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I don’t think it’s necessarily appropriate to use that figure to calculate your actual costs as an Uber driver, especially if you’re not driving full-time. It s
by baddox 9y ago
I don’t think it’s necessarily appropriate to use that figure to calculate your actual costs as an Uber driver, especially if you’re not driving full-time. It seems like the 53 cent figure is amortizing the entire cost of the vehicle, fuel, and maintenance over its entire lifetime. If you’re in college and just drive for Uber on occasional weekends, it doesn’t make sense to include all of the fixed costs of the vehicle in your profit calculations. Note that the IRS figure for variable costs per mile is 17 cents.
- astura 9y agoI don't necessarily disagree with you but I certainly couldn't afford an "Uber eligible" car when I was in college. Are college students overspending on cars just to drive for Uber?
- ams6110 9y agoIs it feasible to pass their inspection in a borrowed car and actually drive something else?
- URSpider94 9y agoNo. Your license plate and vehicle description are shown to each passenger. If they don’t match, you’re going to get reported pretty quickly. Also, if your car is dumpy, people will report you.
- astura 9y agoThat would be a terrible idea. It obviously violates Uber's driver's agreement so you risk getting kicked off the platform or at the very least confusing your passengers who are looking for a red ford focus and you're driving a white Chevy Cavalier. Not only that but if you get into an accident with a rider you're going to be in a world of hurt. Uber's insurance company would certainly deny the claim and so would yours, assuming your insurance policy covered ride sharing in the first place.
- ams6110 9y ago> It obviously violates Uber's driver's agreement As if Uber is a poster child for following rules and regulations.
- paulie_a 9y agoDoes Uber actually inspect cars?
- baddox 9y agoI suspect a large number of college students have Uber-eligible cars.
- mcguire 9y ago"If you’re in college and just drive for Uber on occasional weekends, it doesn’t make sense to include all of the fixed costs of the vehicle in your profit calculations." But it does make sense to prorate the portion of those fixed costs associated with the Uber use. Failure to do so is a major business mistake, since you will have to replace the vehicle, etc., sooner than you would otherwise. Which means something like a conservative 53¢ per mile.
- baddox 9y agoYou have to prorate some portion of the fixed costs, but it seems like the 53 cent figure is assuming that the entire lifetime of the vehicle is used for business.
- mcguire 9y agoThat's not how proration works. 53¢ is the US government's ("We're here to help you!") estimate of the total cost of an average vehicle divided by the lifetime of the vehicle as measured in miles. If your vehicle's lifetime is 200,000 miles, and 10% of that is assignable to Uber, that is 20,000 miles or $10,600, which is 10% of the estimated lifetime cost of $106,000. If you try to break that up into different "buckets" ("I need a car anyway, so I shouldn't apply the fixed costs to my Uber income"), you end up with a car that effectively only lasts 180,000 miles and therefore your fixed costs for the car for personal use are artificially higher. It is the same thing as if you had decided "I would just burn that gas anyway" and didn't count fuel costs against your Uber income.