I was planning to drive my car with uber on weekends.. Wanted to get a bit of info. How much can upon earn with uber? I have heard you can earn a lot in the nights picking up people from pubs.. How much can u make?
Any info would be helpful. How much is the setup costs or upfront costs?
Thanks in advance
I wouldn't mind doing it, but only if its surge pricing. As a driver would I be able to see if a surge multiplier will apply? That reddit link seems to imply not but is unclear, with the whole idea of surge pricing is to entice more drivers on the road at a particular time, how would it entice drivers if you cant see it?
Also i heard there was 8x multiplier in sydney on nye with one trip costing $700, does the driver get all of this minus the 20% to uber?
Link extract-
"Is there a way to see Surges without logging in?
There are some 3rd party apps that claim to do this, but there are reports of drivers being deactivated for using them. Use at your own risk.
Otherwise, you can either:
•open the passenger app and drag your pin around the area, this will show surges, although not in a "heatmap" style.
•open m.uber.com and drag your pin around; works the same way as the pax app above."
I did a bit of UberX driving in Melbourne about a year ago.
When a surge starts, you definitely know about it, if you're idle it'll send you push notifications and zoom the map out to show the area currently in surge - the multiplier is highlighted over the area.
The thing is though, you have to remain online to see the surges, and if you're online, that means you'll be given a pickup sooner or later. Often what I found is that while I'm on my way to a surging area, I'll get a pickup, haha. By the time I dump that passenger off, the surge is over or I'm far away from the surge and the same problem repeats itself as I make my way back to the surge area.
so what do you mean your given a pickup, I was under the impression if a job becomes available your phone beeps and you have the option to accept it or don't touch the phone and I guess the job goes to the next driver?
You can refuse a pickup, but if you do this too often, Uber will boot you off the system. So you really don't have much of a choice but to accept all the jobs they offer you.
From the Uber documentation (you should read every single page of it): https://drive.uber.com/melbourne/
"Acceptance rate
Part of providing a 5 star service is providing a reliable ride. Even if your rating is very good, if you’re not accepting every trip request that comes through to you you’re making the Uber system unreliable. You should be aiming for an acceptance rate of at least 90%.
If your acceptance rate is below average you may lose access to the Uber Partner app."
I spent a few months driving my car for UberX - it's a decent way to make some spare money. If you do it during the night time on weekends (so Friday night until Sunday night), you'll make a few hundred bucks profit, certainly. All the info you want is here: https://drive.uber.com/melbourne/uberx/join-uberx/
Setup costs:
Gotta get yourself a "Special Purpose Accreditation" https://drive.uber.com/melbourne/uberx/ which costs $73.20 and then you need to go to a doctor to get them to do a medical on you, which costs $80 https://drive.uber.com/melbourne/uberx/medical-assessment/ - I signed up to Uber before this was required, but if I want to keep driving (I haven't in a few months now), I'll have to apply for one and do the medical.
You want to get yourself a good smartphone holder, car charger and cable. Place it in a spot you can easily access whilst driving as you need to tap the screen often to accept jobs and then confrim a completed job. A good sturdy setup might be around $80 or so ($10 or so for a dual port charger, $50 for a nice and $20 for a legit Lightning cable if you use an iPhone).
If there's anything wrong with your car, get it fixed now. Uber will require your car to get a 3rd party inspection (via a mobile mechanic they arrange to visit you) and won't approve you to drive unless the car passes. So if you have shitty tyres or a broken mirror or a dud headlight bulb that'll prevent you from getting started until its fixed. Same with body damage - Uber doesn't want cars full of massive dents or scratches. If it's a small ding here and there they wont' care, but if you recently backed into a pole, you'll need to fix it.
You'll want nice car seat covers for the front and back - passengers are filthy animals and at least with a car seat cover you can take them off to be cleaned. At the very least, the constant in & out of passengers will wear out the original car upholstery way faster than normal. If a car seat cover is worn out you can just buy a new one. Ditto floor mats. Get rubber ones if possible for when it rains and people get in your car with muddy feet - or if people vomit in your car (which happens - and Uber will pay to clean it up, docking the passenger, hah).
Ongoing costs:
Fuel - now's a good time to get into it, as fuel is only around $1.10-$1.20 vs. the $1.40-$1.50 when I was driving. You'll use more fuel than you currently do for the same sort of trip as 99% of the driving is inner city stop-start stuff. So if your car uses 7-8L/100km now, expect it to jump to around 9-10L/km.
Car cleaning - gotta keep your ride very clean inside and out or you'll get shit ratings and if your rating dips below 4 stars, there's a chance Uber will kick you off. I'd pay $20/week for a proper clean and vaccuum/dust while I had lunch as I hate washing my car. If you do it yourself you'll save money (but take time).
Keeping water bottles and mints stocked in the car - 90% of the time passengers often don't care, but once or twice a day you'll get a passenger who wants water or mints and if they're not there, you'll get a shit rating
Maintenance - you'll rack up the km quick with lots of city driving (wasn't unusual for me to do around 300km a day) - change your oil & filter sooner rather than later - every 5,000km instead of 10,000km. Learn to do it yourself and remember to check all your fluids at least once a week (brake, coolant, wipers) and tyre air pressure to maintain best fuel economy. Invest in roadside assitance too (which you should have regardless).
Mobile phone data - you need a decent data plan to handle all the map data Uber uses. Not heaps, 2GB/month will be plenty. Just something to keep in mind if you're a light smartphone user now (e.g: 500MB-1GB) so you dont' get caught out paying for excess data.
Vehicle inspections - the first inspection is free, but every few months Uber will require your car to be looked at and proof uploaded to their system. Not sure how much this costs, but it's not free after the first one.
Good luck and happy driving, hah. Stay clear of pissed off taxi drivers - use my referral code if you found this info handy!
Thank you very much for your informative post. It was really helpful. I would like to ask you a few questions. If I start driving, I would not be very regular. Do I have to stay online for a certain amount of period or there is no such compulsion?
Can I opt to work whenever I would like to?
What is this surge pricing? is that only during NYE or public holidays or it happens quite often?
Do we have to buy a phone from them or you can use their app on your existing phone?
Than you again for your effort to help me out with this
You can be online as little or as often as you want - that's the best thing about driving for Uber. You choose when you want to be online. But when you are online, you need to do 90% of the jobs they assign to you.
Surge pricing is Uber's way to motivate drivers to go to a certain area Uber thinks is being under served. The more severe the shortage of drivers, the higher the multiplier (i.e: if you accept a job in a surge area rated at 2.4x, your income is multiplied by 2.4 for that job). There's surges multiple times a day in different areas. For example, in Melbourne, it's not uncommon for the surge to hit 2x-3x around lunch time in the Inner South East suburbs. It may only last 10-15 min though. Often at night it'll surge to 3x-4x for a few hours, or after big events like concerts of football matches. You want to try position yourself in areas likely to surge, so instead of earning $20 for a job, you get $60. Hunting the surge is the key to making good money with Uber.
You can use your own smartphone, certainly. Just download the partner app and away you go: https://drive.uber.com/melbourne/how-can-we-help/how-to-uber…
Hey mate, was wondering if you got into uber driving in Melbourne. If so would you comment on how it's going?
I'm thinking to start driving just for the weekends, and can anyone clarify how does the tax rebate work whilst driving Uber.
Cheers
How about taxi drivers trying a bit of that surge pricing? Oh, wait: there are laws stopping them: laws that they actually obey.
The way I see some taxi drivers on the road, there's at least a hundred other laws they don't obey.
That's just a different business model, not cabbies being noble. Surge pricing 1) raises the bar for entry, 2) incentivises drivers. It's why you can get an Uber within minutes on NYE, but good luck finding a cabbie who was willing to work that shift for the usual rate.
What about insurance? Oh wait, there is none.
There is some insurance: https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/28318825/nrma-offers-insurance-t…
Be nice if it was more common though, or if Uber themselves had some sort of insurance, even if it meant keeping 1-2% of all fares in order to cover drivers under all situations.
According to this guy
http://uberaustips.com/how-much-uber-drivers-earn/
you can earn around $30/hour. I've said it elsewhere but you can actually earn a better per hour rate if you drive at specifically busy times such as Friday and Saturday nights in Sydney. Some drivers have hit up to $50/hour. There are however a number of costs also in the article (wouldn't classify them as set up costs).
To shed a bit of light on the real earnings of Uber in the Melbourne area:
I have been doing Uber part time for about 12-months, mostly on Friday and Saturday Nights.
The question is can you make money? and what is the best what to do this?
Between 10pm and 3am on Friday and Saturday nights you will find that uber fares will be higher and you can expect to get paid between $30-40 per hour. You don't need to worry about your petrol costs as you can claim petrol as an expense on tax.
Outside of these times, weekdays between 8am and 11am, and 4pm and 7pm are also busy times, with avg earnings a little less,
more like 20-30 per hour.
During the weekdays between 11am and 3pm, even in the city fares are usually scares and you will likely earn on average around $20 per hour or less…
You will need to stick to inner city areas to get more fairs, but the good thing is if you live outside of the CBD, like myself (35 min north east of the CBD) you can set uber to pick up fairs on your way to a destination twice a day.
This means when I start a shift, I will wait until someone is heading into the city on Saturday night and also on my way home so I get paid for the journey in and out of the CBD area.
I hope this information was helpful!
Mod: Removed Referral Code
Good luck!
"You don't need to worry about your petrol costs as you can claim petrol as an expense on tax."
You do need to worry about petrol. Claiming something as an expense on tax doesn't get you that money back, it just means you don't pay tax on it. Therefore, if you pay 34c in the $1 tax then for buying $1000 worth of petrol you will get back $340 at tax time, meaning you still are $660 out of pocket for petrol expenses. If you gave one ride for the year, charged the customer $10 but your car guzzled $20 during that ride are you going to get $20 back for petrol costs even though you only earned $10? Clearly not.
Take care around the car insurance. RACQ asked me if it was used for uber etc last accident I had. No idea if you are covered or not as I don't use the car for ride sharing.
It depends on many factors. If you are unemployed and looking for a job, you are an international student trying to break the 20 hour work limit or you are a semi retired or retired person looking to get engaged and not much worried about the earnings uber is best for you. Most of the answers for similar questions in forums are answered by the Uber propaganda machine so you will find much exaggerated earning estimations. The simple straight forward answer for your question is, with Uber you dont earn much. After all the expenses you may earn $11 to $12 per hour in Australia that too if you are living near the inner city.
The best advantage with Uber is the flexibility, you can drive round the clock depending on your availability. But is it really worth driving where all the set up costs and risks are borne by you to earn $11 an hour where Australia's lowest minimum wage for Casual job ( where you dont have any risk or responsibility) is above $20 an hour is for you to decide. For some it may worth it.
Then about surge pricing. Surge pricing will be usually for a limited area. Suppose if you are in the surge price area and you got a trip you get that surge pricing for just one trip and that trip most likely to take you outside the zone. More over surge pricing usually dont last for ever. In most cases you are may get one or two surge pricing trips in a day. So best not hang on to the surge price extras . You should be really lucky to get more that 3 times which will significantly effect your earnings. Usually you may get 1.2 to 1.3 times the fare during surge pricing which infact don't effect much because most trips will be for short distances. How many you think will take a Uber ride paying three times the fare to long distances. That is just commonsense.
About driving on weekend nights - You may earn upto $35 an hour ( before all expenses) but that is not a guaranteed amount it can vary sometimes even on weekend nights you may earn just $22 an hour. But you will have to deal mostly with drunken teenagers and at least some of them consider it as their birth right to vomit in your car.
Moreover, Uber is an American Company and while working for Uber, they will make you feel the American Corporate misbehavior in many ways. If you are born in Australia and got used to Australian fair go , you will definitely detest working for them.
There are advantages like flexibility of working hours and if you require some money immediately and dont worry about GST, Petrol expenses and Taxes until they bite you, it is best.
Another thing to consider is - The more you drive the more your chances of getting a speeding fine, red light fine and involve in a terrible accident. The question now is - Is it all worth it to earn just $12 an hour?. For some it may.
For detailed information on this you may visit this article which I found more or less an accurate account of driving with Uber. http://www.india2australia.com/is-it-worth-driving-for-uber-…
Hope this helped
Very well said. I do not have any experience with Uber driving but was speaking with taxi driver tonight and he mentioned same points that you wrote in your post. At the end, for $10 per hour, please are driving Uber.
Hi Guys.
Just want to know if anyone is doing Uber driving and how much can you make average if you drive around 18-23 hr/week including weekend nights?
Looking forward to hear from you guys.
Thanks
Is worth
If you need money and have an economical car to run then it's worth it yeah?
Being realistic you probably only end up making $12-15 an hour after tax/ubers cut/petrol/wear and tear etc.
Most drivers I've spoken to make $10 net per hour after factoring everything in.
I've only got experience from my time in California, where I knew two people who did a stint Uber driving.
One of them took it up because he was starting a business, but needed a bit of cash to live. His idea was to drive 20 hours a week and work on his business idea for the rest of the time. He figured the flexible hours would be perfect for that. In the end, he said it wasn't worth it. By the time he paid for fuel and running costs, he was just not making enough money to live off. He gave up driving and got a night-shift job stacking shelves and worked on his business idea during the day. It worked better financially, and he said the "flexibility" was an illusion anyway - he needed to be out driving at peak times to earn a decent return. The night-shift job actually worked out much better, because he could get up late, work on his business, have afternoon meetings, then go to his job.
The other driver was the wife of an executive who didn't really need the cash, but was bored out of her brain being a housewife, so did some driving each day, before picking up her kids from school. She appreciated the extra pocket money, really liked meeting people, having conversations with them, and getting out of the house. For her, that was the reward. The money was just a bonus. She's still doing it, and loving it.
So, I think the moral from those two cases (which, once again, were in the US, so YMMV) is, if driving is something you'll enjoy doing, go for it. If you just need the cash, then you're better off getting a real job.
The other driver was the wife of an executive who didn't really need the cash but was bored out of her brain being a housewife, so did some driving each day,
I met someone like that driving an uber on the gold coast. His wife had just taken up a new exec position and he had a large gap between starting his new job and moving.
Anyway OP I'd suggest using Ola instead as drivers are paid more.
It sound awful to me! Less than $15 an hour to drive around in stressful traffic, put yourself at an increased risk of accident, not know who is getting in your car etc. No thanks.
Absolutely, I know sometimes Uber drivers can disappoint, but the whole service is good quality
Hi everyone, looking to get some real life figures for been an UBER Driver.
My brother has been unsuccessful looking for new jobs for awhile. He indicated he is now willing to try anything to earn some money.
First thing come to my mind was UBER. He is in Perth and he has a vehicle which qualifies.
As I have seen many articles about low UBER pay been a driver. I would like to get a real life figure before I suggest this option to him.
If you have been an UBER Driver in Perth or currently is one.
Can you please share the average hourly rate before and after all the expenses been taken out?
Much appreciated.
I wouldn't suggest Uber to him as a primary source of income unless he understands it's purely temporary and he still needs to find a proper job. Just for others:
My brother has been unsuccessful looking for new jobs for awhile. He indicated he is now willing to try anything to earn some money.
Can I point to this to show that Uber drivers complaining about low pay are complaining in the context that they'd be paid nothing otherwise? If you want to support those complaints, feel free to give them a job yourselves.
I did Uber for about 3 months 2 years ago. After the cost of fuel, maintenance, cleaning, and TAX (dont forget that one!) I made very little money. If I didnt have to pay for those things, driving for two nights a week I was making about $300 per week. Once the operating costs are deducted, there isnt much left in it. Although there are plenty of people doing Uber and some are making decent money, but they are on the road all the time.
https://www.reddit.com/r/uberdrivers/wiki/index