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A comment on Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per Hour, Study Says.

Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by derekp7 on Friday March 02, 2018 @10:25AM (#16502125)
The problem isn't the profit, but that there are a number of people using this as one of their primary income sources. I'm not sure how Uber et. al was originally promoted to drivers, but I've originally seen it as something like "I'm heading home from work, let me turn on my uber app and see if anyone around me needs a ride going in that direction".

Or, "I feel like riding around tonight, no particular place to go, may as well see if I can make a couple bucks by giving others a lift". I know that back when I was around 18 - 22 or so, I would often spend a saturday night just cruising with the radio playing, windows down, and enjoying the ride.

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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by chrisseaton on Friday March 02, 2018 @10:41AM (#16502325)
> I'm not sure how Uber et. al was originally promoted to drivers, but I've originally seen it as something like "I'm heading home from work, let me turn on my uber app and see if anyone around me needs a ride going in that direction".

That's not how Uber was originally promoted to drivers at all. Uber was originally promoted to high-end professional car drivers.

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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by klenwell on Friday March 02, 2018 @01:11PM (#16504149)
I'm pretty sure I heard ads from Uber or Lyft on local popular music radio stations while driving advertising $15 - $20/hr wages.

Some discussion on this site:

https://uberpeople.net/threads/uber-radio-commercial.27343/

Not sure if these are the same commercials I heard.

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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by tomjakubowski on Friday March 02, 2018 @01:37PM (#16504393)
They eventually pivoted to make UberX their primary offering, but for over a year their _only_ offering, at least here in LA, was black car rides through established, professional car service drivers. I remember thinking of calling an Uber rather than hailing a cab as a luxury / splurge.
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by beager on Friday March 02, 2018 @11:32AM (#16502939)
> I know that back when I was around 18 - 22 or so, I would often spend a saturday night just cruising with the radio playing, windows down, and enjoying the ride.

Fairly sure that the parameters of driving for Uber/Lyft preclude every single aspect of what makes that activity enjoyable for an 18-22 year old.

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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by jtuente on Friday March 02, 2018 @12:53PM (#16503939)
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFalla...
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by willnewman on Friday March 02, 2018 @10:34AM (#16502227)
That could have been the original intent, and they may still use that argument, but if so it needs to be squared up with the fact that they relentlessly try and entice drivers to keep driving longer and farther. See: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/02/technology/ub...
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by Brakenshire on Friday March 02, 2018 @11:48AM (#16503161)
Is that realistic given the extra insurance costs associated with using your vehicle as a private hire car? You'd have to do a lot of this just to recoup that cost.
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by kbenson on Friday March 02, 2018 @10:43AM (#16502346)
> see if anyone around me needs a ride going in that direction

Do they allow you to set a destination area so that your fares are limited to this, or do you just get to review and accept fares so you can choose ones in the right direction? I wasn't aware it could be used to just pick up someone going the same direction.

I can see something like that doing very well, but I can also see how Uber might want to brand it slightly differently, as those drivers may be slightly less invested in driving for Uber and might be more likely to flake or not be as accommodating to passengers.

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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by ErikVandeWater on Friday March 02, 2018 @10:52AM (#16502471)
Drivers have the ability to set an end-destination so their last ride is near there ultimate destination.

Source: I asked an Uber driver about this a few months ago.

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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by s73v3r_ on Friday March 02, 2018 @12:40PM (#16503799)
That is very recent, however. In the beginning, there was no such thing.
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by chimeracoder on Friday March 02, 2018 @10:52AM (#16502456)
> Do they allow you to set a destination area so that your fares are limited to this, or do you just get to review and accept fares so you can choose ones in the right direction?

Uber didn't last I checked, but Lyft does.

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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by aianus on Friday March 02, 2018 @11:05AM (#16502618)
Uber has had this feature since I started driving with them in December 2016.

You can only use it twice a day, however.

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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by CodeWriter23 on Friday March 02, 2018 @11:25AM (#16502850)
Ostensibly this is for use at the beginning & end of your shift to help with the “commute”. But you’ll probably be find yourself out in the sticks with a choice of waiting long periods for each local ride request (~$2-$3 keep per ride), or using the destination geofence in the middle of the shift to avoid double-digits is deadheading.
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by aianus on Friday March 02, 2018 @11:39AM (#16503039)
It's also great for literally carpooling on your real-job commute. You'll be online at peak times and with the destination set in the most popular directions.
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by echevil on Friday March 02, 2018 @12:52PM (#16503923)
With heavy investments in self-driving cars, I doubt if Uber would really want to improve drivers' income. It'll all become irrelevant when self-driving taxis become available. It may not happen soon, but it's quite worrisome if people are using as one of their primary income sources.
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by s73v3r_ on Friday March 02, 2018 @12:39PM (#16503788)
I've never heard it be offered as that, and I've never heard anyone use it like that. For one, Uber doesn't know where you're going, so how would they know that the person who just hailed an Uber is going in that direction?
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by ProAm on Friday March 02, 2018 @10:41AM (#16502317)
No they wanted full time people, that is why they were giving bonuses if you did 30 rides or something your first week (I dont remember the exact number) but they wanted people on the road a lot.
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Re:Uber, Lyft Drivers Earning a Median Profit of $3.37 per H... by saas_co_de on Friday March 02, 2018 @01:16PM (#16504201)
That is why this study is so misleading.

They say more than 80% of Uber drivers work less than 40 hours per week so that "median profit of $3/hr" is probably for someone working 10 hours per week.

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