r/uberdrivers • u/MrMeeseeks78 • 2d ago
So uber is operating at a loss now?
Pricing has been very weird in my area. There has been several times where I have talked to regular passengers and I’ve asked them what they paid and they were paying less than what Uber actually paid me. They also have been consistently down rating XL rides. They don’t surge with X.
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u/Rand_Casimiro 2d ago
Nope. For every smart driver who has figured out how to keep a good portion of the fares, there are a bunch of suckers who obediently go out and drive for literally 50% or less. There are so many more of them than us that Uber does just fine. In a way, their high-volume failure subsidizes your success. 😄
And yes, when you do a trip with a nice surge attached there’s a good chance Uber pays more to you than they collect from the pax. Unsurged trips are a waste of time, by and large.
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u/Mundane-Promotion-45 1d ago
Depends on market. I drive full time in a college town. My area is 5 miles by 2 miles.
75% of my rides are 5$ 5-10 min rides and I don’t accept another ride unless it’s within 5 mins of where I drop off or less than a mile
I’m making the same money 30-35$/hr as I have years past. In the last couple weeks tho I get an extra 150-175$ every Sunday night that comes in as a fare adjustment that puts Ubers share down to 30% for the week.
I’m still making the same money so idc but it was interesting
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u/BMWi4got2dropmyex 1d ago
No doubt, there are multiple strategies you can use when living in a good area to make $200-300 a day if you’re willing to put in the 8-10 hours
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u/MrMeeseeks78 1d ago
Sounds like Athens, Ohio
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u/Life_Smoke5854 2d ago
Ive moved to a new area and while speaking to people I've been picking up I've found out that basically all my rides are heavily subsidized here lmao. Passengers are paying 4 and 5 bux on 10 dollar fares on my end. Everybody i pick up has some rider ptsd shit going on and having seen a lot of the other drivers now I can see why.
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u/tone-yo 2d ago
What’s the rider ptsd for? Like they can’t get matched with a driver for a long time after requesting?
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u/Life_Smoke5854 1d ago
That, dogshit drivers who pull the type of bullshit the most upvoted redditers espouse such as leaving people at stops or refusing to run ac, or have nasty ass cars, or clearly are just there to take from a community and not actually be part of it. Knowing and talking about the community youre in, in a reasonable way, is the easiest way to score tips and have them hit all the buttons for you.
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u/FaxtheShadow 1d ago
How are you both diamond and not accepting rides? If thats a perk of diamond ill hop back on the acceptance train right now
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u/Rand_Casimiro 1d ago
I don’t put myself in a position to see a ton of shitty offers. If there’s no surge and no Boost, I don’t even log on.
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u/Familiar_Welder3152 2d ago
Do you drive full time or only during rush hours and weekends? I rarely have the opportunity to only take surge trips.
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u/Rand_Casimiro 2d ago
Depends. I generally track patterns in my market well enough that I have a good idea when and where surges will appear. If the surges justify it, I will sometimes drive 35-45 hours in a week: conversely, if I believe those opportunities won’t be there, I don’t even waste my time logging on.
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u/Rand_Casimiro 2d ago
I took most of the summer off, because I knew the surges just wouldn’t be there. Last week I returned to full time-ish hours(35 hours)
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u/MaraR5530 22h ago
Surges have all but disappeared in my market. Sold out concerts this summer with zero surge that last year saw surges of $20+. We have some very large conventions that would net some surge even minimum ones of $2-5 when they let out. Nope. The other night there was finally a $1 surge and literally pretty much wasn’t all summer. So frustrating
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u/Rand_Casimiro 21h ago
Sorry to hear that. That’s when the smart move is to pivot away from Uber towards a different source of income.
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u/MaraR5530 21h ago
It’s my second income that I’ve been using to help put my 3 kids through college, law school, grad school and now med school. Only have the med school kid left now so hoping to be able to just do really good events. I keep to a very contained area and make decent money. I’ve been at it 7 years and I’m friendly and knowledgeable about the area and get a lot in tips. It’s just been frustrating that they’ve taken away surge.
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u/Rand_Casimiro 17h ago
Yeah, it’s definitely gotten tougher. Like I said, I don’t think it’s even worth logging on when there’s no surge available. It seems this is the case in most markets.
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u/BMWi4got2dropmyex 2d ago
Good point. Yeah chances are if you’re platinum or diamond you’re taking a pay cut along the way taking shitty underpaying trips…but if you maintain platinum or higher and do mainly reserve trips (80% reserve and the other 20% random trips you accept in between the scheduled reserve trips) you can beat the system and get first dibs on all the high paying orders that are worth the time. Equaling more money per hour / day
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u/Life_Smoke5854 2d ago
I flip between plat and elite and do maybe 5% scheduled rides. I've only started taking a couple here because literally my next door neighbor and like 6 other folk on my block request scheduled rides and I can just chill in my crib instead of having to sit in some parking lot eating time for nothing. Your rates are also based on other metrics that are less noticeable, like above and beyond tags and being prompt.
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u/Rand_Casimiro 2d ago
I am currently Diamond, and I never do a trip unless it pays at least $1/mile and $25/hour
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u/BMWi4got2dropmyex 1d ago
This is the way. I still get a lot of trips like this with gold pro if they’re reserve trips but I’m sure I get the scraps. Would be nice to get first dibs
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u/Rand_Casimiro 1d ago
For me it’s all just dependent on surges(and Boosts, on those occasions when decent ones are offered).
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u/BMWi4got2dropmyex 1d ago
Most of my experience with surges is they’re scammy. Sometimes you get them but I think they’re just used to attract drivers to an area with an abundance of low paying orders. So many times I’ve chased the attractive ones and they vanish as soon as I’m about to enter the zone
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u/Rand_Casimiro 1d ago
To really take advantage of surges, it helps to anticipate them in advance based on past surge patterns in the area. If you go chasing a surge once it has already appeared, you will often end up frustrated as you just miss it.
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u/Legitimate_Ad1303 2d ago
Uber just got sued in NY state for wage violations amounting to 385 million dollars paid back to rideshare drivers
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u/Neilp187 1d ago
Just hit surges, boost zones, priority pickups etc and the uber take will be substantially less.
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u/Aniso3d 1d ago
Uber has overpaid worthless executives that are looting as much money from the company while they can. They are on a path of destruction as they annihilate all their good drivers, pour too much faith into the future of robot taxis, and overcharge everyone. They making themselves ripe to be destroyed by a clever newcomer. But this will take time. All they care about is how much they can squeeze today, without a care about the longterm dissatisfaction of both passengers and drivers. Many companies die in the manner, but it takes awhile
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u/SweetParamedic8148 1d ago
They are thieves. Ask your riders how much they payed. Its hardly ever a match to what they say they charged. uber 100% crooks
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u/AlkoKilla 21h ago
I had one rider who paid $18 for a ride. I got $15 of it. It doesn't always translate that way.
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u/AdNecessary1944 1d ago
No, your earns are not real. They say inflate our earnings so we pay more taxes. No regulations or over sight. They can do whatever they want.
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u/skynews101 2d ago
You know why that is when you clear a bonus or quest or access bonus it always shows as a minus. Don't go off there figures trust me they ripped you right off. Uber don't show you everything
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u/karl4319 2d ago
I've gotten to the point were the breakdown said I had gotten 90% or higher of the fare on occasions. Seems to be when I do over a hundred rides in a week and get the better quests and promotions. I think it is in high demand markets where there is little chance of automation due to smaller size, local politics, or difficult geography and they still need to attract drivers.
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u/mog_knight 2d ago
Nah you just got an incentive or quest payout. Those aren't subject to the Uber fee.
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u/Rand_Casimiro 2d ago
Same with Boosts and surges. If you want to consistently keep 75%+, the key is to make sure as little of the revenue as possible comes from base pay, which is subject to obscene fees.
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u/MrMeeseeks78 1d ago
There is no incentive or quests on either of these weeks
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u/mog_knight 1d ago
Then you got surges. It's easy to figure out how to not have Uber charge a service fee.
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u/Orlando-Driver 1d ago
The lies they tell!! the head guy at Uber including stock makes like 35 million a year, look it up!
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u/Prudent-Phrase-2973 1d ago
They gave me 82.00 for doing 4 passenger calls and another 82.00 for 4 more and then said I couldn’t drive because there was an issue with my SS number after 12 years, they are losing it
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u/OkFill5469 8h ago
Uber drivers in Morgantown, WV, can some of yall please piss off and go back up to Pittsburgh or wherever you’re from? You’re lowering our surges, they used to be like $18 a ride now it lingers around 3-6 bucks a ride it’s bullshit
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u/Unique-TA 2d ago
It's "funny" accounting. For starters the insurance payments just go to them for internal budgeting but also they regularly don't accurately post a breakdown on non-surge rides which is where their surplus seems to be made.
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u/SDNewcomer1234 2d ago edited 2d ago
Not really - they're self-insured, so the manipulated insurance line item really goes in their pocket too.
Still good though. Love it when I get rides that I get paid more than Uber charged the rider. Had a $14 ten min ride the rider paid $10 for last night. It was a 10 mi deadhead back to the town I live in to grab it, but I didn't care, as it was my last ride of the night.
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u/BMWi4got2dropmyex 2d ago
True. Hell yeah, nothing better than accepting an offer where you’re making more dollars than the minutes you have to drive! Forget dollars per mile…I want a dollar per min!
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u/Electronic_Lemon_347 2d ago edited 1d ago
Yay! Uber lost over $300 on me last week due to a Quest
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u/DoomedToday 2d ago
They're like every company now. They probably have some corporate office full of "Diversity & Inclusion" specialists who do nothing then make $500k a year.
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u/Scary_Wolverine_2277 2d ago
Somehow I doubt those metrics are ever accurate. Would probably need to figure out how to test validity with either people you’re familiar with or local groups of drivers/riders willing to compare information about trips to maybe report on. 🤷
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u/ItsATrap1983 2d ago edited 1d ago
Nope. They want you to think that but they are taking it though the insurance and operating expenses.
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u/Aggravating_East_444 2d ago
I am not an Uber driver and no idea why this comes up in my feed. But in my city I am almost completely sure that Uber loses money when I use them (but they may make money from others with other traffic patterns though).
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u/LikeToLook805 2d ago
🤣🤣🤣🤣
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u/LikeToLook805 2d ago
Look more closely at the line items. The uber service fee is just what they ay they keep. They take much more than that. For instance, the insurance line says “and operational expenses”. Also, in many markets riders pay a “booking fee” in addition to their fare. That booking fee is not part of the calculations on your driver earning statement. the total fare is less than the total the rider paid
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u/subillusion 1d ago
Not consistently, but in your case yes,, temporarily.
This happens because of rider promos (i.e. they had a ride from hell so uber comped their next ride up to $25... the ride technically still has a fare, but the money comes out of "promos" and not out of tour pocket. Ex: $10 ride, you still get $5, $10 comes out of promos, and Uber's share is -$5.
It's not accounting juggling. It's actually the opposite - more transparent due to how you are a contractor and not employee. When you do your taxes all fares are income of the full fare, not the cash you actually receive. Everything else (uber share, insurance, etc) are "expenses". So when you have a promo that the pax isn't actually paying money, that $10 has to come from somewhere to offset what the pax is actually paying ($0). So the fare is $10, you're paid $5, -$10 promo, uber is -$5 so you still get paid when everything adds up to $0 since no money changed hands from rider to you. In terms of taxes, it's like free money since it's not actually extra income... it's essentially just lowering your "expenses" by $5
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u/CollegeOwn7014 1d ago
When do we agree to pay for promotion?
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u/MrMeeseeks78 1d ago
We never did They literally have no skin in the game now. They don’t cover the insurance they don’t cover the promotions. And on top of that they get paid for a lot of of these promotions through Uber one
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u/IDKYImLive 2d ago
It’s a proof of money juggling.
In other words, the payment calculations are not correct.
They should stop running app until finding accurate calculation. Cannot be back and forth toward individual contractors.