# How much are you actually driving?



## doug (Aug 27, 2014)

I've been collecting some data about how much of the time I'm actually driving passengers while I'm working. I do this by adding up the times from my rides and dividing it by the time I'm in the car. I've found that I'm only spending about 20% of my time providing rides. The rest is waiting, positioning, going to pick up, etc. I'm wondering if anyone else looks at this. If so what does your time look like? Seems like there must be ways to improve this number. I'd love to hear what you think.


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## UL Driver SF (Aug 29, 2014)

I don't know. I have been driving the guarantee in SF and that ends 8/31. After that I will keep better track of it.


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## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

doug said:


> I've been collecting some data about how much of the time I'm actually driving passengers while I'm working. I do this by adding up the times from my rides and dividing it by the time I'm in the car. I've found that I'm only spending about 20% of my time providing rides. The rest is waiting, positioning, going to pick up, etc. I'm wondering if anyone else looks at this. If so what does your time look like? Seems like there must be ways to improve this number. I'd love to hear what you think.


I think I have the data to make the calcs, but I have always concentrated on how many miles are actually revenue miles vs. dead miles. That is an interesting question. I would guess that since sometimes we are stopping and dropping, the odometer isn't running but the clock is, so the number could look worse than % revenue miles.

Excellent question.


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## doug (Aug 27, 2014)

Oc_DriverX said:


> I think I have the data to make the calcs, but I have always concentrated on how many miles are actually revenue miles vs. dead miles. That is an interesting question. I would guess that since sometimes we are stopping and dropping, the odometer isn't running but the clock is, so the number could look worse than % revenue miles.
> 
> Excellent question.


Seems to me that time is our limited resource - whether that is how many hours we work, when those hours are, or time when demand is high. That's why I'm interested in inceasing the % time actually driving passengers. I'll be interested to see what you find when you look at your data.


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## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

Time may be limited, but it doesn't cost us cash, as does the mileage on the car.

I grabbed a Friday and Saturday night in July. They were decent nights.

33.5% and 41.7% of the time on a fare
59.3% and 73.3% of the time on a fare or responding to a ping (which would include waiting for the passenger to appear)


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## doug (Aug 27, 2014)

Thanks for your perspective. Your time is spent generating revenue much more effectively than mine. I'm driving mostly in a college environment where there is not much back and forth at the same time. People are either going out from campus or returning from the bars. Also if I take someone into the city I have to come back empty because the city is off limits to UberX drivers. This it doesn't seem to make sense for me to wait anywhere for a return trip. I'm always moving towards the center of activity. What is your environment like?


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## doug (Aug 27, 2014)

Are you keeping track of times and miles yourself or getting the data from Uber?


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## The Geek (May 29, 2014)

Please (and anyone else reading this) put your location under your 'Personal Details > Location' section where you placed your photo!!! We can be MUCH MORE effective answering you with that info at a glance. Thank you!


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## sofla11 (Aug 21, 2014)

For all these calculations, I recommend using SherpaShare. It's pretty new and they're still introducing new features, but they will calculate all of this automatically for you. It makes life much easier! I drive for Lyft, not Uber, but I just forward them my pay reports, which tells them how much I made on each ride, how many miles each ride was, how long it was (time), and the total time I was logged in that day. I add in my total miles for each day on my own. It calculates your time efficiency and mileage efficiency (what % of your time and miles you actually had a passenger in the car). Mine is at 20% time efficiency and 32% mileage (average)... best day I ever had was around 50% time and 55% mileage. You can put in your expenses to calculate how much you really made.

It also collects all the data from your whole city, and you can see how you compare to the average and the best in your city. You can see what days of the week are busy in your city too.

It won't let me post a "real" link, but the website is at sherpashare com /register/?refid=SP2162


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## GearJammer (Jul 9, 2014)

doug said:


> I've been collecting some data about how much of the time I'm actually driving passengers while I'm working. I do this by adding up the times from my rides and dividing it by the time I'm in the car. I've found that I'm only spending about 20% of my time providing rides. The rest is waiting, positioning, going to pick up, etc. I'm wondering if anyone else looks at this. If so what does your time look like? Seems like there must be ways to improve this number. I'd love to hear what you think.


TIME = MONEY, that's why you have to average $1.30-$1.50 per minute/fare, an easy metric to compute via the dashboard. Also, cancel within 5 minutes if a no show, don't drive more than 5 minutes and don't take short trips; verify via waybill.


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## doug (Aug 27, 2014)

Thanks for the SherpaShare advise. It's interesting. I was hoping for some more info about city performance but it seems I'm the only driver from Philly enrolled. Hey Philly drivers - Sign up for SherpaShare and help us all get more info about the market we're serving.


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## Joanne (May 7, 2014)

I don't want to know. I'm lucky to get pings during the week. I'm online all day 7am-5pm, usually. They've hired a crap ton of new drivers, and demand has not increased. Demand has actually gone down since the university is still on break until late September. Friday and Saturday, after 5pm ish I will get ping after ping, but the pick up drive time can be long since it's so busy.


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## OldTownSean (Aug 14, 2014)

Driving? 

With uber I like to think of it as sucking $1 of value out of my car to put 50cents in my pocket.


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## SupaJ (Aug 12, 2014)

$1.5/mile


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## UberCemetery (Sep 4, 2014)

doug said:


> I've been collecting some data about how much of the time I'm actually driving passengers while I'm working. I do this by adding up the times from my rides and dividing it by the time I'm in the car. I've found that I'm only spending about 20% of my time providing rides. The rest is waiting, positioning, going to pick up, etc. I'm wondering if anyone else looks at this. If so what does your time look like? Seems like there must be ways to improve this number. I'd love to hear what you think.


I watch it very closely with spread sheet and time clock etc.. I have found that Uber is unable to keep us all busy when we are online. We are all sitting and waiting most of the time.


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## UberCemetery (Sep 4, 2014)




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## 556baller (Sep 8, 2014)

My personal driver log show that I was in the car 29.5 hours this period, of that 29.5 hours my actual fares totaled out too; 9 hours: 41 minutes: 18 seconds. 
9h 41m 18s


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

Paid time at approx. 40% during the week and 50% on Friday-Sunday


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