# Why Uber Drivers are Getting Scammed



## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

Video Date Sept. 18 2020

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Uber drivers are getting scammed because they make SIGNIFICANTLY less money than they are led to believe.

You will see many blog posts and YouTube videos following Uber, Lyft, and UberEats drivers for the day where they show you how they made over $20 per hour while rideshare driving. What they typically don't show you is their expenses. Uber passes on all of the expenses and risk to the Uber drivers. Uber drivers are forced to pay maintenance costs for the wear and tear on their vehicle, their gas costs, and the depreciation of the vehicle.

This adds up to an amount that eats into the profits of the Uber drivers to the extent that most Uber drivers may not be making any money at all.

Uber as a company is losing billions of dollars every quarter and there is no sign of them ever turning the corner for a profit. They are pouring all of their resources into research & development to build self driving vehicles so they can finally eliminate the expense of paying their drivers. Uber drivers have been protesting for years asking for a living wage. That living wage will never come as long as Uber is not profitable and the drivers are forced to front the money for depreciation, maintenance, and repairs.

I used many resources to make this video, including but not limited to, articles detailing how 96% Uber drivers leave the platform within a year, YouTube videos detailing Uber drivers and UberEats drivers earnings for a full day of rideshare driving, and many blog posts sharing necessary data on repair expenses and average earnings.

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Basically what he's saying is the operating and maintenance costs, wear and tear and depreciation on your vehicle is what is killing your earnings as a driver.The taxes are also killing you since you are paying much more in taxes as an idependent contractor than as an employee. You might be making $20 an hour in the beginning, but will be paying at least half that in expenses down the line.


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## Amos69 (May 17, 2019)

My Profit margin is 53%. That is 53 of every $100 is profit. I drive an SUV that qualifies for XL, and have around 70 dead miles a day.

$ per hour is a failing metric for measuring success in R/S as no one gets paid by the hour. I have twice as many hours I make $0 than ones I make $75. Both things happen regularly.

People driving fuel efficient vehicles that live in urban centers should have higher PM than I


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

Amos69 said:


> My Profit margin is 53%. That is 53 of every $100 is profit. I drive an SUV that qualifies for XL, and have around 70 dead miles a day.
> 
> $ per hour is a failing metric for measuring success in R/S as no one gets paid by the hour. I have twice as many hours I make $0 than ones I make $75. Both things happen regularly.
> 
> People driving fuel efficient vehicles that live in urban centers should have higher PM than I


Per hour earnings is nothing more than the average of earnings (ie: weekly earnings divided by hours driven) to simplify the point he is making. It is a valid metric. The per hour metric is what virtually everyone uses to describe how much they make on average as a driver.


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## Fusion_LUser (Jan 3, 2020)

Well I guess UP must be the home of the 4% because there are a lot of drivers who have been driving for Uber and/or Lyft far more than one year!

Before the fare multiple here in CA I had no problem doing $30 an hour and with the fare multiplier I am above $50 an hour. My profit margin is 68% and at first I thought that was kind of low but I count the entire monthly expenses for the entire month even though I only do this P/T and I use my car non-business related travel. I imagine if I just break down my monthly expenses for use the time I am using my car for ridesharing the profit margin will be higher. But I guess some video on the internet is more believable than my lying eyes.

And the simplest way to not drive your car in to the ground is don't use if for business. A car loses value even when you don't use it for business so why would you not lose even more value when you use it to make money? All business owners have expenses and those expenses can make or break the owner in any business field.


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## jeanocelot (Sep 2, 2016)

getawaycar said:


> Basically what he's saying is the operating and maintenance costs, wear and tear and depreciation on your vehicle is what is killing your earnings as a driver.The taxes are also killing you since you are paying much more in taxes as an idependent contractor than as an employee. You might be making $20 an hour in the beginning, but will be paying at least half that in expenses down the line.


"Livery business owner partners"  need to consider their costs and also the extra self-employment/FICA taxes to come up with an equivalent wage from a canonical W-2 job.

Something else that is happening is that there are folks that were a bit foolish in buying a relatively expensive car, and their income got cut, so they essentially are working for W-2-equivalent peanuts so that they can recapture part of the equity in their fancy new car as a source of "income".


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

getawaycar said:


> Video Date Sept. 18 2020
> 
> ============================================
> Uber drivers are getting scammed because they make SIGNIFICANTLY less money than they are led to believe.
> ...


Our cars are our tools. Tools wear down, break and need to be replaced. I put over 200k miles on a 12k car in 3 years. 
Then still got $3000 for it
In those years i made over $200,000.
I usually have to pay about 10% of my gross income for gas. The taxes allow me to write off about 1/2 of my income for miles. Ill agree that uber needs self driving cars and i would like some tips
If you need to figure in depreciation or repairs you have the wrong mechanic and/or are driving the wrong car..


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## luckytown (Feb 11, 2016)

there is no money to be made in rideshare......what most people are doing is cashing in on the value of thier vehicle...if you dont belive me tell Uber/Lyft that you will work for minimum wage and tips...as long as they provide and maintain a car....they will laugh in your face.....lol.....


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## I will crack Lyft hacks (Aug 5, 2019)

25rides7daysaweek said:


> If you need to figure in depreciation or repairs you have the wrong mechanic and/or are driving the wrong car..


That does not sound correct at all.
Our cars are our tools and come with a cost per mile.
My car is not the most efficient, so my cost per mile is higher than average. 
But I have 40 cents a mile cost regardless of how we cut it.
Drivers are said to average about 22 miles per hour logged on time. ( on x)
For me that means 10$ per hour cost to operate.
I pull about 25-30 gross per hour. That means I am making 15-20 net. Simple.
My net is higher than most drivers, yet below some of the guys on here, whom are the top 5% earners per hour.
I would assume more than 75% try it out and can't hit the 15-20 $ net. 
So the 96% turnaround for new hires does make sense.


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## Amos69 (May 17, 2019)

getawaycar said:


> Per hour earnings is nothing more than the average of earnings (ie: weekly earnings divided by hours driven) to simplify the point he is making. It is a valid metric. The per hour metric is what virtually everyone uses to describe how much they make on average as a driver.


Employee thinking.

It's why many struggle to make money doing this. $ per hour has no bearing on profitability from a success standpoint. Is it a measurment tool of past performance? Yes. Yes it is good to analyze the things you did wrong to get better, and things you did right to continue to grow, but $ per hour does none of that.

It is an employee mentality boondoggle.



luckytown said:


> there is no money to be made in rideshare......what most people are doing is cashing in on the value of thier vehicle...if you dont belive me tell Uber/Lyft that you will work for minimum wage and tips...as long as they provide and maintain a car....they will laugh in your face.....lol.....


This is a lie. A Trumpian sized lie. Yes you have to amortize out the cost of the vehicle. My average amortization is around $5,800. I drive nice late model rigs.


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## luckytown (Feb 11, 2016)

Amos69 said:


> Employee thinking.
> 
> It's why many struggle to make money doing this. $ per hour has no bearing on profitability from a success standpoint. Is it a measurment tool of past performance? Yes. Yes it is good to analyze the things you did wrong to get better, and things you did right to continue to grow, but $ per hour does none of that.
> 
> ...


lol.....this is the gig economy tranferring all the risk to independent contractors....they figured it out long ago....owning vehicles is a losing proposition..just look at Amazon...the company is the richest and the drivers are hourly working for a third party that foolishly got into a contract to rent vehicles and accepted all the risk....


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## Amos69 (May 17, 2019)

luckytown said:


> lol.....this is the gig economy tranferring all the risk to independent contractors....they figured it out long ago....owning vehicles is a losing proposition..just look at Amazon...the company is the richest and the drivers are hourly working for a third party that foolishly got into a contract to rent vehicles and accepted all the risk....


Your point doesn't make your point. YES these Gig companies ally many of the cost of business by hiring independent contractors. That doesn't mean owning vehicles is equal to losing money. Just a cost of business many companies are choosing to defray.

Profit is driven by cost and effort. There is still profit in RS in places where rates are not garbage. I think that rates are at a turning point. Municipalities are onto the crappy things Goober and Gryft do. Regulation is on the way.

My profit margin is 53%.

No restaurant in Murica has a PM higher than that.


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## I will crack Lyft hacks (Aug 5, 2019)

Amos69 said:


> Employee thinking.
> 
> It's why many struggle to make money doing this. $ per hour has no bearing on profitability from a success standpoint.


So how do you calculate how much you make?
You say we should not count our total net income and divide it by the weekly or monthly hours to get a sense of our hourly productivity.

Ok, I make 2,000$ net a month in Rideshare, about 24 K net yearly before tax.

You say it makes no difference if I am working 20 hours per week or 50?
You say it's employee thinking and I should not look at how many hours it takes to make 2k a month?

So how do you judge if my 2k monthly income is good pay ( worth it) or bad pay?
In your opinion should I stop and utilize my time doing something more profitable or is 2k monthly great for the time put in?


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## ANT 7 (Oct 14, 2018)

Yawn......if this gig didn't work, I wouldn't be doing it.

It's so market dependant anyways, videos like this are irrelevant in the big scheme of things.

You have non tax deductible car expenses whether or not you use your vehicle for business.....amongst other things. I'm not going to waste UP's server space debunking stuff like this.


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## IRME4EVER (Feb 17, 2020)

Here in AZ Uber's current Quest is if you do 30 trips, you are guaranteed to make 225.00. Roughly 6.75 per trip. But here's the kicker if you don't make 225.00 in 30 trips Uber will pay the difference!! 
Don't fall for it!! You'll get nothing but CRAP sent your way. I fell for it once "shame on them, if I fall for it again shame on me". 
With their promotions (if you do a certain amount of trips, you'll make so much on top of your earnings). That's BS too. 
For example, if you do choose to do 70-80 trips (you have several choices to choose from) you can make 150.00 more. You complete the 69th trip just waiting for to 70th, you're online for 12 hours and not 1 ping. Been there done that! 
Now you tell me Uber doesn't screw the drivers over!!


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## Fusion_LUser (Jan 3, 2020)

IRME4EVER said:


> Here in AZ Uber's current Quest is if you do 30 trips, you are guaranteed to make 225.00. Roughly 6.75 per trip. But here's the kicker if you don't make 225.00 in 30 trips Uber will pay the difference!!
> Don't fall for it!! You'll get nothing but CRAP sent your way. I fell for it once "shame on them, if I fall for it again shame on me".
> With their promotions (if you do a certain amount of trips, you'll make so much on top of your earnings). That's BS too.
> For example, if you do choose to do 70-80 trips (you have several choices to choose from) you can make 150.00 more. You complete the 69th trip just waiting for to 70th, you're online for 12 hours and not 1 ping. Been there done that!
> Now you tell me Uber doesn't screw the drivers over!!


I'm doing that right now with Lyft for the 3rd time over the past month and a half and Lyft has caught on to my little petty game. The first two times the guarantee was for 15 rides and I did them easily with short minimum fare rides. I forced Lyft to cough up over $150 to cover those guarantees! I actually want the super short $4 rides just to mess with Lyft and now Lyft is sending me long rides so they won't have to cover their guarantee! &#128514; &#128514; &#128514;

Uber in my are has no offers... but we have the fare multiplier and I haven't done 1 ride without it for the past couple of months.


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## W00dbutcher (Jan 14, 2019)

No miles on my car

Depreciation none

No repairs paid for


After all said average 44 hour week.... 52+k

Ya.... There's no money in rideshare! Lol


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## Anonymousdude (Feb 14, 2020)

luckytown said:


> there is no money to be made in rideshare......what most people are doing is cashing in on the value of thier vehicle...if you dont belive me tell Uber/Lyft that you will work for minimum wage and tips...as long as they provide and maintain a car....they will laugh in your face.....lol.....


A car is a bad investment to begin with for most peoplethat don't do Rideshare. It's simple.. cars depreciates in value weather you use it for business or not. Just driving a new car off a dealer lot changes the value of a car a lot.

Any business you get into will require expenses. In my opinion if you can consistently make $20hr or more doing gig jobs than you should fair out around $15 an hour after all expenses if you're making $20/hr. And you have the advantage of controlling your days and times you work to a great advantage. I never have to pay taxes when I do then at the end of every year.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

I drove 23 miles on Wednesday to go home with $200 doing Uber taxi.

Between OPEC the cab company and the turnpike commission I dropped $145 to earn that $345

But only 23 miles on my personal car.


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## ANT 7 (Oct 14, 2018)

Anonymousdude said:


> A car is a bad investment to begin with for most peoplethat don't do Rideshare. It's simple.. cars depreciates in value weather you use it for business or not. Just driving a new car off a dealer lot changes the value of a car a lot.
> 
> Any business you get into will require expenses. In my opinion if you can consistently make $20hr or more doing gig jobs than you should fair out around $15 an hour after all expenses if you're making $20/hr. And you have the advantage of controlling your days and times you work to a great advantage. I never have to pay taxes when I do then at the end of every year.


Here is somene who actually gets it.


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## oishiin driving (Feb 24, 2020)

Time is relative. Per hour in rideshare is meaningless.
Cars depreciate slower nowadays, if you choose the better ones.
Cost is relative to spending - fuel efficiency, owning vs renting, saving more, etc

Panta Rei - the river flows..


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

Amos69 said:


> My Profit margin is 53%. That is 53 of every $100 is profit. I drive an SUV that qualifies for XL, and have around 70 dead miles a day.
> 
> $ per hour is a failing metric for measuring success in R/S as no one gets paid by the hour. I have twice as many hours I make $0 than ones I make $75. Both things happen regularly.
> 
> People driving fuel efficient vehicles that live in urban centers should have higher PM than I


I could care less about earnings per hour. If I don't have the spare time I don't drive.

I do care about earnings per mile driven, including dead miles.

Dead miles is the key, if you can't keep them to a minimum it does not matter what your hourly earnings are you will be driving for a loss.


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## Wildgoose (Feb 11, 2019)

W00dbutcher said:


> No miles on my car
> 
> Depreciation none
> 
> No repairs paid for


There always has depreciation. When a year has changed one digit up, depreciation is around $1,000 for a newer car and around $400 for an older car.
Plus, at least $600 loss over auto insurance.


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