driver (independent contractor)

driver

uber employee

delivery driver

delivery person (independent contractor)

Uber Drivers

Most, if not all, of these 4 and 5 star reviews here had to have been added by Uber executives/employees themselves or brand-new drivers who only drove a small number of days during a holiday, holiday weekend, or peak tourist season. Actual drivers shouldn't post unless they've worked more than one season. You cannot survive on what you make. You have to work over 13 hours with hundreds of miles on your vehicle each day to make more than $200 (then deduct a little more than $0.50 per mile for depreciation, as per federal rates; gas; maintenance (will need regular oil and tire maintenance, not including the unexpected); and sometimes tolls back to your location). You can end up in the negatives (meaning you will actually lose money) if you're not selective about the rides you accept. I recommend looking for other, viable work while doing this. I can't believe their pay rates haven't been outlawed yet; rideshare is not that new anymore and the government is either being lazy or are using the rideshare services too much and don't want to act (a clear conflict of interest). They take way more than 20% or 25% of fares like I've seen some others mention (more like 50-60%). They fight governments that urge them to pay livable wages without considering taking lower cuts that would still make them billions (they instead claim they would have to charge passengers higher fares to pay better - so greedy). 

ALL of the rates they post on their websites for NYC suburbs are higher than the actual rates they pay (https://www.uber.com/drive/nyc-suburbs/resources/fhv-pricing-20/ ), and I'm sure it's the same for other parts of the country to fool potential new drivers into signing up (they still haven't learned from their other issues regarding falsely advertising driver pay). This is likely why their biggest exaggeration about the rates are the Minimum Trip Earnings (the lowest pay a driver can get for completing a trip, and you get many of these rides as a driver). At the time I am writing this, the site lists the rates as: Minimum Trip Earnings: $5.03, Base Fare: $0.83, Per Mile: $0.7183, Per Minute: $0.1796, and Cancellation Fee: $3.59. The ACTUAL RATES are: Minimum Trip Earnings: $3.66, Base Fare: $0.81, Per Mile: $0.7042, Per Minute: $0.1761, and Cancellation Fee: $3.52. Both rates are still ridiculously low for these areas, which are some of the richest parts of the country with the highest costs of living (average monthly rent where I live is $1400, without utilities, and I am not rich and live in a bad neighborhood)). I contacted them about this discrepancy months ago, and of course, they ignored it. 

A public offering for this company or their main competitor would be a major loss to anyone who invests since they don't own the major assets (vehicles), drivers (asset owners) are not happy and not employees, and all it would take to destroy them both is another company offering better pay - the IPO is to save themselves from the inevitable. It doesn't matter how many customers you have if you don't have vehicles to drive them in. Good luck to them with the driver-less cars that have already killed people happening any time soon.

Cons include:

-Very little money for many hours of work and much vehicle depreciation.

-Very shady practices you start to notice the more you drive (if you pay attention). I suspect they use an algorithm to see what each driver will tolerate or recognize as issues.

They take drivers' pay to offer discounts to riders that complain about GPS routes (which is no fault of the drivers and against the driver agreements regarding pay for completed trips) if drivers don't contest it, and sometimes even when they do contest it, even though they charge flat fare rates to passengers (this has to be illegal). 

Also, total earnings in the driver app doesn't always match (is many times lower than) total earnings when record and tally all of the rides yourself. 

I've caught them doing these things multiple times, contacted them about it, and they've corrected the issues without saying or writing a word to me about it since it would probably be like an admission of guilt. Some might call this misappropriation; I call it stealing, especially since it's never corrected unless I point it out. If you drive for Uber, keep an eye on and your own records of your earnings throughout each shift.

-Lack of respect for drivers and sometimes gives veiled or blatant threats to drivers based on passenger complaints without investigating or questioning drivers about these complaints beforehand.

-Employs tactics to try fooling drivers into going to high demand areas flooded with other drivers with no incentives.

-Mostly incompetent, untrained, and/or unbriefed outsourced driver support staffs that don't communicate with other divisions (as per Uber's intentional organizational structure) and many times have limited English proficiency (although many of them are helpful and I don't want to make this an attack on them - the company designed it this way to save money and reduce communication between contractors and employees to reduce liability and chances of their illegal and unsavory practices being exposed).

-Constantly updated and malfunctioning apps, especially regarding functionality of the app that show drivers' earnings - other parts of the app continue working so you can keep accepting and completing trips without knowing what you're making.

-Few and minimal bonuses and incentives.

-$1000 insurance deductible if you're in an accident.

Drove for Uber out of curiosity and the pipe dreams of making $25 an hour to drive a cab.... Not true.... MAYBE on VERY busy nights the company will GROSS $25 an hour off you but in my opinion that doesn't count as me MAKING $25 an hour.... Of that you are left with 80%... Then subtract about 15% for gas with all the empty miles.... And wear and tear on your car!!! 

So I've taken my net after uberS cut, subtracted my gas based on total miles driven on shift and average MPG, and I have figured I am making about $9-$10 an hour. Not bad right? WRONG.... That's only after gas.... That doesn't consider the wear and tear on your own vehicle!! Depreciation! Oil changes, which you will need about once a month! Tires, don't get a flat tire or your wage will drop to about $.50 cents an hour for the rest of the night!.... If you have a car payment then you'll really be poor!.... To make $1,000 a week with them means you will have to work 70-100 hours that week! And put about 1,500 miles on your car with no flat tires! 

Don't believe me? Just do the simple matter of fact math. Here in Charleston SC they charge $1.75 a mile.... They take 20%... So we get $1.40 a mile.... I've figured out that most of the time you have 50% of your miles driving empty to pick up the next fare. But let's underestimate and say only 40% of miles are driven empty (if you get really lucky)... So that means out of total miles driven you are grossing, before any maintenance or gas, $.84 cents every mile you drive. I figure with gas at $3.20 per gallon and my car averaging in the city 19 mpg that I spend .17 cents on gas every mile. So after gas you are bringing home .67 cents per mile BEFORE INSURANCE, MAINTENANCE, OIL CHANGES MONTHLY, CAR PAYMENT, WATER FOR CUSTOMERS, $40 a month for Uber phone etc..... But any who lets stick with the gross .67 cents a mile to keep this positive!.... In order to make their proclaimed $20/hr you would have to drive 30 miles per hour every hour worked (.67X30=roughly $20).... That's assuming there's non stop fares in your car which there aren't for an entire hour and you do 30MPH the whole time without stopping(.  ; ) impossible) .... Plus a lot of the times you drive 5 miles to take someone 2 blocks for $5 and then the per mileage compensation gets really ugly!! I'm talking about 7 total miles driven for $5.... After uber cut $4... Say $1 in gas... $3 for 7 miles??

But let's pretend that uber is absolutely perfect and you always can get this magical .67 cents net after gas per mile! They claim uber drivers are making $1,000 per week? That would require at the very minimum driving 1,500 miles that week..... Or about 70 hours worth! So with 2 weeks vacation working 70 hours per week 50 weeks a year...you could theoretically make $50,000... After driving your car 75,000 miles.... Insurance is $1800 a year so $48,200... 2 sets of tires in that time not counting any flats which you will get a lot in that time trust me so call it 3 sets of tires at $600 each is $1800... $46,400... Roughly $750 in oil changes $45,650... About another $800 in brake jobs.... $44,750.... All the other BS maintenance that's going to happen within 75,000 miles call it miscellaneous $1,000(very generous) $43,750...uber phone $40/month is $480 so $43,270... Now most cars might last 150,000 miles before serious maintenance takes over....let's take uberS side again and say it lasts 175,000 miles .... Anything over 175,000 is gunna be raggedy and will get you bad reviews and deactivated so you won't have a job anyways.... So let's say you buy a car for uber(or use your own) depreciation still holds true.... Say you get/or have a nice used one with 25,000 miles on it (has to be 5 years old or newer to work with them) for $15,000?  So you'll get to drive it for 2 years with these kinds of miles.... So deprecates roughly $7,500 per year..... Now your wage is down to an average of $35,770 per year after the price of the vehicle depreciated over 2 years.... 70 hrs per week X 50 weeks is 
3,500 hours worked per year.... $35,770/3,500= $10.22 an hour to work 70 hours per week with 0 perks for overtime. $10.22 an hour to deal with wasted people who act like they own you and you have to suck up to them the whole time out of fear of a bad rating!! Remember this is $10.22 an hour based on the best possible circumstances of only 40% empty miles!!.... It's almost always 50% as you have to drive all the way back to where you started in most cases to get another fare.... OR WORSE... Drive 7 miles to make $4.... 70 hours a week and dealing with hammered hipsters for $9-$10 an hour that get to rate you after every trip and could cost you your job..... Oh ya if anything major goes out on your car maintenance wise in those 150,000 miles ( which it will...).... And which I did not include in my very generous maintenance estimates... Well then you can kiss that $10.22 goodbye! Also to make anywhere close to this $1,000 a week we are talking about 70 HOURS sitting in your car driving...

. Do you know what the health effects of sitting for this insane amount of hours per week would be?? Do you have health insurance with uber for that 10.22 an hour and insane amount of dedication that could be detrimental to your health, Nope, your not an employee your just a partner!

PROS:
Set your own schedule. Log onto the Uber app when you can work.

CONS:
Uber charges $10.00 a week for the phone that they provide you. They state the charge is for data usage.

Poor Toll reimbursement – Uber will tell you they reimburse there driver tolls during a rider trip this is not always the case.

Diluted driver network – Uber’s driver network is so diluted you can end up waiting hours in your car for a trip request even in hotspots. 

Poor Dallas Management - College grads that can’t make decisions or tie their shoes. The only way you can get in touch with someone at Uber is via email, good luck getting a valid response.
 
Uber promotes that there is a 10% gratuity included in each trip this is not the case. Drivers do not get a 10% gratuity. Drivers get zero!

Trip cancellations - This happens all the time. You get a trip request and drive to the pick-up location then the rider cancels the trip or is a no-show and you get zero. 

Uber advertises that drivers can make $25 - $35 per hour this is 100% false. After all is accounted for you will probably make $8.00 to $9.00 per hour in the Dallas market.

Wear and tear on your car, more car maintenance and oil changes.

Drunk rude people – you will have to deal with this all the time… cheers.

Uber’s end of the week reports will make it look like you’re a rock star making good money. This is clearly fuzzy math. You will need to take all things into consideration.

Uber does not take out taxes, you will be responsible to pay these taxes when you file.

Higher Insurance premiums – If you are going to drive for Uber you will defiantly want the proper insurance coverage and this will cost you. If you decide not to let your car insurance company know you are using your vehicle for business use and you are in an accident driving for Uber or someone gets hurt your insurance company can exercise their full right not to pay the claim and you could be left 100% liable holding the bag.

Uber’s Terms of Service – read it well and then read it again or have your attorney check it out. As stated in the terms Uber will always stand by the rider and not the driver.

Trip example 1: If you get a trip request that is 5 miles away and you pick up the rider and then find out that they are only going 2 miles then it takes you 7 miles to get back to an area where you can get trip request again then you have driven 14 miles and have only been paid for 2 miles. 

Trip example 2: You get a trip request and drive 7 miles to pick-up the rider. The rider wants you to take them to DFW International Airport and let’s say that is 12 miles away. Once you drop off the rider in the airport you will have to drive 12+ miles back to get back into an area where you can get trip request again. Uber’s app does not allow UberX drivers to pick-up riders within the airport & Uber does not reimburse you for the $2.00 toll fee going through the airport. So you were paid for a 12 mile trip and you have driven 31 miles and the toll fee’s come out of your own pocket which is usually another 8% to 11% after Uber takes there 20%.

Trip example 3: If you get a trip request in heavy traffic, event areas or have to drive through a traffic jam some things to consider.  Let’s say you get a trip request and drive 3 miles to pick up the rider and the rider’s trip is only 2 miles and the duration of the trip is 30 minutes. The gross fare for this trip will be $10.56 Uber’s cut is $2.11 that leaves you with $8.45 now subtract your gas usage, gas/time to pick up the rider and so on.

Uber’s fare rate for X drivers in the Dallas/Fort Worth market
Base fare $1.90
Per minute 0.19
Per mile $1.48
This will give you a total gross fare based on miles driven from the pickup location to the drop off location and the duration of the trip. Uber will get 20% then you can subtract any tolls, subtract miles/time driven to pick up the rider, subtract any miles/time driven to get back into to an area where you can get trip request again, then subtract the gas you have used. This will give you a net amount before taxes. Also keep in mind that Uber charges there drivers $10.00 a week to use their phone, they state the charge is for data usage. Other things include higher insurance premiums, more vehicle maintenance and so on…

If you are considering driving for UberX you may want to crunch some numbers first, make sure your insurance company aware of how you will be using the vehicle and that you are properly covered this is extremely important due to the fact that Uber will always stand by the rider and not the driver. Read and understated the terms of service. 

Who is your typical Uber user? Tech savvy 35,000 a year millionaires and drunk people. 

Good luck!

READ THIS IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH $$$ YOU MAKE DRIVING
I have been driver for LYFT and UBER for 1 year and working full time for 9 months. I have completed over 2,200 rides. I have an accounting background and I lost my professional job. Out of desperation, I became a driver for UBER/LYFT. I keep precise records of all income and expense. The bottom line statistics are not at all promising to be a driver. I took precise mileage and earnings figures. For 9 months, I drove 41,291 miles, gross revenues before expenses and taxes were 0.61 cents/mile (including cash/non-cash tips). In my market, average gross revenue for UBER and LYFT is 0.80 cents/mile BEFORE 20% commission paid to UBER/LYFT. Of significance, my gross earnings per mile was 25% higher in 2015 ($1.00/mile), which means that average gross earnings per mile will be LESS in future periods. Thus, my findings at the end of this post are UNDERSTATED.  Earnings include prime time and surge pricing. I worked more than full time for 6 months during all optimal times of the day (12+ hours/day, 5+ days/week). 
0.61 cents/mile doesn't sound bad, right? Well, not until you account for all costs. Actual total costs to drive a 2011 Nissan Altima was $11,829 or $0.29 cents/mile (including fuel, conservative depreciation, insurance, service, cell, and food giveaways. So, net earnings BEFORE taxes were ONLY $0.32 cents/mile. Notice the SHARE of income on a percentage basis is 51% (me) and 49% (them). This is because of the REAL expenses required to do this job reduce the share of gross earnings from 80% to 51%. 
Let me break this down in terms we can all relate to. In order to earn $500/week (net of all expense & before taxes), you have drive 313 miles/day for 5 days/week. 313 miles can be driven in 5.2 hours assuming no stops, regular traffic, and an average speed of 60mph (or 21 rides completed at an avg. of 15 miles/ride). As you are well aware, it is impossible to complete 300+ miles in 5 hours because, of course, you have to make stops, wait for riders, deal with traffic, and determine your next destination. But, let’s say for the sake of argument you could. So, after adjusting for stop, wait, traffic, navigation (an additional & conservative --96 minutes), you have worked over 6 1/2 hours. This is at an average speed of 60mph! A more reasonable assumption would be an average speed of say, 35mph, which would translate to over 11 hours work/day. This translates to an hourly wage (before taxes) of $9.12 per HOUR! Let me also state that 1) I do NOT have commercial insurance, 2) these assumptions do NOT include an adjustment for accident risk, 3) this does NOT include any damage to your vehicle caused by riders, 4) the risk of injury or worse because of undesirable riders, and 5) you still have to pay taxes on any ‘net’ income. So, given these precise calculations, is it still worth it to drive for $9.12/hour BEFORE you pay taxes?
I know what you are thinking: you receive a direct deposit that is much larger than $9.12/hour, you receive referral bonuses that translate into more $$$ for you, and you think you are better than the average driver so you make more in tips than those ‘other’ losers. Well, have you actually sat down and accounted for all of your expenses? Let me share my personal experience: for 9 months I earned $1,569 in cash tips + 1,461 in LYFT inApp tips, BOTH of WHICH have been already accounted for. What I excluded from the calculation was what I view as "non-recurring" fees earned. Meaning, I believe that future earnings in this category will substantially lower or eliminated entirely. I made a total of $3,660 for 9 months for the following: 1) sign on bonus 2), driver referral for 1 person, and 3)passenger referral fees for over 125 NEW riders to LYFT. So, did you earn an average of over $100/week for referral/sign-on bonuses every week that you worked? That is what I earned. You have to ask yourself how much you have earned from these ‘non-recurring’ and NOT reliable sources of income. Including this non-recurring income, I earned an additional $0.09 cents/mile. 
So, in the final analysis, I made an average of $0.40 cents/mile (including surge pricing, referral fees, tips) in net income, which assuming a 40 hour work week (this is understated) translates to $11.47 PER HOUR. This is BEFORE taxes and BEFORE any of the risk you take as a driver. Is it still worth it?

Uber's advertisements to make "$25/hour in bookings" as a driver are a bald face lie. Remember "in bookings" means that you must immediately subtract 20% from "$25" because Uber takes that amount from each fare. In the final analysis, please keep reading to find out why you will make LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE if you become and Uber "partner". Notice how they don't use the word "driver"? Their legal department came up with this euphemism so that when you smash into a pedestrian while driving they can argue in court that you aren't actually an employee!

(1) Be prepared to put 60,000 miles/year on your car if you do this full-time. How much will you need to make to compensate for that vehicle depreciation? How much will this wear and tear cost you in maintenance? Please run the numbers.

(2) Be prepared to pay for the iPhone they provide you -- they are currently charging $40.00/month for a "data plan" which is really a disguised way of stealing more of your %. Even if you do not turn on this iPhone at all during a month, you will pay! Brilliant, now they are incentivized to pass out as many of these iPhone as possible -- eventually they can start their own cellphone company with the revenues! Oh, and you will also have to pay for your own smartphone in order to communicate with riders since the Uber iPhone is only an interface to receive calls for rides! No, you can't download their app on your phone!!! That would allow hundreds of thousands of dollars to slip out of Uber's fingers! "YOU MUST USE OUR IPHONE!!!!!"

(3) You will have to juggle around 2 phones in your car in addition to playing around with your GPS (required). These are accidents waiting to happen! Many states already have laws in place to prevent people from playing with technology while driving. Uber forces you to do this by the nature of the work!

(4) Does your insurance company know that you are operating as a taxi service? You could find yourself in serious trouble in the event you are involved in an accident.

(5) The police can stop and ticket you for operating a livery service without a license at any time. Driving for Uber is illegal and it won't be too long before it is outlawed altogether. Uber is hoping to do their IPO before that happens but we should do our part to make sure it never happens. Boycott Uber!

(6) You will make about $6/hour on average after excluding vehicle depreciation, fuel costs, cell phone costs, income tax, etc. Don't believe me? Then go be a driver and find out for yourself. You will be so sick of sitting around in your car for hours that you'll start screaming. Been there, done that.

(7) The "surge pricing" is a farce designed to call drivers to certain areas with the hope that drivers will make 2x or 3x the normal fare. Don't believe it. You many also win the lottery! I drove to the middle of surge pricing areas several times thinking I would instantly be called instantly but ended up sitting for over an hour in my car and received exactly ZERO calls while this supposed "surge pricing" was indicated. It is a lie. There is no "surge" demand, and customers should be aware that their money is literally being stolen.

(8) What company discourages service industry tips? Answer: UBER! What company in the service industry steals your tips? Answer: UBER! They say tip is included in the fare and then take 20% of your fare!

(9) Do you like driving around at night putting your personal safety in jeopardy at the worst times to be out on the road? That is what Uber wants you to do. Be online until 4am in the morning while the drunks and cops and prowling around. Never mind the chance that you might get car jacked!

Don't believe the hype!!! These so-called "ride-share" companies are slave-wage exploiters foisting all of their cost and liability onto unsuspecting drivers who believe they have finally discovered freedom! How fitting that the opposite is actually true. Uber's advertised "$25/hour in bookings for drivers" is such a farce it forced me to write this review. Their entire business model is based on slave wages and danger transfer to "drivers", and they are in fact operating illegally. Uber and other companies like it are on the precipice of bankruptcy -- all it will take is law enforcement to start ticketing and stopping drivers or a few more high profile accidents and these companies are toast. Don't be seduced by their lies. Citizens: Do not patronize them with your hard earned money and do not put your personal safety in jeopardy!

The best part of the job is setting your own schedule, occasionally meeting interesting people, having some interesting conversations, and seeing lots of craziness on the road most people who don't drive all day will miss. That's about the end of the upsides.

When Uber first hit my area it was profitable and worthwhile. Uber was relatively new still and had a reputation to build. Once they built that reputation they started cutting corners and making decisions that were damaging to their drivers. Claims of making 60k a year (in my area) are absurdity, even if you drive more than 40 hours a week. Most claims of large salaries were people who drove far more per week than they should be (10+ hours a day). Plus Uber never bothers to figure in gas consumption, mileage, maintenance per mile costs, or going offline for a restroom break. The pay is intentionally deceptive. These days I'm lucky to make 400/wk. and generally hover around 320-350 not including tips. Thing is, in my area, almost no one tips and I certainly don't say anything because Uber's policy has always been against tipping. They claim it's because it's inconvenient to the customer, which can be true. But other companies have dealt with this by simply adding an option to tip directly into the app's interface. Would you tip a taxi driver? Yes? Then why wouldn't you tip an Uber driver? It's the same exact job with a different branding and style of usage. That's all. The bottom line is that Uber, through their actions, have shown they do not care about their drivers beyond the money they can make them. I thought they were different when they first started in my area. Shame on me for thinking a large corporation would have the interests of their employees in mind once they were well established. It was a show.

Uber has cut their fare rates repeatedly while increasing the cut they get from their drivers (varies based upon location). Uber puts out great incentives to get new drivers on the road but doesn't support their currently active driver base. In my area they have created an influx of new drivers due to time based incentives which has resulted in a massive decline in rider demand as all riders are being spread out across many more drivers. Obviously I'm in the process of looking for something else less stressful.

You could go out to drive and end up sitting for over an hour as I have multiple times. In the early days this was unheard of. It used to be unusual to wait more than 15 minutes for a ride request. Now on a Saturday at 6pm I wait in a populated area for 1 hour and get nothing, that's not ok. You could say it's not Uber's fault, except it is. Uber's business strategy has directly affected the drivers in all facets.

The sheer amount of downtime could shatter your earning potential. If you plan to do this job, DON'T make it full time. I did that back when it was still at least decent to drive for Uber. Now it's just a bad joke. This would be a difficult job even part time since demand is now so unreliable. Between that and the issues with your car insurance company, unless you can come to some special arrangement, it's not worth the wear and tear on your vehicle or increased insurance cost.

Uber knows their drivers are a diminishing resource. Within the next 10-15 years we will become more and more obsolete as they phase in vehicles that can operate on their own. It could take longer depending upon setbacks and legislative changes, but it is coming.

Everything about working for Uber benefits Uber. When they increase prices, it's always to benefit them. The four worst occurrances are: 

1) A surge is happening and you are stuck in traffic trying to get to your customer. They either cancel on the ap and leave you trapped, or they don't call or cancel at all, but the are gone when you get there. Either way, the surge is over before you can get to a new rider. All the time, gas, stress, wear on your vehicle you just spent is 100% on you. When big events are going on and downtown is a nightmare, this more common than not. 

2) Unless they have changed this, you have no idea where your customer is going until you pick them up. If it's 1:00 am and you're getting tired, but not quite tired enough to turn on 'destinations' to point you toward home, you could (and I have) find yourself at 3:00 in the morning, over a hundred miles from home, low on gas, with no open gas stations. Also, Uber's definition of what is on your way home and what is not can be shockingly different from yours. Often they will get you a rider whom you have to pick upway out of your way, then drop off just outside of the busy area but no closer to home than you were when you got the call, and just outside the busy area, so you won't get called backwards to puck up someone who will actually get you closer to home. They refuse to give you multiple 'destinations' to get you home or to give you a radius to keep you close to home. This happened to me, also more often than not.

3.  I found zero restaurants with sufficient reserved parking spots for UberEats. Most have none. About 25% of the time valets will direct you to park illegally, and if you don't, you quite simply can't pick up. They won't go in and get the order for you even if there are three of them just standing there and no one else is coming. If you do get a ticket, NO ONE, not Uber, not the restaurant, not the police... no one will care. No one will help you. That is all on you. No one but you will be paying for that ticket. 

4. If you work in an area where corrupt police actually target rideshare drivers, and you have one cop actually direct you to pull over into an unmarked bike lane to drop off your riders, and another pull you over to write you up a ticket (then later lie in court to a smirking judge), do not expect Uber to help you find your riders or to keep track of other drivers who have experienced this so you can have witnesses for your defense or organize a class action lawsuit against a corrupt city police force. Do not expect one drop of advice, cooperation, help or even a shred of sympathy from Uber.

Uber does not care one wit about their drivers. They do not even change rates when gas prices shoot up. In the end you are left with a car that needs expensive repairs and new tires and you do not have enough income to take care of either problem. 

It is also impossible to do the job without being on the cell phone, often even texting, while you are driving. Consider what that can lead to. 

I loved the actual driving and meeting interesting people, but I despise Uber in so many ways I cannot list them. 

Bottom line: once you factor in your increased insurance rates and cell phone costs, oil and tire changes,  keeping the car clean and looking good, gas, basic maintenance and major repairs, you will find you are working at a loss. Add a couple tickets with that too, especially if you might be foolishly inclined to respond to riders who tell you to speed, and your losses have the potential to be catastrophic. Never risk getting a ticket for Uber. You cannot take one for the team. There is only you, and the parasite that is Uber.

I have been driving forbUber for just about 7 months and have about 1700 rides with about 30,000 miles added to the car since I have started.
The entire thing is all about luck. Some days you will get good rides, some days you wont. There are too many fees and cuts from your pay that it is not worth is. 
For example, on paper I make $5k per month. Uber takes 25% without thinking twice, then about 10% goes for some fees and taxes. After that there is the extra cost of insurance and then gas, and dont forget the rag and tear on your car that will bring it to the workshop about once a month if not more. It comes down that from $5k I bring about $2.3k home which is not enough to wipe your... you get the idea.
The amount of time you put into it is equal to a job that you would be able to make and gain more.
U er is not going to buy you a new car at the end of the year when the current one is broken. Also, not many people will respect your property and leave trash, or just be completely dirty and smelly: this is your vehicle.
The only good thing is that, from my experience, when something like that happened, in my car someone just cleaned his dog stooled shoe on my carpet. I took a picture and contacted uber, and they reimbursed me for the cleanup. It was still embarrassing though and the car smelled for few days.
Payment is inconsistent, you will hardly get tips, some riders will take advantage of the the ride and will put one location that is close, then "change" their mind and boom you find yourself driving much further than you wanted to, specially because go find someone to drive on the way back, or it is wasted time/gas.
Overall, it is not worth it unless you are really in need of money. I never had issue with the instant pay and I use it daily.
There are no benefits, you are on your own, paying all the expenses on the car, and usually will make an average of anywhere from $10 to $12, with sometimes $15 or so, and if you are really lucky, you might get up to $18 during weekends (talking about daily average here) 
You do make more the more you drive, obviously, but you also pay more gas and more maintenance so it's stupid to even bring that up. Also, you are your own boss and can choose your own hours, but let me tell you that 6-9am, then lunch time, and then 8-11pm are when things are alive in OC (CA). Anytime other than that, you will find a ride or two in an hour. Mostly an elder lady who must get to the market or so, so even when you can choose your own hours, when others are at work, you are out of work too.
The fact that you have no idea where you are actually going to go is also bad. You may get a 2 minute ride or a 2 hour ride, with mostly 10 minute rides. The problem here is that you may be driving to pickup for 10 minutes just to drop off 2 minutes later, basically wasting 12 minutes on a short ride. You may want to go home but have another 30-40 minutes to spare but you get someone going to a location 45 minutes away. So that part sucks a lot.
Bottom line I wouldnt recommend this gig/job to anyone. I hope to find a job fast and soon because u er is ruining my life. Dont let the smiling face of the CEO and their honey covered words blind you. Uber is the new pirates, the new slavers. It is not a good company and I wish that people should have open their eyes. You might think it's great because money flows right away, but for the long run you are killing yourself.
They are also hiring so many drivers that it is getting harder and harder to get passangers.

This is just my view on this. Take it or leave it, but I hope you so the right thing and go look for something somewhere else before you fall I to this hole.

So I’ll start off by talking about the positives.  The most obvious advantage is scheduling. You can literally clock in/out whenever you’d like, and there’s no minimum or maximum amount of hours you can work in a day.  Additionally, the job and the app are stupid easy to operate. Basically anyone with an iota of tech savviness can operate the app and o the job.  The job itself is simple, you drive to restaurants, pick up food, and drop it off to people. As I write this I have a 98% satisfaction rating, and it was easy to obtain, and maintain that.   Further still you can cash out your earnings several times a day if you want, or just wait for the weekly payout if that’s how you want to budget. Also, every once in a while people will cancel or be in the wrong state or something and you get free food!! So there are some advantages for sure.  

The negatives however make it a less than favorable job.  But I want to state that I live in the small college town of Gainesville, FL, which has a population of about 120k.  So not exactly a huge hoping market.  So first off is the amount of work available.  On a typical day, I will drive for about 8-10 hours.  Throughout the day there are boost times from 11-2, 6-9, and 10p-11p.  There have been days when I have stayed on from 11-11, but I don’t typically.  The trouble started back in 2/2019.  Uber does what is called “Quests” which give you bonuses for doing a certain number of trips.  The bonus structure used to be “5 trips =9.00, 10=20.00 15=35.00, and 20=60.00.  These quest bonuses were on top of your per trip earnings (typically 5-6 dollars per)  This structure was fantastic, and was at least obtainable here in the small market of Gainesville. However, in mid 2/2019, they switched the quest as follows 5=8.00. 9=15.00 17=30.00, 24=45.00, and 30=60.00.  Here in town, I have averaged, pretty consistently, about 2 trips per hour since December. So a long 12 hour day used to net me something between 20-22 deliveries (the most I have ever done was 15 hours and 23 deliveries).  And so I would make the big bonus of 60 bucks most weekend days.  But obtaining 30 has proven to be all but impossible (15 hours is more than they allow truck drivers to be on the road).  So with the bonus structure changing pretty dramatically, my earnings have subsequently fallen at an about equal rate (initially, I was averaging between 12-16 an hour after gas and now it’s between 8-11 an hour after gas) The worst part about this though is there wasn’t even so much as an email about the impending changes. There is NO management available for general advice, nor is there any training/learning opportunities.  There is a customer support line, but it works just like that, it’s a call center. Additionally, the job is a 1099 job, so they don’t account for taxes.  Also, there is no reimbursement for gas, expenses incurred, etc, so you must be really good about budgeting.  I’ve complained on several occasions about the lack of notification about pay changes to no avail.  I’ve never seen a response from corporate or anything really.  

With all that said, I would defiantly recommend this job as a second, or third job.  But in a small market, I would never recommend this as a full time job, especially due to slow weeks that happen occasionally (last week I was clocked in 43.5 hours and only made 294.06, the worst week I’ve had so far). But as a secondary source of income, with the flexibility it allows, it makes an easy second/third job

I will have to say, if you are someone who is willing to work part time at very specific hours and events, Uber will make you good money to supplement an income. However, the idea that you can work at any time any day isn't really true. Unless you're doing Uber in a big city, you've got to work big events, weekends and very late at night (midnight - 3am) in order to make decent cash. Even then, it's barely enough to live off of if you're relying on it as your sole income. 

There's also no help with gas or car maintenance, their GPS system is really unreliable and will sometimes take you to the wrong place to pick a customer up, which results in you either driving 15 minutes to lose a ride and wasting your time or a potentially disgruntled customer who will rate you unfairly. Uber also keeps slashing their rates lower and lower when they already take over 20%. They take 20% of the overall bill, then add an additional fee that can be almost 10%, so they're really taking more like 30% while you pay for everything and your car gets a lot of wear and tear. While I did overall enjoy my Uber experience, the pay was sporadic and unreliable, I had to drive late late nights and sometimes customers would (rarely, but it does happen) have me drive them to very dangerous parts of town in the dead of night. There is also no feedback from riders, so if they give you a 1 star- and keep in mind if you drop below 4.6 out of 5 stars you're off the road- you don't get any feedback to know what you even did wrong. There's also, at least right now, no way for a rider to tip their driver unless they have cash.

Also, no matter what time you drive you're going to have drunk people in your car. On that note, if you're still interested in working for Uber, you should purchase paper bags for people to puke into because someone at some point is probably going to vomit in your car. People will also makeout in your car, I had this happen at least once a week, and sometimes they'll eat greasy, sloppy food in your car without a care in the world.

All in all, if the company actually cared about their drivers as much as they say they do (Uber drivers mean nothing to the company, they're a dime a dozen to them) and it was possible to get paid by not driving scary hours, I might still be doing it. If you're just looking for part time work to get a little extra cash, Uber is good. Most of your customers are really nice, even the drunk ones. Some of them are scary but mostly you just get the occasional obnoxious rider.

If you are still interested in driving for Uber: Clean your car once a week. I found that how clean my car was seriously affected my tips- the one week I didn't get tips was the one week where I didn't clean my car because I was trying to save money. Next: it doesn't matter how charming or engaging you are, people seem to be very sensitive about the cleanliness of your vehicle and trust me, customers will dirty up the inside fast. Third, know when not to talk. Sometimes customers don't want to have a conversation with you, so don't force them into it. Lastly: Bars are always great pickup locations on the weekends. If there's a big sports event or concert, those are also good. If you're in a place that has a busy airport, go there too, but you might have to wait in a cellphone lot since a lot of airports don't allow Uber drivers to park and wait at the pickup area. College town areas are also really good. Try to use Google to see if anyone else has done Uber in your area to learn in advance if there are other hot spots.

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