Uber

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by tw

$5 profit for a half hour fare is profitable?

Assuming you pick up a second fare, that's a wage of $10 per hour. Are there costs hidden in the long-term car damage that a driver won't necessarily have to deal with until later? Sure. But the same applies to pizza delivery drivers, who make an average of $8.08 per hour.

Fun fact: there is also the opposite of "surge pricing," in which both Uber and Lyft pay bonuses for drivers who cover less popular areas and times of day, because it is in the company's best interest to provide 100% coverage even if the margins are sometimes slimmer. One driver told me she got twice the usual rate for picking me up in a suburb at 9:00 AM--which it turns out she also lives in. She just logs herself in every morning then goes back to sleep. If a ride request comes in, she puts on some pants and does the gig.

No one is getting rich being an Uber driver. But not every worker's desire is to get rich and climb the career ladder 1950s style.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

No one is getting rich being an Uber driver.

That clearly was the point that UT ignored to argue. They see cash flow. Then mistakenly confuse that with income. Nobody can live on $8 an hour. Even in the 1960s, minimum wage was (in today's money) $12.

An Uber driver that gets $5 for a half hour almost never has a new fare one minute later. He is paid nothing to drive to his next fare. And again, the point. Uber drivers really do not know how little they are actually earning.

The Uber model would have been ideal for professional taxis. But those companies operate on razor thin margins. An Uber business model works when its drivers do not realize how little they are actually making.