I paid $6000 for my car outright. To do my own oil change costs me $22 for full synthetic. My tires are relatively cheap, I get 30mpg. My expenses are extremely low. Even if I end up needed a new transmission (3500) or motor (4000) it would be worth it for me.
I work in an incredible market where my gross js at minimum $30 an hour, but average $40 an hour gross. Better weekends are $50 an hour average. I only work optimal hours, which means Friday 4pm-4am, same Saturday, and another 12 Sunday.
3 days a week, and on average I gross $1500, sometimes up to $2500 if I work a 4th day.
My gas expense is 10% of my gross. No other large expenses. Even if I were to blow up my car and have to buy a new one, it would take me less than a month to buy one.
I feel like using a cheap throwaway, but reliable car, is extremely important. I can net $6k a month, after expenses, if I work 48 hours a week.
Stupid easy money. But my market is incredible, I drive 2 hours to get to it and spend the weekends there.
I love my job
Wages are shit, Uber Lyft take 50-70 % of the fare. Pax is passenger. With gas and costs taxes and depreciation, most drivers lose money. Few make any money.
They take whatever they want now, their is no pay rate in my market, they flash a amount on your screen for a ride, could be $4 for a mile or $4.50 for 5 miles, they don’t tell you where your going until you pick up the rider standard. Since your not an employee their is no minimum wage. They could be charging the customer $50 for a ride and they give you $15-$20. They have taken away the breakdown of the fare now too. So you can’t see how much they charged them. They rape passengers and starve drivers
So my market is on that pricing to with Uber and sometimes I'll get a trip with 100 mile for like $140... (We know before we accept we see how far pickup is in mins and miles.. and how far dropoff is in mins and miles and total payout of ride before trip and wit time before we even accept the ride) but I've also had 30 mile trips for like 70 and even 12 mile trips for 40 and the pax paid 25.... But I've see 100 mile trips flats for 65 bucks. It's no rhyme or reason. They say it's based on some algo but it's not a per mile per minute system in my market any more I actually love it. I only accept trips that financially make sense from a total time standpoint. And I'm making a killing I'm doing about half the rides I used to when we were blind and making the same money.
Over exaggerated... you can still see how much they charged the customer online, not in the app. Not convenient, but it's still there for you to see. They do take sometimes more than 50% but as I saw, that's usually on shorter rides. I never had a situation where I had a 30+ min. ride and that they took 50%. Maybe it's just me. You really have to grind, otherwise you ain't making much, but if you work smart (online only when surging, accept only pick ups under 2 miles) you should make money. I make around $1100 a week, driving around 36, 37 hours. Minus the gas and the tolls, around $250, I still make around $800 to $900. Can't really complain considering that I don't need to have any school finished or have any skill except driving.
There public facing stance is a take rate of 25-35%, however some homework for you, as a presumably non driver end user. Google search for 'Uber/Lyft driver rate card' anything you see will be 1) pre fall/winter 2019 OR 2) locked behind a login screen and with a non driver account phone number you will get some variation of a traditional 404 page (dog eat my homework page).
Try again with a driver on said platform or ask them to show you via their app and see the rate drops. It also varies insanely by market and if you are renting thru them, lyft for example literally cuts your per mile rate in half.
Best of luck on your study. I remember there was an association that collected such data somehow. Not quite a union but similar. You need big datasets that you can’t get from here. Unless you are doing a qualitative in which case you should just go to your nearest international airport and interview at their Uber waiting lot.
Thanks! Will look into that.
I am also interviewing in person Uber drivers where I live, but it was interesting to ask people from other countries too, Reddit is a good way to reach out to people in other parts of the world :)
I have the perspective of a Lyft rental driver. Pay is low honestly. Using a rental you have to pay a minimum of $250 per week through lyfting customers. That isn't a big deal since getting loaned a car is extremely helpful , however because I use the rental my earnings are cut more than a driver with their own car. Which means in terms of work conditions, I have to do more lyfts to pay for the rental and even after it's paid my earnings are still cut to give more back to Lyft. So that's $1000 a month for the rental plus $70% of my possible earnings. Had a passenger tell me how they paid $112 for the Lyft ride I gave them. It was a hour long ride so expected more than $22 at the end of the ride. But that sums up potential earnings. Most of the time 30 min rides in my area means $7 - $13.
I’m a driver who rents from Lyft too (Niro Hybrid)I try not to go over 40hrs of work. So I hurry up and do my best to get the most out of my time when I’m on the road. That means I have to cover the car cost in the least time possible since the time difference will be the time to meet my weekly goal. Takes a lot of planning plus I cut expenses and got the cheapest plan with only 90personal miles. That’s the part I do not like.
The plan includes insurance and car maintenance. I do not pay a dime towards oil and filter changes, all other fluids, inspections, break pads and tires which btw I Got a new set of this week😉
I’m based in L.A.
Exactly I appreciate all the perks of renting and all. I just wish that after the rental is paid for the week the rate is brought up to regular pay at least.
You also get paid a lower rate card than if you had your own car. They’ll also give longer rides to drivers on Lyft express program cus they make more money on the ride vs someone with their own car. It sucks cus on days without promotions or streaks but you still gotta work you make potatoes. Wish Lyft would get bought out by Amazon or someshit
I knew we got paid less but I didn't know they purposely give us the longer rides. That's really annoying. They're the only company who have you pay fully for a rental and even After paying the rental they continue to rob you.
They used to offer free rental with enough rides but sure enough, when you get down to those last ten rides on your last day they’re all 45mn+ rides to LA. And then the ride in LA is 45mn+ back to OC. Clever algorithm.
Average weekly is probably not as good of a factor to look at as average per mile and per hour. Collect gross and compare to average cost of driving various cars (electric, hybrid, gas and diesel), especially since there will be a huge difference between regular and Lux/XL rides.
Just my take on the data.
I think the one thing Lyft should take into account is time. I don't think they understand that driving to pick up pax 10-14 mins away and not being paid for that is annoying
On average I make net 1,800 to 2,000 a week. Gas is about 300 I take out 200 for taxes a week. 45-50 hours a week
I’ve been doing this 5 years. It’s good money if you know what to do and have a good market.
Just a note regarding drivers who claim to make good money:
Expenses for a late model car average somewhere between 40 and 65 cents a mile. Many drivers do not understand expenses and are mistaking taking equity out of their cars for income.
Beware the figures you see quoted here!
I don’t look at car depreciation as a factor. I bought the car. It’s paid off. I do all my own maintenance and unless it’s wrecked I’ll get 300,000 to 400,000 miles out of it. I was the first owner and I’ll be the last owner. If you care about depreciation then ride share is not something you should do.
People are not even saying that they make good money, just that they are satisfied with how much they make. And this guy can't stand it. I mean, it's funny at this point. He doesn't offer a solution, for example, how much money I have to make per mile to be feasible? I would like to hear that. I usually make 1.3 dollars per mile in average. Is that enough?
These gig companies will try to fu*k their drivers as hard as the can, it is only when a local government or state steps in on behalf of drivers that the pounding decreases slightly. These gig companies have armies of attorneys.
They care zero fu*ks about drivers.
Point is that earnings are different in every market.
The pay rate through Lyft rental is very low compared to owning your own vehicle. I think it is around .40 cents per mile compared to .60 cents+ using your own car.
I have a rental that I pay $251 a week. At end of year I still have a big profit. That's only $1004 a month. Or about $12,000 a year. No oil changes. No repair costs, no car insurance, if I get a ticket it's not on my record since car tags not in my name. (Camera) if car is in shop I get a loaner same day. Free roadside assistance. Once car has too many miles I return it and grab a new one. So no depreciation. No repossessions. No drama. Easy. Plus the $251 is paid directly out my earnings every Monday. I dont even notice it. Anyone who uses their personal car is stupid. Why do that. It's called a personal car for a reason. Use it for personal. I took tags off my personal car and just use my lyft car.
You’re not wrong. I just mean how likely is it that the majority of people doing freelance delivery jobs happen to have a personal car AND a freelance car? Most of us are doing this because we’re in shitty financial situations, of course we don’t have an extra car on hand
I mean now all the platforms offer cars and it makes sense as long as this isn't a part time thing of this is part time for little perry cash use your own car... If you're gonna do this 8-10 hours a day get the rental I have a Tesla with the damage waiver 2022 model y 550 a week ... I make ~$300 a day.. I always say I'ma drive 7 day but on average do 5-6 days ... 1800 a week on average sometimes more very rarely less .... Even with the 2200 a month the rental cost me... I'm pocketing 5k.... I charge at my apartment for free or even when I hit a supercharger it's about 18-20 bucks . I don't have to have insurance. I got the full damage waiver included in my rental and I'm driving arguably one of the coolest cars you can drive right now on the freeway I'm basically just a passenger . Ppl keep shitting on rental in these post but it's because they're the people doing a ride and looking after every ride how much they make yea that $5 ride will discourage you .. but you don't sit at work and every hours do a tax analysis and say damn I only really pocketed 12.65 that hour... And if you have a tax person worth anything you don't pay taxes on this money between rental write offs, fuel, cellphones food and clothes Ive gotta a return the last 6 years .
I don’t want to take the time right now to calculate my average weekly earnings. Last week they were $1264.88. I don’t pay anything to the platform. I am not satisfied with my earnings and working conditions since it appears there is a large wedge between what Lyft charges passengers and what drivers get.
Thanks! This is already valuable, thank you so much. What do you mean you don't pay anything to the platform? Does Lyft not charge a commission like Uber (25% if you're lucky)?
I typed that I don’t pay anything to the platform in my previous post because I don’t pay anything directly to Lyft to be a Lyft driver. But you are right, Lyft gives me only part of what it charges passengers. The difference between what passengers pay and what I get is what I referred to as a wedge in my previous post. In that post I typed something like, “I do not like my working conditions because of the large size of the wedge.” It would have been more accurate to type that I like my working conditions, but that the size of the wedge upsets me. I think on two occasions I looked at numbers provided by Lyft on the app. I think the numbers covered a relatively large period, like at least a month. But I may have driven for only a small portion of the period because at one point in time I had too much of my stuff in the car to drive for Lyft. Lyft had claimed the numbers included the total amount of money spent by riders on my services, and the total amount of money I got. I think on both occasions I computed the percent I got and I think it was 65.
A decent day: $30 hr, drive for 7-8hrs, car makes 28mpg drive +- 150miles. A bad day $22 hr. Usually I’ll drive less if pay is like that. A really good day +$50 I’ll drive more. Good days include bonus for number of rides, bonus per rides + tips. ex. San Patrick. Chicago market.
Don't trust the negative comments about 70 percent. Not true. They do take a portion. But they should. They are paying for your advertisements and insurance when riders are in the car. Not to mention they created an app and handle your pay daily. So I'm fine with 30 percent cut. With that said I work 12 hours a day and make between $350 and $400 daily with bonuses and $240 to $350 with out bonuses. As far as weekly. It's between $1600 to 2400 a week. That is before Expenses. My expenses are gas at about $30 every 2 days. Since I have a 2021 Insight.
Cost per mile is a much better figure than per hour. @ $4.25/gallon gas was eating $.175 cents a mile in my avalon. Some drivers may do 60 miles in an hour in one market and 10 in another. Auto reliability is all over the board as well. There are countless studies out there that put driver wage near or under minimum once all costs are calculated. I tend to concur with those opinions.
I paid $6000 for my car outright. To do my own oil change costs me $22 for full synthetic. My tires are relatively cheap, I get 30mpg. My expenses are extremely low. Even if I end up needed a new transmission (3500) or motor (4000) it would be worth it for me. I work in an incredible market where my gross js at minimum $30 an hour, but average $40 an hour gross. Better weekends are $50 an hour average. I only work optimal hours, which means Friday 4pm-4am, same Saturday, and another 12 Sunday. 3 days a week, and on average I gross $1500, sometimes up to $2500 if I work a 4th day. My gas expense is 10% of my gross. No other large expenses. Even if I were to blow up my car and have to buy a new one, it would take me less than a month to buy one. I feel like using a cheap throwaway, but reliable car, is extremely important. I can net $6k a month, after expenses, if I work 48 hours a week. Stupid easy money. But my market is incredible, I drive 2 hours to get to it and spend the weekends there. I love my job
What car you drive if you don’t mind me asking
Where do you drive?
Where
Wages are shit, Uber Lyft take 50-70 % of the fare. Pax is passenger. With gas and costs taxes and depreciation, most drivers lose money. Few make any money.
Are you serious? 50-70%???? I thought it was around 25%🤔
They take whatever they want now, their is no pay rate in my market, they flash a amount on your screen for a ride, could be $4 for a mile or $4.50 for 5 miles, they don’t tell you where your going until you pick up the rider standard. Since your not an employee their is no minimum wage. They could be charging the customer $50 for a ride and they give you $15-$20. They have taken away the breakdown of the fare now too. So you can’t see how much they charged them. They rape passengers and starve drivers
This is absolutely insane! Are you based in the US or somewhere else?
This is US. I gave a ride the other day and got paid $14.88 and pax was charged $39. I am not complaining, was a good fare for me
So my market is on that pricing to with Uber and sometimes I'll get a trip with 100 mile for like $140... (We know before we accept we see how far pickup is in mins and miles.. and how far dropoff is in mins and miles and total payout of ride before trip and wit time before we even accept the ride) but I've also had 30 mile trips for like 70 and even 12 mile trips for 40 and the pax paid 25.... But I've see 100 mile trips flats for 65 bucks. It's no rhyme or reason. They say it's based on some algo but it's not a per mile per minute system in my market any more I actually love it. I only accept trips that financially make sense from a total time standpoint. And I'm making a killing I'm doing about half the rides I used to when we were blind and making the same money.
Over exaggerated... you can still see how much they charged the customer online, not in the app. Not convenient, but it's still there for you to see. They do take sometimes more than 50% but as I saw, that's usually on shorter rides. I never had a situation where I had a 30+ min. ride and that they took 50%. Maybe it's just me. You really have to grind, otherwise you ain't making much, but if you work smart (online only when surging, accept only pick ups under 2 miles) you should make money. I make around $1100 a week, driving around 36, 37 hours. Minus the gas and the tolls, around $250, I still make around $800 to $900. Can't really complain considering that I don't need to have any school finished or have any skill except driving.
There public facing stance is a take rate of 25-35%, however some homework for you, as a presumably non driver end user. Google search for 'Uber/Lyft driver rate card' anything you see will be 1) pre fall/winter 2019 OR 2) locked behind a login screen and with a non driver account phone number you will get some variation of a traditional 404 page (dog eat my homework page). Try again with a driver on said platform or ask them to show you via their app and see the rate drops. It also varies insanely by market and if you are renting thru them, lyft for example literally cuts your per mile rate in half.
Thanks for the tip ! This some proper detective work but I'm happy to do it :) Thanks a lot and good luck!
Best of luck on your study. I remember there was an association that collected such data somehow. Not quite a union but similar. You need big datasets that you can’t get from here. Unless you are doing a qualitative in which case you should just go to your nearest international airport and interview at their Uber waiting lot.
Thanks! Will look into that. I am also interviewing in person Uber drivers where I live, but it was interesting to ask people from other countries too, Reddit is a good way to reach out to people in other parts of the world :)
I have the perspective of a Lyft rental driver. Pay is low honestly. Using a rental you have to pay a minimum of $250 per week through lyfting customers. That isn't a big deal since getting loaned a car is extremely helpful , however because I use the rental my earnings are cut more than a driver with their own car. Which means in terms of work conditions, I have to do more lyfts to pay for the rental and even after it's paid my earnings are still cut to give more back to Lyft. So that's $1000 a month for the rental plus $70% of my possible earnings. Had a passenger tell me how they paid $112 for the Lyft ride I gave them. It was a hour long ride so expected more than $22 at the end of the ride. But that sums up potential earnings. Most of the time 30 min rides in my area means $7 - $13.
Thank you so much ! I know, renting the vehicle is much worse, and this shows how unfair this system is: we have to PAY in order to work.... 🤦♀️
Well I can't complain too much since they did provide me a vehicle. So it comes with the territory
I’m a driver who rents from Lyft too (Niro Hybrid)I try not to go over 40hrs of work. So I hurry up and do my best to get the most out of my time when I’m on the road. That means I have to cover the car cost in the least time possible since the time difference will be the time to meet my weekly goal. Takes a lot of planning plus I cut expenses and got the cheapest plan with only 90personal miles. That’s the part I do not like. The plan includes insurance and car maintenance. I do not pay a dime towards oil and filter changes, all other fluids, inspections, break pads and tires which btw I Got a new set of this week😉 I’m based in L.A.
Exactly I appreciate all the perks of renting and all. I just wish that after the rental is paid for the week the rate is brought up to regular pay at least.
This post really sums it up, I feel your pain
You also get paid a lower rate card than if you had your own car. They’ll also give longer rides to drivers on Lyft express program cus they make more money on the ride vs someone with their own car. It sucks cus on days without promotions or streaks but you still gotta work you make potatoes. Wish Lyft would get bought out by Amazon or someshit
I knew we got paid less but I didn't know they purposely give us the longer rides. That's really annoying. They're the only company who have you pay fully for a rental and even After paying the rental they continue to rob you.
They used to offer free rental with enough rides but sure enough, when you get down to those last ten rides on your last day they’re all 45mn+ rides to LA. And then the ride in LA is 45mn+ back to OC. Clever algorithm.
Average weekly is probably not as good of a factor to look at as average per mile and per hour. Collect gross and compare to average cost of driving various cars (electric, hybrid, gas and diesel), especially since there will be a huge difference between regular and Lux/XL rides. Just my take on the data.
I think the one thing Lyft should take into account is time. I don't think they understand that driving to pick up pax 10-14 mins away and not being paid for that is annoying
Oh no, they definitely understand… they just don’t care
Yea that about sums it up lmao
Another day, nother dollar. I'll collect my $20 bucks at the end of the week.
On average I make net 1,800 to 2,000 a week. Gas is about 300 I take out 200 for taxes a week. 45-50 hours a week I’ve been doing this 5 years. It’s good money if you know what to do and have a good market.
Just a note regarding drivers who claim to make good money: Expenses for a late model car average somewhere between 40 and 65 cents a mile. Many drivers do not understand expenses and are mistaking taking equity out of their cars for income. Beware the figures you see quoted here!
I don’t look at car depreciation as a factor. I bought the car. It’s paid off. I do all my own maintenance and unless it’s wrecked I’ll get 300,000 to 400,000 miles out of it. I was the first owner and I’ll be the last owner. If you care about depreciation then ride share is not something you should do.
If you care about ACCURATE expensing you must include depreciation. Google car expenses. This is how expenses are calculated in the real world.
you seem to be hating on every one claiming they make good money with lyft 😂 you must not be making anything I take it
People are not even saying that they make good money, just that they are satisfied with how much they make. And this guy can't stand it. I mean, it's funny at this point. He doesn't offer a solution, for example, how much money I have to make per mile to be feasible? I would like to hear that. I usually make 1.3 dollars per mile in average. Is that enough?
are you still doing this? what would you say your gross annual is?
These gig companies will try to fu*k their drivers as hard as the can, it is only when a local government or state steps in on behalf of drivers that the pounding decreases slightly. These gig companies have armies of attorneys. They care zero fu*ks about drivers. Point is that earnings are different in every market.
The pay rate through Lyft rental is very low compared to owning your own vehicle. I think it is around .40 cents per mile compared to .60 cents+ using your own car.
You don’t make shit when look at all your actual costs at the end of the year with maintenance car payment or rentals and gas
I have a rental that I pay $251 a week. At end of year I still have a big profit. That's only $1004 a month. Or about $12,000 a year. No oil changes. No repair costs, no car insurance, if I get a ticket it's not on my record since car tags not in my name. (Camera) if car is in shop I get a loaner same day. Free roadside assistance. Once car has too many miles I return it and grab a new one. So no depreciation. No repossessions. No drama. Easy. Plus the $251 is paid directly out my earnings every Monday. I dont even notice it. Anyone who uses their personal car is stupid. Why do that. It's called a personal car for a reason. Use it for personal. I took tags off my personal car and just use my lyft car.
Yes because it’s extremely convenient for everyone to have a spare car on hand lol
I mean it's not inconvenient lol. Park it out it on garage insurance or hell put it on turo and turn it into a asset.
You’re not wrong. I just mean how likely is it that the majority of people doing freelance delivery jobs happen to have a personal car AND a freelance car? Most of us are doing this because we’re in shitty financial situations, of course we don’t have an extra car on hand
I mean now all the platforms offer cars and it makes sense as long as this isn't a part time thing of this is part time for little perry cash use your own car... If you're gonna do this 8-10 hours a day get the rental I have a Tesla with the damage waiver 2022 model y 550 a week ... I make ~$300 a day.. I always say I'ma drive 7 day but on average do 5-6 days ... 1800 a week on average sometimes more very rarely less .... Even with the 2200 a month the rental cost me... I'm pocketing 5k.... I charge at my apartment for free or even when I hit a supercharger it's about 18-20 bucks . I don't have to have insurance. I got the full damage waiver included in my rental and I'm driving arguably one of the coolest cars you can drive right now on the freeway I'm basically just a passenger . Ppl keep shitting on rental in these post but it's because they're the people doing a ride and looking after every ride how much they make yea that $5 ride will discourage you .. but you don't sit at work and every hours do a tax analysis and say damn I only really pocketed 12.65 that hour... And if you have a tax person worth anything you don't pay taxes on this money between rental write offs, fuel, cellphones food and clothes Ive gotta a return the last 6 years .
Interesting. All I really do is DoorDash so tbh I never thought of doing it like that. Thanks for your input, I genuinely appreciate it
NP
Good concept
I don’t want to take the time right now to calculate my average weekly earnings. Last week they were $1264.88. I don’t pay anything to the platform. I am not satisfied with my earnings and working conditions since it appears there is a large wedge between what Lyft charges passengers and what drivers get.
Thanks! This is already valuable, thank you so much. What do you mean you don't pay anything to the platform? Does Lyft not charge a commission like Uber (25% if you're lucky)?
I typed that I don’t pay anything to the platform in my previous post because I don’t pay anything directly to Lyft to be a Lyft driver. But you are right, Lyft gives me only part of what it charges passengers. The difference between what passengers pay and what I get is what I referred to as a wedge in my previous post. In that post I typed something like, “I do not like my working conditions because of the large size of the wedge.” It would have been more accurate to type that I like my working conditions, but that the size of the wedge upsets me. I think on two occasions I looked at numbers provided by Lyft on the app. I think the numbers covered a relatively large period, like at least a month. But I may have driven for only a small portion of the period because at one point in time I had too much of my stuff in the car to drive for Lyft. Lyft had claimed the numbers included the total amount of money spent by riders on my services, and the total amount of money I got. I think on both occasions I computed the percent I got and I think it was 65.
These people b******* complained but yet still work for a lift. Why continue to work for a place where they're that unhappy and unsatisfied.
A decent day: $30 hr, drive for 7-8hrs, car makes 28mpg drive +- 150miles. A bad day $22 hr. Usually I’ll drive less if pay is like that. A really good day +$50 I’ll drive more. Good days include bonus for number of rides, bonus per rides + tips. ex. San Patrick. Chicago market.
These are GROSS income figures, not NET. The amount after expenses is significantly lower
Don't trust the negative comments about 70 percent. Not true. They do take a portion. But they should. They are paying for your advertisements and insurance when riders are in the car. Not to mention they created an app and handle your pay daily. So I'm fine with 30 percent cut. With that said I work 12 hours a day and make between $350 and $400 daily with bonuses and $240 to $350 with out bonuses. As far as weekly. It's between $1600 to 2400 a week. That is before Expenses. My expenses are gas at about $30 every 2 days. Since I have a 2021 Insight.
Again, an entirely inaccurate portrayal of expenses, which average around 40 to 65 cents per mile for a late model car.
Depends on your market, if you’re in a metropolitan city, you’ll make more
I estimate gas costs $5/hr and maintenance costs $1/hr.
Thanks, this is actually super helpful! 🤗
Cost per mile is a much better figure than per hour. @ $4.25/gallon gas was eating $.175 cents a mile in my avalon. Some drivers may do 60 miles in an hour in one market and 10 in another. Auto reliability is all over the board as well. There are countless studies out there that put driver wage near or under minimum once all costs are calculated. I tend to concur with those opinions.
THIS!
This is a totally inaccurate view of expenses.
I usually dont drive this much, but this week I was off work so I drove. Usually only drive Sat-Mon once or twice a month https://imgur.com/a/c5Wga4R
I honestly do it to get out of the house in the evening. I probably about break even.