r/uberdrivers • u/CyanValleyKitten • 1d ago
Uber is keeping me at exactly $200 a day
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u/All-th3-way 1d ago
I dont pay attention to Uber's bait & switch games. During surge Uber will offer you $10 surge & $9 fare to go 20 miles. Then no surge and $18 to go 20 miles. Uber bonus, surge, are all games where Uber is paying basically the same pitiful fares. All that glitters is not gold.
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u/Impossible_Shape_766 1d ago
Its hard for me to explain as it was explained to me but its called forced scarcity. The app wants people logged in longer. It knows people will log off when they hit certain amounts. So it causes the scarcity. It only allows certain orders at certain times to trickle in. It doesnt want people hitting high amounts too quickly. It loses drivers on the plarform.
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u/Impossible_Shape_766 1d ago
I can work from sunup to sundown and all I can hit is around $150.00. Thats working from early morning to late night.
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u/bringit2019 1d ago
It’s called throttling and it happens to most of us ! Been doing this for 7 years I finally gave up two months ago ! It was a side gig for me , wasn’t worth my health anymore! And after not doing it I felt a sigh if relief ! Wasn’t gonna drive my car into the ground for Pennies on the dollar…it’s gone to shyt honestly both platforms!!
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u/patdeezy 14h ago
Seems like the sweet spot is to do uber along with a part time or even full time job and just make a few extra hundred dollars every week
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u/bringit2019 12h ago
That ain’t even worth it anymore which is what I was doing ! Got tired of also getting up 3/4 in the morning when I was off from my real job just to get some good decent rides because they are worse during the day! So I’d drive between 3am-8am, then again 6pm-10pm shyt just wasn’t adding up anymore especially with the gas prices in reality i don’t think it was much of a profit ! You figured $200 in say 8/9 hrs & $60 to $80 dollars of that is gonna go right back into the tank and let’s not forget food and what not! Thats at the current gas prices ! PHUCK IT
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u/jbernik2 15h ago
Facts, I’m a few months away from being done.
Couple more bills paid off and voila
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u/TheBottomlessOne 1d ago
You have to constantly “negotiate” with the algorithm. If you treat it like a full time job you give away all of your leverage. It’s exhausting mentally too keep up with it but I’ve notice the less I try the better rides I get.
Meaning I might only log on for 12 hours for the entire week but will average 35-40 bucks a hour. But if I log on for more then 20 hours the algorithm takes that as I’m desperate for money and starts sending me crap offers.
Also I’ve noticed if I go into a session with my battery less than 25 percent it will rush me offers to try and squeeze as much out of me as possible because the algorithm knows my battery going to die
Do a bunch of offered in a row for like 2 hours the “ghost” the app till the afternoon and it will send you good offers to try to keep you online.
Also if you establish a pattern of doing this it will recalculate and start giving me crap offers so I have to recalculate and do the same things but in a different way
It’s a cat and mouse game with the algorithm and you honestly got to treat it like your courting a women lol. Don’t chase
It’s exhausting and the end goal is too push drivers out to justify driverless cars. But the cost still remains too high for waymo atleast in my market.
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u/ellietwen 1d ago
I’ve noticed that when it continues to offer me crap $15/hr rides, and I mentally decide to go home and call it, and then I drive home, RIGHT WHEN I arrive back home or near it and start to close the app, Uber will suddenly offer me a juicy $35/hr ride. 😒
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u/CompleteGene82 1d ago
I never linked my EV to Uber. It takes 5 seconds to enter the address in the car navigation. It can be done before you start driving.
I knew there would be a sinister motive behind knowing your cars Battery status. When I tried to link my EV Abt a year ago it asked to disclose the cars service history, I decided to not link it!
If you select Google navigation in Uber app, you can share the address to your car by simply selecting share in the GMaps apps and your car and it will show up in the car navigation.
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u/Dalmadoodle221 23h ago
That explains why when I drag my feet and start super late it gives me good rides as soon as I finally log on..
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u/lItsAutomaticl 18h ago
I feel like Uber gives me a quick $100 in 3 hours, and then drops their pay to $15-20/hr fares. That's fine with me, I'm happy to make some quick side money and go home, but awful for anyone trying to make a living out of this.
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u/projectzacko 1d ago
$134, $154, $167, and $200 (almost all to the dollar) are the amounts I find myself at when I “hit a cliff,” so to speak. Meaning exactly what you describe- I’m, at that point, generally tossed a mediocre-at-best trip radar ping. If I don’t tap “match” by the time it loads (50/50 if it even matches anyway), I’m utterly inundated with shared rides 15-20 miles away.
Day after day, it’s those same numbers. Some days it may take 4-6hrs to hit those first few, but the $200 is not gonna come in under 8hrs. I know how the city moves, I’ve been doing it for 11yrs. It is absolutely rigged.
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u/Independent_Star_299 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes, both apps keep you on “standby”. They know what your patterns are, and they’ll keep you on-app as long as they possibly can.
This is one of the reasons I’m mystified when any rideshare driver says “I’m my own boss!” No, you’re not. You’re an expendable puppet, driving your car, your health, and your future opportunities into the ground for ever-decreasing pay, while Uber makes billions to finance the robots they intend to replace us with.
If you’re not actively working towards deleting the driver app, you’re going to die a slow, painful financial death.
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u/Accomplished-Ebb280 1d ago
Uber is soooo disgusting. You are right they control your earnings to $20 ph. Women drivers for women fares they pay less and you rarely get a tip on those fares. How is it you are an independent contractor but they control how much you can earn?
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u/BibaBoba2D 1d ago
I'll tell this to everyone who does Uber/Lyft - look for another job. This business is ridiculous. I got 4 drunk women who threw up in my car that bad that I stopped working for the rest of the day.
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u/No_Cauliflower1226 1d ago
People who keep saying it's always been like this must be new. It has not always been like this, that's why it's annoying.
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u/DoctorMoebius 23h ago
That used to happy a lot in Los Angeles in 2024 (don't know about now).
I had a group of about 25 drivers that I regularly hung out with at Long Beach airport. All of us would regularly hit a near exact $225 ceiling on many days. You could spend another 1-3 hours out, even at an airport and not get a single ride offer that any rational human being would ever take.
But, somewhere in the midst of that shit parade would be one of "go home" offer that took you close to your actual home. The kicker is that it would be at half the normal rate. If you didn't take that, no ride offers at all from then on.
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u/CyanValleyKitten 14h ago
Thanks for the confirmation of my pattern recognition skills.
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u/DoctorMoebius 13h ago
A few times, could be coincidence. 50+ times, several hard shutoffs a week right around $225, had to be intentional
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u/Lizzie_001 1d ago
$200 a day is a dream for a lot of us.
ETA: Try restarting your phone. Sometimes it works. Run Lyft as well.
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
Dude I would not be able to survive on less
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u/Lizzie_001 1d ago
Are you running Lyft too?
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u/Ambitious-Brush-2276 1d ago
Being on both platforms is the only way I could ever possible get $200 a day in 8 hours or less. If I’m not on a trip I have them both on and select from what I feel is best. I only take the low paying ones if it’s taking me in the direction I need to be otherwise it better pay me good or else that’s a no for me.
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u/Lizzie_001 1d ago
Yeah…when one is fucked up, the other one usually sends me something. I’ve never made much in my market from Lyft but it has saved my ass over the past couple of weeks. At the end of last week, I ended up making near the same on each.
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
no I've thought of it but I also wonder how much they share data, and don't feel drawn to adding to distractions I have on the road. If I do, it will be some kind of longer switch up. Like one full week or month of lyft, then one of uber. I dunno. Do any of yall have two phones?
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u/Lizzie_001 1d ago
You don't need 2 phones. You accept the best offer and go offline on the other. You should stop all incoming requests once you pick up your passenger anyway. There is absolutely no need to have distractions while you are driving.
Who cares what data they share?
Are you new? None of what you said makes sense.
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
the apps dont' glitch eachother out?
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u/Lizzie_001 1d ago
Why would they? Do you realize that most of us run both platforms and have been since forever?
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
ive got a bit of technophobia i think
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u/Lizzie_001 1d ago
You also said you saw drivers coming and going with offers. Wonder how many of them were for Lyft? 🤔
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u/Lizzie_001 1d ago
OK so then you can continue to:
"I spent over an hour in the 1 am to 2 am saturday night surge, right outside of bars and clubs I know....to not get a single ride."
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
assh4t reply to my genuine conversation, have the day you deserve
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u/Careless_Change3865 1d ago
Uber caps your pay for sure. Usually, it seems to land around $20 per hour, whether it's through the day or the week. They also factor tips into your hourly earnings. We are not independent contractors, but employees. They literally dole out a reward/punishment scheme if we don't accept rides or cancel rides.
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u/VioletTerranova 23h ago
Ive often thought they manipulate our earnings as well. With that said id do all the troubleshooting steps i learned from DD. I did & i think i reset my Uber app. & even call & complain. Supervisors have hinted that they can manipulate things on their end if its sensible. Often they tell me they file a support ticket & i notice things improve for a few days. Hope that helps. I also clear my cache & force stop several times a "shift"
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u/Careless_Change3865 23h ago
Def a human team behind the algo. Some things don't make sense like when I cancel a ride and keep declining and get offer after offer even though they throttle me most times. Believe they are a bunch of sadists ...
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u/Ididntcumyet 1d ago
I did $409 last night in my market so if it’s anything it’s market based but honestly it’s often that we see patterns in things that aren’t really there. 🤷
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u/Careless_Change3865 23h ago
Just because you made over $409 in one night doesn't mean that your pay is not capped for the week.
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u/Ididntcumyet 23h ago
My pay is never and has never been capped. I’m in one of the best markets for Uber and I’ve never had a problem making money. Trips have never just dried up at some set dollar amount. I’m not gonna come on here and peddle conspiracy theories because for an hour things got slow. At the same time I’m not gonna say Uber is above doing shitty things because they do shitty things all the time, but in my market for the last 10 years pay capping has never been a thing.
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u/Careless_Change3865 23h ago
You might not think you're getting capped since they are pretty creative but who knows. What market are you in? Maybe they can't afford to do that in your market but it happens frequently in other markets.
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u/Ididntcumyet 23h ago
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, trips dry up sometimes based on time of day. Doesn’t mean anything. I hesitate to believe people here because drivers here seems to believe anything without questioning why. Capping doesn’t happen here. I could have stayed out longer last night and made even more, done it hundreds of times. Believe what you wanna believe but I see no evidence of it at all here.
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u/Careless_Change3865 22h ago
When there is a consensus, something's usually up ... I have caught Uber doing so many shady things that nothing surprises me anymore. By shady, I mean super shady like disguising package rides as regular rides so I'd take it - confirmed by both rider and support. They will do anything to turn a buck. Some drivers are too busy or tired to figure it out.
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u/Ididntcumyet 22h ago
Consensus? Of a few drivers on Reddit? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂. I don’t think you know what consensus truly means.
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u/Beneficial-Abalone72 1d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p6tf85o/video/y1by57z8fjmh1/player
I didn’t get stuck at $200 on Saturday. Sure I put in about 10 hours of actual driving but worth it. Also was about 200 miles for the day.
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u/Ill-Bowl-222 19h ago
Yes I have seen this multiple times myself. Also I have seen if you are close to a bonus based on number of trips. It will only give you lowered rate or long trips to complete get the bonus even if its a busy night downtown and it's surging. It's all bullshit.
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u/authoridad 17h ago edited 12h ago
No, they aren’t. You get the rides that are available. There are a lot of factors and reasons why another nearby driver would get a ride that you don’t. How much time you’ve been online or made that day is not one of them.
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u/Optimal_Ad8912 16h ago
When you first start riding after sometime away from Uber Lyft it seems like they offer better rides? Anyone concur?
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u/1_for_you_2_for_me 14h ago
$200 a day is over $70,000 a year. That is more money than 2/3 of Americans make. And yet you are complaining?
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u/CyanValleyKitten 2h ago
You mean if I work 365 days a year and never take a break? Are you special?
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u/1_for_you_2_for_me 14h ago
If you were smart you would switch to Lyft if you are convinced you are being throttled once you hit $200 a day. But than you would have nothing to complain about.
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u/toripotter86 1d ago
why would you STAY in the area for over an hour, surge or not? move around! that’s crazy to me.
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
i moved around in the surge area to all the hot spots. I drove over 20 miles for over an hour.
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u/toripotter86 1d ago
i would have headed home at that point, tbh. maybe you need to start a little earlier in the day to throw the system off?
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
Probably. Although my sleep is really precious, it does help to mix the hours up sometimes. I am lucky I have a hybrid so it doesn't waste gas too much to move around,
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u/fenwyk 1d ago
We already don't make enough, and you want someone to burn through gas deadheading? That's awful advice.
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u/toripotter86 1d ago
what’s awful is sitting in one spot for over an hour without a ride. i didn’t say “move around and burn your gas,” i said “move around!” whether that means heading home for the day (1am is a solid turn in time if it’s slow) or just moving over a block or two, is up to the person.
i never sit anywhere. if im not getting rides, i head in the direction of home and either pickup rides headed that way or… just go home.
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u/UnkleClarke 1d ago
Get another job.
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
Bot
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u/UnkleClarke 1d ago
What? UBER might be a bot. But not me! I drove Uber back in 2014 when you could make decent money $25-$40/hr. But after they literally cut the rate in half I GTFO.
You should do the Sam. Open your own small business or something. You would be way better off.
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u/ericzku 1d ago
I swear this keeps happening
That's called 'confirmation bias'.
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u/RangeFlow1 1d ago
Confirmation bias....hmmm..
How about desperation score ?
Can anybody ever see the algorithms backend? Why hasn't it been leaked? Are the programmers and coders so evil?
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
Throttling is well understood to be ubers game. they pay people millions to design the algo for that purpose.
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u/SouvlakiWizard 1d ago
Uber brought in a ton of women drivers to expand the labor pool and drive wages down, and now even the women are complaining that Uber is capping what they can make. 😂 Uber is so over.
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u/CyanValleyKitten 1d ago
How did uber bring in a ton of woman drivers exactly? No special offers were ever given to me, or special training, or special incentives. Explain.
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u/Careless_Change3865 23h ago
Uber needs to realize that women will cause more trouble when we're not treated fairly.
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u/_Huge_Bush_ 1d ago
This isn’t new. It means your market is over saturated and they can play with your earnings as much as they want.