# Helpful tips I've learned since starting with uber



## Brandon1 (Sep 28, 2014)

I drive mainly in the LA area, which is known to be easily one of the worst fare rates out there, city wise. I've learned quite a few things in the ~150 trips I've done that might be insightful to people just getting started with uber:

1: first and foremost, I've found the key to actually making decent money is that you have to dedicate at least 5-6+ hours to one single uber session and go "wherever the wind takes you," so to speak; the the ideal situation being that you finally get a ride request that takes you closer to home. Until then, you literally just gotta be willing to bounce around from location to location, until you're done for the night.

2: its ALL about freeway driving. Think about it: for LA, you get 1.10 cents a mile and 21 cents a minute. That means if you're going 65 mph on the freeway with a passenger, you're getting 84.1$ an hour, then minus uber's 20% and 2 gallons of gas, brings it down to about *$60 an hour on the freeway, NET.
*
3: the drop pin location for picking up a driver SUCKS! If you ever find yourself unsure of the exact pickup location (which honestly happens to me like 40% of the time), just call them. They wont get mad.

4: Don't bother with 'surge chasing'. You'll either get a surge fare or you wont, but its far too fickle to really rationalize adjusting your route to get it because it's often gone by the time you arrive. HOWEVER, I have often simply gone offline in an area for 5-10 minutes that was just surging, only to find it surging once again.

Honestly, you're not going to make bank doing uber, and I've worked it out so i make between 15-20$ an hour, but that's perfectly fine for me considering I'm just driving. Beats working at a minimum wage job flipping burgers


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## Emmes (Aug 27, 2014)

All good points. 

Is that $15/$20 hour after you figure gas used for the night?


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## chi1cabby (May 28, 2014)

Brandon1 said:


> 3: the drop pin location for picking up a driver SUCKS! If you ever find yourself unsure of the exact pickup location (which honestly happens to me like 40% of the time), just call them. They wont get mad.


Welcome to the forum @Brandon1 !
Very nice debut post. I think your tip 3) is the best way to approach any pickups that are more than 4-5 minutes away: *Call soon after Accepting, confirm pickup location, give ETA.* A sure fire way of avoiding wild goose chases, cut down cancels & no shows, and expediting pax getting in your car. And riders appreciate this MO.


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## Sean O'Gorman (Apr 17, 2014)

Thanks Brandon. I think you've picked up on something that the surge chasers don't get. Making money as a driver is all about maximum utilization. My best nights are the ones where I get ping after ping, with minimum distances traveled to get the rider, even if there's no surges. The nights with large surges typically involve longer drives to the rider and more periods of downtime.

I'm convinced now that the only sustainable way for drivers to make money is for there to be as many riders as possible. 25% off rates may sound sucky, but if it results in more requests and those requests are coming from a mile away, then it'll start to add up. Now if only these difficult drivers would do their part to attract riders by canning the negative publicity or surge manipulations, it would start to come to fruition.


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## Allaffair (Jul 21, 2014)

Sean O'Gorman said:


> I'm convinced now that the only sustainable way for drivers to make money is for there to be as many riders as possible. 25% off rates may sound sucky, but if it results in more requests and those requests are coming from a mile away, then it'll start to add up. Now if only these difficult drivers would do their part to attract riders by canning the negative publicity or surge manipulations, it would start to come to fruition.


That's funny! Difficult drivers.


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## J.J. Smith (Sep 26, 2014)

Some great observations from Brandon. 

I'm approaching 2000 trips in the Metro Washington DC area. I don't chase surges either, but surges may incline me to turn left instead of right after I drop someone off. Usually just drop, find a convenient place to park nearby, read a book or magazine, and wait for the next call. Think twice about anybody more that 15 minutes away unless surge pricing and even less time cut off if in a downtown area. If I am heading towards a surge area and get a non-surge request, I'll take the non-surge on the wise old saying "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush."

By and large I am enjoying my Uber experience. Like eating peanuts. You always want one more. What's the next customer going to be like? Where will they want to go? Maybe to some part of town I've never been too, even though I was born and raised in the DC area.

As to the economics, great cash flow, and you all know the obvious out-of-pocket expenses, but also consider instead of your car lasting 10 years, it may only last you 3. I bought a new Honda CRV in November, started Uber in January and already had 30,000 miles on my car. Plus an often overlooked factor would be return on your capital investment in the car. If you spend $30,000 on a car and want a 15% return on your investment, that's another $4500.00 per year non-cash expense you must factor in.


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## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

Brandon1

Great post!

It sounds like you have found some good ways to uber


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## where's the beef? (Sep 16, 2014)

"2: its ALL about freeway driving. Think about it: for LA, you get 1.10 cents a mile and 21 cents a minute. That means if you're going 65 mph on the freeway with a passenger, you're getting 84.1$ an hour, then minus uber's 20% and 2 gallons of gas, brings it down to about *$60 an hour on the freeway, NET."
*
Care to share with us how you freeway all day long when these lazy, "don't want to walk to Path Station so I will take that cheap $4 Uber instead" Hobokeners keep getting in the way?


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## The Geek (May 29, 2014)

The only time I get a good run of 65mph on LA freeways is like today from 0330hrs to 0600hrs. During the day, in town, forget about it.


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## SunSmith (Apr 20, 2014)

I agree, but rarely, if ever reach freeway speeds on the freeway, darned congestion. 

Once I drop off a passenger, I drive a block and then park and wait for a ping. I no longer waste gas trying to move back to the more popular areas. And my longer drives are usually from the outskirts.


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## driveLA (Aug 15, 2014)

dont really get the freeway part but i agree with the other points especially chasing the surge.

for a while i had gotten in the habit of turning my phone off and waiting for surges but working the surge wont necessarily mean more money

at most i'll get 2 or 3 surge rides each time i go out but i really think i've had more luck with longer more profitable rides during non-surge times


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## DriverJ (Sep 1, 2014)

Great post, thanks. I think the next ride I get I'm gonna get on the interstate, drive for 3 hours and call it a night. 

Seriously, good tips though.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

A tip for a tip thread. NO, I have never driven a freakin' cab before so HOW IN THE HELL should I know the rulz?!

In the 'movies' you always see the cab stopping just about any old place to let people out. Uh, no. Not in my city. Fortunately the first week out I had a policeman pull up next to me and he CHEWED my ass out for letting pax out in a through lane. Hey, it was a Sunday nite. There was NO traffic, they got out on the sidewalk side, etc etc. It certainly seemed safe to me BUT that is not the issue. The issue is that you can NOT EVER EVER EVER let anyone out in a through lane of traffic, period. Either find a safe place to pull in or go around the corner or the block and find somewhere safe to drop them off. I am thankful the cop gave me the whatfor, and yes he was pissed off! Probably had just as long a day as I had chasing drunk ass customers around.

In any case it was very good advice. *No, it's not like the movies*. And yes, the customer will ALWAYS say "just stop and I can get out here." Uh, no, you can't. It's against the law to let you out in a lane where cars are driving. *Yes, you can lose your license for doing this if you are driving for hire.* And it's a $1,000. fine to boot. If I get rear ended it's not going to be pretty for you if you are stepping out of the vehicle.

Inconvenient sometimes? Yes. Safe, YES. Safe wins every time.


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## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

Brandon1 said:


> ...
> 2: its ALL about freeway driving. Think about it: for LA, you get 1.10 cents a mile and 21 cents a minute. That means if you're going 65 mph on the freeway with a passenger, you're getting 84.1$ an hour, then minus uber's 20% and 2 gallons of gas, brings it down to about *$60 an hour on the freeway, NET.*
> ...


Brandon,
In general, I think your post has some good advice.

But, I have two problems with your #2.

First, there is no way no to really predict or increase the likelihood of a freeway ride. Secondly, I think your math is a little optimistic.

I was with you up until the $84.10 an hour gross Uber fare. After Uber takes 20% you end up with $67.28/hour . (This ignores the base fare, but also the distance you might have driven to pick up the passenger.)

You then subtract two gallons of gas, and call it $60/hr net. I don't see anything for depreciation or increased maintenance. If I use the $0.56/mile IRS standard (which could be high for your vehicle).
$67.28 - ($0.56 * 65) = $30.88 This is roughly half of your net number.

Even if we ratchet your cost down to $0.40/mile you get:
$67.28 - ($0.40 * 65) = $41.28

Technically, if you are going to compare the hourly to a regular job, you should divide your Uber hourly by 1.0751. (I know that this is not exact, but it does approximate the difference due to the fact that as an independent contractor you have to pay the employer portion of social security through the self employment tax.)
$30.88 / 1.0751 = $28.73
$41.28 / 1.0751 = $38.39

I would suggest that perhaps you need to examine your costs more closely. If you are just using fuel costs then you are underestimating your costs.



Sean O'Gorman said:


> Thanks Brandon. I think you've picked up on something that the surge chasers don't get. Making money as a driver is all about maximum utilization. My best nights are the ones where I get ping after ping, with minimum distances traveled to get the rider, even if there's no surges. The nights with large surges typically involve longer drives to the rider and more periods of downtime.
> 
> I'm convinced now that the only sustainable way for drivers to make money is for there to be as many riders as possible. 25% off rates may sound sucky, but if it results in more requests and those requests are coming from a mile away, then it'll start to add up. Now if only these difficult drivers would do their part to attract riders by canning the negative publicity or surge manipulations, it would start to come to fruition.


Sean: I think you underestimate the effect a 25% discount on your bottom line. I think you are also ignoring the fact that your market still has some decent fare rates. I believe your area is at $2 base, $0.30/min & $1.40/mile. At those rates, high utilization is a bigger factor. When, not if, rates in your part of OH drop another 25% of more I think you might feel differently.

I have given this example before, but I think it illustrates the declining importance of utilization as rates fall. I drive in OC which has the same rates as Brandon's LA. In late August I did a shift where I was able to drive 82% of my total miles for that night on rides. It is a rate I doubt I will ever top. There were no surge fares for me that night. My net hourly after taking everything into accout was $12.50/hour. And this was when LA/OC drivers still received the $1 safe ride fee. If that shift occurred after September 1st, the net would be closer to $11/hour.

In my mind, while surge chasing may not be the best way to go, if you do not get some surge fares during a shift, then your earnings potential is severely limited, even with a high utilization rate.


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## Sean O'Gorman (Apr 17, 2014)

The problem is that even with the preferable rates, my utilization is low. 

Excluding the one night over the summer where all three sports venues had games going on simultaneously, my best nights were during the two periods (each lasting 2 weeks) where rides were free. No surges, but also zero downtime.

Doing some quick math, with a 20 MPH average speed, spending 40ish minutes with the fare running at the new rates should be about equal to 30 minutes at the old rate. Obviously if I'm wrong I'll. admit it, this was just some rough math. It also assumes you're driving an average of 20 MPH the whole hour, as opposed to the old rate driver sitting stationary.

Just my take on things.


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## Brandon1 (Sep 28, 2014)

Oc_DriverX said:


> Brandon,
> In general, I think your post has some good advice.
> 
> But, I have two problems with your #2.
> ...


Yes you're quite right, I didn't take into account auto depreciation, which is definitely something that takes a toll on net earnings. My point in general about "freeway driving," however, was that I have personally found it significantly more profitable to stick to areas near freeways like the 101 or 405 (during nontraffic hours) than to drive around congested city areas like downtown LA or west hollywood, where I am almost no matter what guaranteed a shorter ride, regardless of the surge.


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## Brandon1 (Sep 28, 2014)

Emmes said:


> All good points.
> 
> Is that $15/$20 hour after you figure gas used for the night?


Figure gas yes, figure auto depreciation... no.


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## Realityshark (Sep 22, 2014)

Here are some helpful hints for all the new drivers:

http://www.uberpeople.net/threads/helpful-tips-for-all-the-new-drivers-part-1.30099/


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

Sean O'Gorman said:


> I'm convinced now that the only sustainable way for drivers to make money is for there to be as many riders as possible. 25% off rates may sound sucky, but if it results in more requests and those requests are coming from a mile away, then it'll start to add up.


Perhaps your market is different from mine.

When I signed on, requests were coming fast and furious. Uber has slashed fares twice since I signed on for a total reduction of twenty-four per-cent. Until recently, requests were coming fast and furious. Thus, I was carrying the same number of people, staying busy, but earning twenty-four per-cent less than I was when I first signed on. Even at the original rate, I cut my UberXing to only enough to stay in the game. Since then, I have stuck to that except for five weeks at the beginning of this summer when my taxi was out of service.
Uber can provide me with every resident of the Washington Metropolitan Area as a passenger, but I can carry only so many of them in an hour.

Lately, Uber has thrown another monkey wrench into the equation by onboarding so many drivers that the market is saturated. I am expecting another round of rate slashes as drivers have been complaining of no customers. Currently, we are on 1979 cab rates, here. Atlanta has it worse, with its 1975 cab rates. If Washington goes to 1975 cab rates and the business goes back up, still, the income will stay down, as the number of trips that a driver can run in the space of an hour is limited.


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## Realityshark (Sep 22, 2014)

But the number of drivers willing to work for 78cents per mile seems endless.


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## bscott (Dec 4, 2014)

Realityshark said:


> But the number of drivers willing to work for 78cents per mile seems endless.


Eventually the seemingly endless number of ******s unable to do simple math will thin out either by attrition or eventually figure it out by never driving non surge.


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