<story><title>Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes</title><url>http://angelinatravels.boardingarea.com/2017/03/15/uber-driver-tip-hustling-schemes-getting-control/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>taneq</author><text>Maybe you can explain something that I&amp;#x27;ve never understood. I see drivers saying &amp;quot;driving for Uber is terrible and a waste of money&amp;quot;. I see them saying &amp;quot;after expenses I&amp;#x27;m basically working for free.&amp;quot; But &lt;i&gt;they keep doing it&lt;/i&gt;. They keep driving for Uber even though they &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; that they&amp;#x27;re basically just working for free, in order to make money for Uber. If you take vehicle depreciation into account, you&amp;#x27;re probably not even breaking even.&lt;p&gt;Why? Why do that? My guess is that it&amp;#x27;s easy work to get and it gives you some immediate cash, and so it&amp;#x27;s more appealing than spending the time hunting for a &amp;#x27;real&amp;#x27; job, but I&amp;#x27;ve never heard an Uber driver actually admit that.</text></item><item><author>iopq</author><text>I drive Uber from time to time. I&amp;#x27;ve only gotten a tip once over ~50 rides.&lt;p&gt;A lot of the time the traffic conditions mean that after costs (I assume $0.40 per mile costs for mileage, gas, maintenance, etc.) my hourly is closer to $8 an hour (because after I drive for a while sometimes I need to drive a long way back as well on my own dime), which is below minimum wage. That&amp;#x27;s not including having to pick up plastic bottles after people or cleaning seats so they don&amp;#x27;t smell like sweat.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s basically never worth to pick up anyone who is going far away from your house, you end up actually driving for free since you have to drive there and EVENTUALLY drive home. Why do you think Uber drivers don&amp;#x27;t want to drive 40 minutes away just to get paid less than if they drove for 40 minutes inside their own city? I&amp;#x27;ll never accept a ride to San Francisco (40 minutes away) ever again, it&amp;#x27;s never worth the price unless there&amp;#x27;s surge pricing in effect.&lt;p&gt;If I make $8-12 an hour, getting a $1 tip is like a 10% increase in my wage. I don&amp;#x27;t badger people for tips, but if I got like 10% of people to tip me, it would be super worth. The one tip I got was $20, btw. Even if we assume a 12% tip rate up from 2% if I ask for them explicitly, and the average tip size of $5 (median would be more like $2, but if I get a few more $20 tips the average would be higher than the median), I would make $0.50 more per hour which is a 5% increase in my earnings.&lt;p&gt;Maybe it&amp;#x27;s something I should actually start doing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>snowwrestler</author><text>The implied social judgment whenever Uber drivers come up is a bummer.&lt;p&gt;Yes, people prefer to make a little bit of money instead of not having money. This is surprising?&lt;p&gt;And when someone earns a little bit of money, they might wish that they made more money. Again--not news.&lt;p&gt;I think before getting critical about why Uber drivers are so dumb, it&amp;#x27;s worth thinking about why you don&amp;#x27;t drive for Uber. The answer probably starts with &amp;quot;because I don&amp;#x27;t feel like I have to.&amp;quot; It does for me.&lt;p&gt;If someone has a great highly-paying full time job and still drives for Uber, then sure, question that person&amp;#x27;s judgment. Most Uber drivers are not in that situation though.</text></comment>
<story><title>Uber Driver Tip-Hustling Schemes</title><url>http://angelinatravels.boardingarea.com/2017/03/15/uber-driver-tip-hustling-schemes-getting-control/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>taneq</author><text>Maybe you can explain something that I&amp;#x27;ve never understood. I see drivers saying &amp;quot;driving for Uber is terrible and a waste of money&amp;quot;. I see them saying &amp;quot;after expenses I&amp;#x27;m basically working for free.&amp;quot; But &lt;i&gt;they keep doing it&lt;/i&gt;. They keep driving for Uber even though they &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; that they&amp;#x27;re basically just working for free, in order to make money for Uber. If you take vehicle depreciation into account, you&amp;#x27;re probably not even breaking even.&lt;p&gt;Why? Why do that? My guess is that it&amp;#x27;s easy work to get and it gives you some immediate cash, and so it&amp;#x27;s more appealing than spending the time hunting for a &amp;#x27;real&amp;#x27; job, but I&amp;#x27;ve never heard an Uber driver actually admit that.</text></item><item><author>iopq</author><text>I drive Uber from time to time. I&amp;#x27;ve only gotten a tip once over ~50 rides.&lt;p&gt;A lot of the time the traffic conditions mean that after costs (I assume $0.40 per mile costs for mileage, gas, maintenance, etc.) my hourly is closer to $8 an hour (because after I drive for a while sometimes I need to drive a long way back as well on my own dime), which is below minimum wage. That&amp;#x27;s not including having to pick up plastic bottles after people or cleaning seats so they don&amp;#x27;t smell like sweat.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s basically never worth to pick up anyone who is going far away from your house, you end up actually driving for free since you have to drive there and EVENTUALLY drive home. Why do you think Uber drivers don&amp;#x27;t want to drive 40 minutes away just to get paid less than if they drove for 40 minutes inside their own city? I&amp;#x27;ll never accept a ride to San Francisco (40 minutes away) ever again, it&amp;#x27;s never worth the price unless there&amp;#x27;s surge pricing in effect.&lt;p&gt;If I make $8-12 an hour, getting a $1 tip is like a 10% increase in my wage. I don&amp;#x27;t badger people for tips, but if I got like 10% of people to tip me, it would be super worth. The one tip I got was $20, btw. Even if we assume a 12% tip rate up from 2% if I ask for them explicitly, and the average tip size of $5 (median would be more like $2, but if I get a few more $20 tips the average would be higher than the median), I would make $0.50 more per hour which is a 5% increase in my earnings.&lt;p&gt;Maybe it&amp;#x27;s something I should actually start doing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aianus</author><text>I drive for Uber part time even though it pays literally 8x less than my day job. It&amp;#x27;s relaxing and gives me an excuse to drive my car while someone else pays for the gas and mileage.</text></comment>