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Leaked Docs Provide An Unprecedented Look At Income Of Uber Drivers (buzzfeed.com)

Posted by msmash on from the unprecedented-access dept.

In 2013, Uber told the Wall Street Journal that a typical Uber driver takes in more than $100,000 in annual gross fares. The ride-hail platform, which has shared similar estimates many times since, says that the company's efforts toward its drivers is a pathway to a modest, more attainable American dream. Turns out, the it has been exaggerating. According to BuzzFeed News, which obtained leaked documents, drivers in some markets don't take home much more than service workers at major chains like Walmart when it comes to net pay. According to the publication, drivers in three major U.S. markets -- Denver, Detroit, and Houston -- earned less than an average of $13.25 an hour after expenses. From the report:Based on these calculations, it's possible to estimate that Uber drivers in late 2015 earned approximately $13.17 per hour after expenses in the Denver market (which includes all of Colorado), $10.75 per hour after expenses in the Houston area, and $8.77 per hour after expenses in the Detroit market, less than any earnings figure previously released by the company.

15 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Uber income by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    They aren't buying you a new car either after you use your car up driving for them .. so much for the new gig economy

    1. Re:Uber income by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      About a year ago, Uber was advertising heavily on Craigslist for drivers in my area. But if you did the math, based on the numbers they put in their ads, you would have to drive 70 hours a week to make the amount of money they claimed. I see now that the amount of money they are claiming you can make per week has been cut in half.

    2. Re:Uber income by mvdwege · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ah, the return of the company store.

      Really, given the facts on display and a history of the 19th century only a few clicks away, why exactly does Uber still have defenders?

      --
      "I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
    3. Re:Uber income by DahGhostfacedFiddlah · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Really, given the facts on display and a history of the 19th century only a few clicks away, why exactly does Uber still have defenders?

      Because the taxi racket has been enjoying its monopoly for too long. Where I am, we have some of the highest taxi prices in Canada while many the taxi drivers are near minimum wage (because the drivers rent the licenses from the people who could actually afford them). An Uber driver told me he makes more money on Uber than he did driving a cab, although I didn't ask if that factored in vehicle wear'n'tear.

      Everyone I know had pretty much stopped taking cabs because they were so unreliable. You could end up waiting an hour longer than claimed, or the cab just wouldn't show. Uber has effectively brought taxis back into our lives as a viable option.

      From everything I've heard, Uber takes advantage of its workers and uses some pretty shady tactics. I support government regulation to ensure drivers can make a decent wage. But they've disrupted a market that desperately needed disrupting and have noticeably improved my personal standard of living.

      So given the choice between Uber and the previous status quo? Yeah, I'm an Uber Defender, if a cautious one.

      --
      Last post!
    4. Re:Uber income by rockmuelle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Interesting what you did there, calling the $13.00 after expenses a "profit". What's left out in the expenses is the salary for the contractor. That $13.00 is their take home pay after the expenses of running their car. So, if you have zero living expenses and don't eat, then sure, call it profit. But since Uber drivers are humans, they actually need food and shelter. Some of us also think that all humans should have a decent standard of living and have a decent work/life balance, not just those of us that can make six figures surfing the web all day and occasionally banging out a few lines of code.

      $13.00 take home pay equates to roughly $26k/year (using the standard 2000 hour work year that every software person I know uses to compute their "salary" based on their consulting rate). The poverty line in the US is roughly $23k.

      tl;dr: the $13.00 is not profit, it's salary; $13/hr won't even let you save and the US deems that salary the bare minimum to just scrape by. Working more destroys the work/life balance.

      -Chris

    5. Re: Uber income by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How many "jobs" let you decide you don't feel like working this week with no consequences?

      How many "jobs" let you decide on the spur of the moment that, because your plans fell through, you're going to work for an hour and make some extra cash?

      Uber isn't a job. It's a way for people who have a stable income to pick up a little extra cash. Uber drivers deserve to be paid practically nothing. They are not taxi drivers, who commit to serve an area on a predictable and reliable schedule, and do not deserve to be compensated as though they were.

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    6. Re:Uber income by GLMDesigns · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not in the slightest. People own the car anyway. They have a few hours in which they would like to make some money - and now, through Uber, they can. They can sit in their car watching a movie or reading a book until a car comes and then make some money. No work. No fuss. Until there is a fare. Then you go, make some money and then go back to your book or movie.

      Some people might actually like having a part-time job that they go to WHEN THEY FEEL LIKE IT.

      It has its advantages. If you don't like it - don't do it. If you use the service and feel that way then tip better.

      --
      If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
      Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
  2. What, me exaggerate?? by inode_buddha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course the exaggerated. I've been watching companies do this my whole life, it seems par for the course.

    The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away. Because of this, I would never work for a franchise outfit like Uber; instead I would file a 1099 and use my own SSN for the business number (sole proprietorship) and actually work for myself.

    --
    C|N>K
  3. Bad reporting. by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you start out talking about "100k in Gross Fares" then reveal that number was wrong, you need to tell us what the actual GROSS FARE was. Switching to take hour earnings, after expenses is the mark of an incompetent statistician, and a poor journalist. At the very least.

    For those of you that did not read the article, they claimed that expenses were 25-33%, so at 100k, that would be somewhere between 66 and 75k, assuming 60 hour week that would have been $22 an hour, far more than the current claims of $13.25 (which sound exaggerated to me.)

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    1. Re:Bad reporting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The point is that Uber deliberately chose that number to make it seem like it was giving its drivers a fair deal. When most people see that, they think that the driver is making $100k pre-tax, so that their income is that number minus taxes.

      This new number shows to what extent Uber has externalized its operating costs onto its drivers. That a company worth a staggering $62BN should do this is reprehensible. It is truly a business model built on finding ways around all rule of law (labor law, insurance law...). I'm guessing they attract investment because investors think Uber will do this successfully.

    2. Re:Bad reporting. by whoever57 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That a company worth a staggering $62BN should do this is reprehensible.

      You have things backwards. The company is worth $62B because it has externalized its costs.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  4. Obviously.. by laxguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Did anyone really think that being an Uber driving was the new American Dream??

    1. Re:Obviously.. by houghi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I am not even sure what the American Dream is. I see one person making a calculation on a 60 hour week and another a working year of 52 weeks.

      As a European that sounds more like a nightmare. I rather have my 38 hours per week and 45 weeks per year. That way I can actually live my life and not just dream about it.

      But then if the American Dream is to work as much as possible, more power to you. Just do not be surprised if people are less jealous of your dream.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  5. Re:$13 and hour and my car is a tax write off? by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    with all the miles they drive and the time on the app their car and smartphone plan might as well be free. if i was an uber driver i'd get the top AT&T or Verizon plan to share with my family

    A good accountant will tell you that you can't do that. You could only write off a portion of the cellphone plan.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  6. Re:And why are you surprised? by TheSync · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Driving people around is a marginally skilled luxury service that in theory a teenager with 1-3 years of personal driving experience could do.

    Thanks to automation (GPS/Waze/Google Maps), now you don't event need to know anything about directions to drive a cab/rideshare. 30 years ago, you needed deep geographic and traffic knowledge. Thus it has become a less-skilled job.