I was talking to an Uber driver this morning. I asked him if he was paid while waiting for a job. "No" he said. That means that Uber is getting free hours from

I was talking to an Uber driver this morning. I asked him if he was paid while waiting for a job. "No" he said. That means that Uber is getting free hours from all the drivers who are 'on duty' but not actually driving. Uber also takes 27.5% of the fare. That other 72.5% has to pay for all wages, taxes, insurances and car expenses first before there is any 'profit' at all. As I said above, Uber relies on their drivers not having any 'business smarts'. If the drivers went through all the arithmetic involved in costs, wages, taxes, non-business hour loadings, return on investment figures, etc, etc, etc they would find they are subsidising the Uber management, rather than being paid properly.