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>Median uberX Small Business Income Per Year: $90,766 (NYC); $74,191 (SF) http://blog.uber.com/uberimpact http://blog.uber.com/uberimpact Is it pretty much a

by parfe 12y ago

>Median uberX Small Business Income Per Year: $90,766 (NYC); $74,191 (SF) http://blog.uber.com/uberimpact http://blog.uber.com/uberimpact Is it pretty much accepted that Uber is outright lying here? Does anyone believe there is a driver out there banking $100,000 driving a taxi? I know the company is shady but hoping they can generate enough new blood to compensate for burnout of drivers chasing the dream seems abusive.

coldcode 12y ago
Plus income != profit. If you buy a car and gas and insurance and maintenance and then Uber cuts the price, you might not make much at all out of that.
aetherson 12y ago
Well, the article claims that Uber has been unable to produce even one driver making $90,000 in NYC. Given that it's supposedly the median, they should have hundreds or thousands of drivers making it. It certainly seems damning.
abakker 12y ago
I have no idea how they arrive at that number. I think I read somewhere that its a hypothetical rate, assuming someone worked a given number of hours. Or else the "Data Driven" company doesn't know what the difference between Median and Maximum are? On another note, I've met quite a few UberX drivers who have financed their cars. That level of fixed costs make someone significantly less able to absorb any price cuts. Finally, what is the really Price Elasticity of Demand here? Even when the fares are at surge levels of 2x, how does often does that deter people? Sure, if its 8 blocks, I might walk it, but at a certain threshold (which I assume is the best revenue anyway) the only other alternative is some other mode of service with an almost equally high cost. My guess is that their claim that lower fares = greater ridership has a much lower coefficient than they let on.
- aetherson 12y ago
  I think that to a large degree, Uber is competing not against taxis/other ride shares, but against "taking my own car." Most Americans -- even urban ones -- have the ability to drive themselves. And at that point you aren't competing against a firm other cost, but against a squishy composite of "parking cost + annoyance of driving myself + value of being able to drink without worrying about driving home."
potatolicious 12y ago
They may not be lying - that could be raw revenue. Unlike white collar jobs driving a car for a living comes with a lot of costs that kill your actual take-home income, far above and beyond just taxes. Maintenance, repairs, insurance, and gas are all direct costs that don't really improve with economies of scale. Car payments too - though white collar workers may also be hit with that, but probably less so. I think there's a bit of deliberate obfuscation here where Uber wants you, the office worker, to think of that $90K without all the strings attached, in which case it would be a pretty decent income.
- waterlesscloud 12y ago
  Even if it's raw revenue...where are the 100s of drivers making that much that Uber claims exist?
  - saalweachter 12y ago
    Could this be, hmm, not so much lying as willful ignorance? There are probably middle-men in the Uber industry just as there are middle-men in the taxi industry, who own a car and pay people to drive it with Uber. If they have one account per car, the account could me making $100k / year via driving 24/7, and Uber could be choosing to believe that these accounts represent a single self-employed driver.
    - shalmanese 12y ago
      Being a middleman would be extremely hard as you have to provide a profile picture and passengers use the picture to verify they have the correct driver.

by parfe 12y ago

coldcode 12y ago

Plus income != profit. If you buy a car and gas and insurance and maintenance and then Uber cuts the price, you might not make much at all out of that.

aetherson 12y ago

Well, the article claims that Uber has been unable to produce even one driver making $90,000 in NYC. Given that it's supposedly the median, they should have hundreds or thousands of drivers making it. It certainly seems damning.

abakker 12y ago

I have no idea how they arrive at that number. I think I read somewhere that its a hypothetical rate, assuming someone worked a given number of hours. Or else the "Data Driven" company doesn't know what the difference between Median and Maximum are? On another note, I've met quite a few UberX drivers who have financed their cars. That level of fixed costs make someone significantly less able to absorb any price cuts. Finally, what is the really Price Elasticity of Demand here? Even when the fares are at surge levels of 2x, how does often does that deter people? Sure, if its 8 blocks, I might walk it, but at a certain threshold (which I assume is the best revenue anyway) the only other alternative is some other mode of service with an almost equally high cost. My guess is that their claim that lower fares = greater ridership has a much lower coefficient than they let on.

aetherson 12y ago
I think that to a large degree, Uber is competing not against taxis/other ride shares, but against "taking my own car." Most Americans -- even urban ones -- have the ability to drive themselves. And at that point you aren't competing against a firm other cost, but against a squishy composite of "parking cost + annoyance of driving myself + value of being able to drink without worrying about driving home."

potatolicious 12y ago

They may not be lying - that could be raw revenue. Unlike white collar jobs driving a car for a living comes with a lot of costs that kill your actual take-home income, far above and beyond just taxes. Maintenance, repairs, insurance, and gas are all direct costs that don't really improve with economies of scale. Car payments too - though white collar workers may also be hit with that, but probably less so. I think there's a bit of deliberate obfuscation here where Uber wants you, the office worker, to think of that $90K without all the strings attached, in which case it would be a pretty decent income.

waterlesscloud 12y ago
Even if it's raw revenue...where are the 100s of drivers making that much that Uber claims exist?
- saalweachter 12y ago
  Could this be, hmm, not so much lying as willful ignorance? There are probably middle-men in the Uber industry just as there are middle-men in the taxi industry, who own a car and pay people to drive it with Uber. If they have one account per car, the account could me making $100k / year via driving 24/7, and Uber could be choosing to believe that these accounts represent a single self-employed driver.
  - shalmanese 12y ago
    Being a middleman would be extremely hard as you have to provide a profile picture and passengers use the picture to verify they have the correct driver.