Read this before you quit driving for Uber or Lyft

Just before you decided that driving for Uber or Lyft is a bum deal, read this article. It's only going to outline in brief why driving for these companies is actually a good deal. I will start by stating that I am a part-time driver, I only do day sessions, I don't drive nights because I have family and personal things to deal with as well as needing proper rest. This is a motivational article for all the frustrated drivers or people with issues that eat away at the back of their minds, filtering in their daily fears and indecisions and causing them to be less a driver and more a burden, which also makes them make mistakes and get lower ratings.

Rather than discuss the negatives, which we all know, such as passengers puking and arguing and other stuff like that, let's look at all the good reasons for driving.

  1. Freedom
    I get to choose when I drive and for how long. I also get to spend time with my family whenever I want and can set my schedules around my family and not the other way. If you are in the middle of a schedule and you feel the pressure of the day add up. Just log off, go to a quiet place and relax for a moment. Then log on again and start earning again. No one controls your day but you.

  2. Support
    Working for Uber is totally dependent on you, so if you have no other sources of income and you are already an Uber driver, then stay the course and just set your own work schedule. If you feel down, if you are hit with a numbing coldness of uncertainty, just know that you set your own course. You are master of your life, even in the most uncertain instances. So, your decisions must be made wisely. Uber can support your income status at any time.

  3. Bad Income Days
    We have all had those slow days when you only earn around $20-$30, but in those instances, you should be a driver for more than one service. Add to your itinerary Lyft and Uber, and then add UberEats, DoorDash, Postmates, Amazon Flex, basically, make driving a full-time, part-time job. Log off a quiet service provider and log on to another and keep on leaping from one to another, logging on until you find one that is active.

  4. Motivation
    Remember, there are always people in need out there, and every time you drive someone, you are also helping them. You might get a job candidate on the way to an interview, or an expectant father on the way to a hospital delivery room. You never know who is entering your car, and once you start talking with them, you find out how you can help them. By helping them, you are helping yourself, giving yourself inner peace form that feeling of being charitable while also being paid for it.

  5. The Half-Filled Cup
    We have all heard this term, how do you see the half-filled cup, half full or half empty? Well from now on you are going to look at it half filled because your life has substance and it is filled. The difference between a really rich person and a poor one is perception. If you are married with kids and have a wonderful family, and if you work for Uber or Lyft making even a small income, and if you are happy. This means, you are not out there chasing wild dreams and fantasies, but concentrating on how to improve your life for your family through hard work, and keeping your expectation levels high but within reason. You are a rich person because you are content with even the smallest things, and this makes you richer than the richest guy on earth. If you are constantly moaning how bad life is, and worrying who will help you rather then concentrate on helping yourself, you will always be poor and consent even if you are financially rich. You just have to look at all those rich and famous people committing suicide or stealing money through Ponzi schemes to see what poor really is.

  6. Planning Your Day
    Let's look at a day in the life of an average Joe with a wife, two kids, a mortgage or rent and no other job but driving. Your wife is working as a cashier, or an assistant and your kids are in public school. You go to Church, Mosque, Temple or whatever religion you are, and you try to provide sustenance and education as well as cultural heritage in your home. You get up in the morning, drive your kids and wife to school and work and then start your day. Now, you can drive for 12 hours if you want, just make sure you stop for lunch and snacks, make sure you have time to pick up your wife and kids and even drive them to their various after-school activities if you want. You might even consider adding one hour a day to the gym. If you can work for six net hours a day, you will make at least $181 a day without tips, which is $80 a day after expenses. This is $2,080 month just from driving 26 days a month without tips. So, tell me, how hard is it for you really?

Wish it worked that way here. Not enough business except during peak hours.

@Khall Where do you drive?

Bellingham, WA the last bastion of civilization before you get to the wild lands up north. Where only rabid walruses and elk-mounted RCMP lancers live. :slight_smile:

How about you? Also sorry for the ridiculous number of edits in last response.

@Khall I drive around Seattle and south of Seattle. It’s lot more stressful (It’s hell!) to drive around Seattle, but there’s definitely lot more work.

Are you driving part-time?

Eh 30+ hours a week. It’s just not that busy up here. Too few riders. Sitting downtown in the center of the bars and restaurants any week night but Friday you can wait 40 mins between calls.

Are tips any better in Bellingham? What I found driving in Seattle is that only about 3-4% of the total customers tip. Most of it isn’t even close to 20% of the fare.

Tips are weird. 80% is $1, 15% $2, other %5? No idea how they tip. $5-25 depending on how drunk they are.

But that’s of the maybe 10% of riders who tip. Drunker nights it can be 50% or nobody.

$40 in tips is a really good week for me. Most weeks I would say I get $8-13. It’s not a significant source of income. I mostly use my tips to feed to the vacuum or the occasional parking meter.

Had a lyft driver that rode with me, he drives in Seattle. He told me he makes $60-70 a night in tips and isn’t as nice to riders as I am. :stuck_out_tongue: