I drove for Uber part-time last year in Canada and made less than $3 an hour on paper at tax time.

However, this is highly misleading simply because I was able to deduct fixed "business expenses" that I would have spent anyways to own a car. Insurance, parking, licensing, registration, and finance interest, were all things that I would have spent anyways in the exact same amounts even if I only drove the car for personal use.

In addition, cars are considered to depreciate 30% every year by the CRA (Canadian IRS). This is obviously nonsense; cars depreciate based on kms driven and I did not drive nearly enough kms to reach 30%. So this is not a real expense either, but one I can deduct nonetheless.

So, really, I was subsidizing my expensive car ownership tax-free. The real rate after adjusting for those fake "expenses" was around minimum wage which is fair considering it's a better job than flipping burgers.

I am not sure about Canada but in US you are supposed to deduct expenses for Insurance, parking, licensing, registration as a percent of miles driven for business. So 20k miles driven total with 10k for Uber and 10k for personal means only half of your car expenses is deductible for Uber income.

Yes, it's the same here. Still, since Uber wasn't doubling my insurance (it actually didn't cost anything more), deducting half my insurance etc. for Uber is not really an accurate accounting of the expenses.

I bought the car because I like driving and I like having a car, and I would have bought it anyways.

Oh ok that makes more sense. Yes the standard mileage deduction of 54c/ mile and other deductions makes Uber profitable if done in a right market with an old car. Few years back my deduction made it seem like I was in loss and didn't have to pay any taxes.

In SF, I'd make $30 to $38 an hour over 40 to 70 hours a week. My friend cleared $2000 week driving 70 hours for Lyft.

My expenses were $400 a week, including car depreciation. I was leasing the car from Uber which is ridiculously expensive unless you do 60+ hours.

If you live with 8 other people and pay $500 month in rent, then you can make good money.

In cities that aren't SF or NYC it isn't worth it. In LA, it's 30% less income than in SF!

This seems rather low. Granted it's been almost two years since I drove for (primarily lyft) and I was making 50k/year for about 70h work a week. And also I gave myself about 6 weeks of vacation over that year and half.

$50,000 per year for 70 hour per week works out to $28,571.43 if it were a standard 40-hour work week. Oh, and no benefits and you get to pay for gas and wear-and-tear on your car. So I guess if you're okay spending almost every waking hour working for peanuts and no health insurance, then sure.

Honestly it was more like 60 h a week and it's not so bad because that "includes commute", and also the schedule is really flexible (includes working around logging off for social events, for example). It was some of the least stressful years in my life, if for no other reason than I got to sleep in every day (not waking to an alarm ever).

Is that 50k after car depreciation, gas, and maintenance?

After gas and maintenance. Buy Honda.

I'm not calculating depreciation, but that's dumb, since I used the car I had (for about 4 years prior), and continued using it about 2 years after.

Would you mind telling us where you drove? I talked to an uber driver in Orlando who said he made a few hundred on a good night..

Sf. It's also very much about strategy.

I'd like to know the average, high and low as well as the median.

People seem to be mostly agreeing https://uberpeople.net/threads/3-37-an-hour-seems-legit.2439...

Mr. Money Mustache reported $7 per hour earnings after taking off the car costs (https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2017/11/22/mr-money-mustache...).

I was very curious about this and I did some math and I think it is probably correct. I struggled to see how or why any driver would do this, and figured I must be missing something. I decided to find out for myself with my own car, which is fully electric. I thought if I wasn't paying for fuel that maybe there was some profit here. No, there isn't. When you take out maintenance, depreciation, time, fuel - I'm actually surprised that there is $3.37 left over. The only thing that it offers is cash now for an asset you are currently sitting on. But you are trading that, and your time for the cash now. It is incredibly sad that this is the current state of affairs - it would be wonderful to offer a supply side force to improve the conditions for the drivers.