5 ms·

Is it? According to the videos, they outperform delivery drivers bound to cars. Sure, with a car you can easily work in rain, cold, long distance deliveries. Bu

by rmoriz 6y ago

Is it? According to the videos, they outperform delivery drivers bound to cars. Sure, with a car you can easily work in rain, cold, long distance deliveries. But usually it does not pay out to commit full time or to a specific, expensive vehicle. If one does plan to deliver (bulky) non time-critical items, payment drops significantly (almost no tips, fixed fee for each parcel).

MiroF 6y ago
Are most uber eats drivers buying cars in order to drive uber? That was not my understanding.
- Fargren 6y ago
  No, but they are reducing the useful life of their cars by using it more than "normal", which will lead to them buying another car normal than if they were not doing Uber.
- webnrrd2k 6y ago
  The vast majority almost certainly do not buy a car just for delivery-gig work, but they are still putting a lot of wear on their vehicles. It's still important to be conscious of those costs and they should be factored in, even if the the car was boughtfor some other reason.
- jmccaf 6y ago
  For Uber 'transit' drivers, anecdotally people bought cars just for uber. My neighbor bought a Toyota Corolla as a 2nd car for Uber, and drove that car for uber and ride-sharing exclusively for 200K+ miles in Bay Area, 200+ miles/night for years. Exclusive use for ride-sharing simplified business expense tax deduction.
- rmoriz 6y ago
  They wear it down and they need to "make it up on volume" (they don't). As I wrote earlier, payment is not linear. It depends on the region, day and time. One can make a lot of money in 1-2 hours on some evening, but also sit idle for another 8 hrs in a parked car waiting for another order. (to my knowledge, one has to be booked into the uber eats app all the time and broadcasting the current location. So one is encouraged to still hunt/stay next to interesting restaurants, usually big chain stores like Mc Donalds, Starbucks. IMHO it's not a plausible add-on business for regular Uber/taxi drivers or other gig economy jobs like harvesting electric scooters) Let's say one can make 40$ in 1 hour but 50$ in 9 hours. The one profitable hour is probably within the evening rush hour, lot of traffic, down-town, short distances. 0 parking lots. The other 8 hours are past midnight, in the morning or between noon and evening. Longer distances (=>less drivers, less orders => bigger coverage => no surge pricing). Overhead costs stay the same.

by rmoriz 6y ago

MiroF 6y ago

Are most uber eats drivers buying cars in order to drive uber? That was not my understanding.

Fargren 6y ago
No, but they are reducing the useful life of their cars by using it more than "normal", which will lead to them buying another car normal than if they were not doing Uber.
webnrrd2k 6y ago
The vast majority almost certainly do not buy a car just for delivery-gig work, but they are still putting a lot of wear on their vehicles. It's still important to be conscious of those costs and they should be factored in, even if the the car was boughtfor some other reason.
jmccaf 6y ago
For Uber 'transit' drivers, anecdotally people bought cars just for uber. My neighbor bought a Toyota Corolla as a 2nd car for Uber, and drove that car for uber and ride-sharing exclusively for 200K+ miles in Bay Area, 200+ miles/night for years. Exclusive use for ride-sharing simplified business expense tax deduction.
rmoriz 6y ago
They wear it down and they need to "make it up on volume" (they don't). As I wrote earlier, payment is not linear. It depends on the region, day and time. One can make a lot of money in 1-2 hours on some evening, but also sit idle for another 8 hrs in a parked car waiting for another order. (to my knowledge, one has to be booked into the uber eats app all the time and broadcasting the current location. So one is encouraged to still hunt/stay next to interesting restaurants, usually big chain stores like Mc Donalds, Starbucks. IMHO it's not a plausible add-on business for regular Uber/taxi drivers or other gig economy jobs like harvesting electric scooters) Let's say one can make 40$ in 1 hour but 50$ in 9 hours. The one profitable hour is probably within the evening rush hour, lot of traffic, down-town, short distances. 0 parking lots. The other 8 hours are past midnight, in the morning or between noon and evening. Longer distances (=>less drivers, less orders => bigger coverage => no surge pricing). Overhead costs stay the same.