# Done and staying done



## Sampson10 (Jun 14, 2019)

My journey with Uber/Lyft

I have a great salaried career with great pay and bonuses but 2019 was a tough year in our industry. I made about $12k less in bonuses in 2019 than any year since 2015. By June my family and I were hurting a bit as far as having expendable cash. Bills were still paid but things were tight. I needed a way to make extra money and I thought "why not rideshare?". During the week I would go online after work. I work downtown so would get instapings at 4:30-5pm when I went online. I never went below a 4.95 rating. I did 580 uber rides and 89 Lyft rides (5.0 on Lyft).

By June 30th I had been approved by Uber, ready to go. I was driving a 2018 Ford Fusion Titanium, all the bells and whistles and qualified for Select and X. I split my rideshare time into 4 periods:

Period 1: June 30th to July 15th, the break in period. I watched all videos, read all the training stuff. I did what Uber taught, I took every ride offered, I went to all neighborhoods, I did what Uber wanted me to to. I picked up in the projects. I did the grocery stores. I worked my butt off. I never had a bad passenger but I soon figured out how to maximize my time and make more money by staking our areas I could get select rides and capitalizing on our airports flight schedules.

Period 2: July 16th to September 15th. This was the golden period. I figured out where the select rides were at near hotels. I figured out how make more money on the weekends in less hours by taking people to the airport and knowing when to be around the golf courses/country clubs. I maximized Select rides witch paid 3x more than X. I made 25-30% in tips. I was a proud driver and defended Uber on this very forum at times. I also got the Lyft app during this time to turn on when close to the airport in case the Uber queue was busy. Things were great. I never had any bad passengers. Some weird ones sure but never any bad ones. During this period I would often not get home until 1030 -11pm on weeknights after working 7am to 430pm at my day job and going straight to driving in the evenings. I was bringing in $300-$400 a week gross.

Period 3: September 15th to October 15th. Things started picking up at work again, bonuses started coming in again. I started driving less, it was not as needed financially and I suddenly did not have as much of a desire. I started to notice how many miles I had put on my car. No damage thank goodness. I started to resent the evenings when I would not make a lot of money, I felt like I was wasting my time. Lyft pissed me off on a cancel fee during this time and I deleted their stupid app, their "support" team was rude, condescending and in my opinion dismissive of me the one time I contacted them. I started to be more understanding of the issues drivers on this forum have with the rideshare companies. 

Period 4: October 16th to now. It seems like when I did drive the rides had dried up. Many magnitudes less pings. I was not into this any more. People were bugging me more. Admittedly, things really stabilized in the day job and I felt like I was wasting my time being away from my family. I drove less and less. Today I deleted the Uber app. I am done unless I HAVE to have the extra money again. It is nice to know I can do it if I have to but I have no intention of doing it again. 

Final thoughts:

I am grateful for the extra cash I got, it helped me pay for b day parties, date nights, etc. I know that net I was not making a lot of money but it put cash into my checking account so...
The writeoff for the mileage was really nice on my taxes. I put 8,000 miles on my car and was able to do a right off of $4k+ so that was nice.
I was able to get 4 ZR rated tires for my car using caradvise for less than $400 installed because I was gold. That was a hell of a deal.
I got close to a hundred dollars cash back over the summer on the uber debit card from gobank at gas stations and wal mart. I liked the fact it was instant deposited cash back, no waiting.
I liked the free instant pay to get money quick when needed.
I really did enjoy meeting hundreds of really cool people and got to market my side business (I own a company outside my day job as well) which brought in a few thousand dollars in business as well. I met a couple contacts that are still giving me business.

The only negatives I can think of is the low pay and the miles I put on my car. It would be a really nice part time gig if it paid more. They really have made it difficult to make a profit. I truly believe these companies WANT to keep driver turnover high because they made more money off of me during period 1 than any other period. They love new drivers because they don't know what they are doing and will lose money while uber lyft maximizes profit. The more experience a driver has the more money they make for themselves and the less uber/lyft make off that driver.

I do enjoy this forum and will still read it and post occasionally, but I'm done driving RS.....I hope.

Oh, and thank you for the great advise I got on this forum, it helped me become as profitable as possible for my short run!


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

Great note!


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## The queen 👸 (Jan 2, 2020)

I will start my new job at my old place of work February 1 and I will not drive much as well. Maybe on my way home only. I do think that Uber/ Lyft is good extra money .


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## gooddolphins (Apr 5, 2018)

Welcome to the addiction of rideshare. I will be opening Uber AA in the near future. We can all try to get this monkey off our back called Uber.


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## The queen 👸 (Jan 2, 2020)

gooddolphins said:


> Welcome to the addiction of rideshare. I will be opening Uber AA in the near future. We can all try to get this monkey off our back called Uber.


Don't blame U/l if you can't quit. Blame yourself.



The queen &#128120; said:


> Don't blame U/l if you can't quit. Blame yourself.


&#129335;‍♀


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## gooddolphins (Apr 5, 2018)

The queen &#128120; said:


> Don't blame U/l if you can't quit. Blame yourself.
> 
> 
> &#129335;‍♀


Why would I blame myself. Uber is the drug dealer dealing the powerful drug called rideshare


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## The queen 👸 (Jan 2, 2020)

gooddolphins said:


> Why would I blame myself. Uber is the drug dealer dealing the powerful drug called rideshare


Really? I blame myself for drinking to much not for doing ride share.


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## UberBastid (Oct 1, 2016)

gooddolphins said:


> Welcome to the addiction of rideshare. I will be opening Uber AA in the near future. We can all try to get this monkey off our back called Uber.


_Hi, my name is UberBastid, and I am a RS addict._
It started with me driving just one day a week, just a way to get a few bucks ahead. Then I got into providing candy and water.

_Hi, I am UberBastid, and I am an RS addict._
Then, I thought maybe working Friday night would be good. More tips right? Easy money driving someone home that's had one to many, Easy, right?

_I am UberBastid, and I am an RS addict._
Then I got a message from Uber. They love me, they asked how things were going - I told em 'great'. They encouraged me to drive more, I thought they really need me out there, so I started driving two then three days a week.

I_ am UberBastid, and I am an RS addict._
Then the car needed brakes, so I drove an extra day that week, and paid for the brakes. And, some ass barfed in my back seat and I took it in for detail and Uber didn't believe me and I had to pay for it myself.

_I am UberBastid, and I am an RS addict._
Then I noticed that the car needed brakes, so I picked up a couple more shifts and got tires. Man, I am getting tired now as I'm working five or six eight hour shifts a week now.

This IS an addicting and destructive activity. It feels good at first, but *nobody* can afford this addiction - it will ruin you eventually.

Sometimes an addict has to hit absolute bottom before they can pull themselves up. We see it here all the time.
"The engine in my car is blown, it had 350k miles on it and it's only four years old."
"I have 5000 rides and a rating of 4.9 and they deactivated me because a pax lied on me - I really count on this income. What can I do?"
"If you're sleeping in your car don't do it near the corner of Main and First street, the cops ...."
All of these things shouldn't be a surprise. When you see your odometer roll over to 200k the first year and you have no savings to replace it - how do you think that's gonna end? - when you see the stories here about pax lies and cops writing tickets and people sleeping in their cars and stuff ... when you see that happening, it should be obvious what the end of that program looks like.

Get yourself a sponsor, get in a program ... good luck brother.


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## WAHN (May 6, 2019)

Sampson10 said:


> I have a great salaried career with great pay and bonuses but 2019 was a tough year in our industry. I made about $12k less in bonuses in 2019 than any year since 2015. By June my family and I were hurting a bit as far as having expendable cash.


It's great that you don't necessarily need this stuff to survive, but your opening statement is a bit concerning in relation to overall financial wellness and money management.

A great salary and a great career simply shouldn't add up to even the slightest need or urge to do this unless you just want to see how the other half lives. JMO.

Good luck and hopefully your bonuses will kick ass this year.


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## Sampson10 (Jun 14, 2019)

WAHN said:


> It's great that you don't necessarily need this stuff to survive, but your opening statement is a bit concerning in relation to overall financial wellness and money management.
> 
> A great salary and a great career simply shouldn't add up to even the slightest need or urge to do this unless you just want to see how the other half lives. JMO.
> 
> Good luck and hopefully your bonuses will kick ass this year.


I completely agree with your opening statement. Hopefully I learned my lesson.


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## Friendly Jack (Nov 17, 2015)

UberBastid said:


> _Hi, my name is UberBastid, and I am a RS addict._
> It started with me driving just one day a week, just a way to get a few bucks ahead. Then I got into providing candy and water.
> 
> _Hi, I am UberBastid, and I am an RS addict._
> ...


I started driving part time in early 2014 when I first retired and by mid-2019 was completely burnt out by Uber and Lyft. More than 10,300 rides and 150,000 miles left me miserable.

A funny thing had happened: All of the planning and saving I had done for retirement seemed inadequate and secondary to the lure of "easy" additional rideshare income. I didn't realize it at first, but like UberBastid I slowly became addicted.

Since I quit rideshare several months ago I got rid of that car and have never regretted for a second not driving any longer. Best decision I have made in recent times.


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## Robert Larrison (Jun 7, 2018)

I'm doing serving/bussing/event gigs now
Several temp agencies are doing this


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## AllenChicago (Nov 19, 2015)

Robert Larrison said:


> I'm doing serving/bussing/event gigs now
> Several temp agencies are doing this
> View attachment 414475


You're earning about $20 @ hour and not burning out your car. Good move!


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## WAHN (May 6, 2019)

Robert Larrison said:


> I'm doing serving/bussing/event gigs now


Instawork?


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## Robert Larrison (Jun 7, 2018)

They have a waiting list in SF
There are a half dozen others

Hunt and find
A place posted up emergency bussers needed I got $24/hr for last night's and $21 tonight became of short notice it'll go to $18: on my 3rd scheduled and every other shift.

I'm turning down Valentine's Day offers of $150+ and I'm stacking and double dipping 

Bartending peeps are making $150-300
Servers/bussers $100-200


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## ShipMeTheMoney (May 21, 2020)

Sampson10 said:


> My journey with Uber/Lyft
> 
> I have a great salaried career with great pay and bonuses but 2019 was a tough year in our industry. I made about $12k less in bonuses in 2019 than any year since 2015. By June my family and I were hurting a bit as far as having expendable cash. Bills were still paid but things were tight. I needed a way to make extra money and I thought "why not rideshare?". During the week I would go online after work. I work downtown so would get instapings at 4:30-5pm when I went online. I never went below a 4.95 rating. I did 580 uber rides and 89 Lyft rides (5.0 on Lyft).
> 
> ...


Any update on this?


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## Sampson10 (Jun 14, 2019)

ShipMeTheMoney said:


> Any update on this?


Update as in? Have not went back to ride share. Lucky that my company has not been impacted by the China Virus.
Life is good, as they say in Sweden.


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## ShipMeTheMoney (May 21, 2020)

Sampson10 said:


> Update as in? Have not went back to ride share. Lucky that my company has not been impacted by the China Virus.
> Life is good, as they say in Sweden.


Nice glad to hear!


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## jeanocelot (Sep 2, 2016)

Sampson10 said:


> I put 8,000 miles on my car and was able to do a right off of $4k+ so that was nice.


So how much was left over?
:whistling:


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## Pedro Paramo66 (Jan 17, 2018)

Sampson10 said:


> My journey with Uber/Lyft
> 
> I have a great salaried career with great pay and bonuses but 2019 was a tough year in our industry. I made about $12k less in bonuses in 2019 than any year since 2015. By June my family and I were hurting a bit as far as having expendable cash. Bills were still paid but things were tight. I needed a way to make extra money and I thought "why not rideshare?". During the week I would go online after work. I work downtown so would get instapings at 4:30-5pm when I went online. I never went below a 4.95 rating. I did 580 uber rides and 89 Lyft rides (5.0 on Lyft).
> 
> ...


Don't do it bro keep driving the cheap untitled people would miss you


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## Lyle (Nov 11, 2015)

Sampson10 said:


> My journey with Uber/Lyft
> 
> I have a great salaried career with great pay and bonuses but 2019 was a tough year in our industry. I made about $12k less in bonuses in 2019 than any year since 2015. By June my family and I were hurting a bit as far as having expendable cash. Bills were still paid but things were tight. I needed a way to make extra money and I thought "why not rideshare?". During the week I would go online after work. I work downtown so would get instapings at 4:30-5pm when I went online. I never went below a 4.95 rating. I did 580 uber rides and 89 Lyft rides (5.0 on Lyft).
> 
> ...


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## Gilby (Nov 7, 2017)

I am done. I enjoyed it a lot and the cash flow was nice, but in the end, the gig wasn't very profitable if at all, and the extra miles on my car made it a losing situation. The coronavirus helped me go cold turkey and I am over the desire to drive rideshare.


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## Yam Digger (Sep 12, 2016)

UberBastid said:


> _Hi, my name is UberBastid, and I am a RS addict._
> It started with me driving just one day a week, just a way to get a few bucks ahead. Then I got into providing candy and water.
> 
> _Hi, I am UberBastid, and I am an RS addict._
> ...


The very last step of this twelve step program is to log out of Uberpeople.net for the very last time. Of all the steps, this last one is monumentally the hardest. I should know: my last rideshare trip was April 1st, 2019; yet here I am: still posting on this forum as if I was an active driver.


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