing out while his girlfriend screamed at him. Good times. Some days I made decent money, but overall it averaged out to minimum wage. This was in a valley of a few million people, strict DUI laws and lots of tourists and students.

promoted by the color red > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 11:33

0

I once had a gig economy job. It sucked and wore my car out in ways neither I nor the engineers anticipated.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 11:50

0

If you’re looking for a flexible but relatively decent-paying job, would you consider a zero-hou r contract doing home-care for the elderly (like home visits).

Did it as a student job at university here in the UK. Rates were something like £8/hr for just a meal-cooking/meds- check/house- cleaning thing, or £11 per hour for anything that involves personal hygeine.

Worked a couple of hours most days  flexible a week in advance and took home about £400 a month. Not bad for something with sod-all time commitment :)

camarov6rs > Ash78, voting early and often 08/27/2018 at 12:33

0

The apps provide insurance coverage for liability while “on the job” but upping your personal policy is never a bad idea if you intend to be in the car more.

His Stigness > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 12:48

0

At least here in California all of the carriers require you to have supplemental coverage if your drive for hire. If you don’t have supplemental coverage and you’re in an accident you won’t have any coverage at all. Just call your carrier and find out how much it is.

i86hotdogs > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 08/27/2018 at 22:49

0

I drove for Lyft in Detroit for a year. At first, it took me everywhere from Pontiac to Novi (30-40 minutes north and west of Detroit respectively) . Until I learned where the surges are, and when to go active. Hanging around sports arenas during game says are big fares. I drove for Joe Louis Arena’s last game and made $300 in 4 hours. It all depends on where and when you are “on th e clock”.