These are year 2000 numbers, but driving a taxi, I paid a $50 lease to the cab company. That got me the car for an 8 hour shift. The expectation was that I

These are year 2000 numbers, but driving a taxi, I paid a $50 lease to the cab company. That got me the car for an 8 hour shift. The expectation was that I would return it clean and with the same amount of fuel I took it out with, ideally, full. The full amount of the fare went in my pocket. On bad weekdays, I could usually hustle at least $100 in fare, less fuel and expenses, it put around $20 to $30 in my pocket. On good weekends, I could sometimes get over $300, less fuel and expenses, it put $150 to $200 in my pocket. Drunks often tip well, but they also sometimes vomit. I wonder if that's not a sustainable driver business model. The trade is, you really do need drivers to show up and hold shifts for coverage. Even driving a taxi we got a bunch of call ins and more lucrative "time orders" where people would schedule rides for a specific time well in advance. Sometimes the same people you would get good tips from on the weekends. Anyways.. there's a lot of variability and you could argue that Uber's cut is to afford drivers the flexibility they otherwise wouldn't get in a "lease" style model.