# Here's some depressing math



## stemor (May 15, 2016)

I recently started a new sales job that comes with salary, commission, family benefits, and expenses (like most full time sales positions, I suppose). My territory requires me to cover a broad geography that probably involves about 3,000 miles driven per month, put on my personal vehicle. Since this is a family-owned company, and they recognize that their sales people rack up unusually high miles, they use a reimbursement rate of only 2/3 the Federal standard ... thus, only $0.36/mile in 2016.

I was feeling a bit down about being disadvantaged by the seemingly low rate of only $0.36/mile, though I can deduct the difference between it and the standard of $0.54/mile on my taxes. As I'm rolling down the highway at about 80 MPH, for the about 400 miles that I had to cover today from Louisville KY to Memphis TN, it occurred to me that my Camry hybrid used about $20 in gas on this trip, and I only got $144 in mileage reimbursement for all this wear & tear.

I only got $144, less the $20 in gas I used over 5 hours of driving. That's a gross of $28.80/hour, a cash net of $24.80/hour after fuel, and certainly a loss of money after depreciation. But, that's just the mileage reimbursement ... and already, I'm doing almost TWICE AS WELL as I did when I was driving for Uber (at about $15/hour on any typical day)! 

Add in the salary, the commission, the benefits ... I won't use specific numbers, it's not really relevant ... but heck, I was driving through a Prime Time of 25%-100% in Nashville, and I figured that any ride that I took would only slow me down, and I'd make LESS (per minute) than if I just kept on hammering on home.

I can now see me driving for Uber and Lyft occasionally, but I don't see me ever spending more than a few hours at a time, and never for anything less than 2.0x surge/PT. 

Here's hoping that others have the same jolt of success in their efforts. (Most of) You ARE worth more than you're currently valued by the UberLyft community!


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## SEAL Team 5 (Dec 19, 2015)

stemor said:


> I recently started a new sales job that comes with salary, commission, family benefits, and expenses (like most full time sales positions, I suppose). My territory requires me to cover a broad geography that probably involves about 3,000 miles driven per month, put on my personal vehicle. Since this is a family-owned company, and they recognize that their sales people rack up unusually high miles, they use a reimbursement rate of only 2/3 the Federal standard ... thus, only $0.36/mile in 2016.
> 
> I was feeling a bit down about being disadvantaged by the seemingly low rate of only $0.36/mile, though I can deduct the difference between it and the standard of $0.54/mile on my taxes. As I'm rolling down the highway at about 80 MPH, for the about 400 miles that I had to cover today from Louisville KY to Memphis TN, it occurred to me that my Camry hybrid used about $20 in gas on this trip, and I only got $144 in mileage reimbursement for all this wear & tear.
> 
> ...


But when you're rolling down the highway at 80mph for 400 miles don't you still make salary, commission, family benefits and expense reimbursement on top of the $.36 a mile?


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## stemor (May 15, 2016)

@sealteam5,

Yes, that's the sad part. I accrue those financial benefits while still getting paid for my mileage. That's why I chose to NOT pick up rides in Nashville, as it would actually do nothing but slow my arrival to home, and reduce my earnings / hour in the process.


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