Tell me about being an Uber Taxi Driver

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about being an Uber Taxi Driver

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

Uber operates on a constant churn of finding new sucker drivers to replace the current ones that will inevitably burn out. If you want to do this every now and then to make a few quick bucks there are better ways to do it but whatever Uber isn't your worst option. As soon as you even get remotely close to using it for steady income is when the cards are stacked against you. You'll notice that the ads on the radio are targeted at recruiting drivers, not passengers. This is for a reason.

Unless you're a black car driver and an actual professional who knows what they're doing- I'd stay away.

goodness posted:

People itt seem really bitter about uber. My friend has been a driver for the last 8 months in a medium-small college town. He loves the job and makes s decent amount of money, especially on game days. Yeah it will wear your car down faster but you won't be doing maintenance every month like some people make it seem.

The thing to do is work until you have some regular clients, then ditch uber and do them privately.

Your friend is in for a surprise when he inevitably gets into a fender bender or gets a love letter from the IRS

Necc0 fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Jun 17, 2015

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 04:36

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:26

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

Original_Z posted:

Uber's customers are drivers, not passengers. Everything makes more sense when you look at everything from that angle.

No they're not. There's now years of legal proceedings showing Uber dancing around the issue of the drivers being their employees.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 13:19

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

No that makes the drivers the product. If the drivers were actually 'independent contractors' like they claim that'd be true, and it IS true for their black car service. UberX is a totally different animal and I'm assuming what the OP is asking about.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 15:36

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

Oh! Speak of the devil. The California Labor Commission agrees with me:

http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/17/uber-drivers-deemed-employees-by-california-labor-commission/

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 16:16

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

photomikey posted:

Necc0, what's your skin in the game? Uber driver? Taxi driver? Union boss? Attorney? While there are many in this thread discussing this topic, you are personally offended by the very idea that someone would pay for a ride, and someone else would receive money for the ride. I don't understand your personal offense.

The OP asked what being an Uber driver is like and I'm making sure he gets a clear picture. I feel this is necessary because part of Uber's business strategy is deliberately misinforming their potential ~~customers~~ ~~employees~~ "independent contractors". This has been proven in courts around the globe more times than I can even count. Every single time Uber has super duper pinky-swore promised that they'd fix things and the particular incident was just a freak occurrence. Then it would happen again a few weeks later.

I hope you're not personally offended that someone is pointing out the well-hidden pitfalls in a thread explicitly asking for us to do so.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 18:33

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

Also I've said multiple times that it's fine to drive for Uber but just be sure to factor in the multiple invisible costs before deciding whether or not it's worth your time.

edit:

Jeza posted:

Nobody is disagreeing about the employee status, simply explicating an alternative way of considering why Uber advertise to hire, rather than to market their service. Whether or not the drivers are technically customers to Uber's service, the analogy to Uber treating them as customers is a sound one.

An similar example from the UK is private bus companies: they have adverts in print media and so forth looking for bus drivers, but you never see an advert telling people to take the bus. It's assumed there is little ROI in telling people to come and take a bus ride, so in a sense their real customer base is drivers. People will take the bus regardless. In fact, the analogy works even better for Uber, because their service is not limited by infrastructure or budgetary concerns (ie. do we have enough buses), their service expands with every driver they tempt into the fold, which in turn increases their business. In effect, almost identical to customers paying for a physical product, despite on the face of it being starkly different.

I don't think you know what the word 'customer' means

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 18:36

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

Reading my posts as if my avatar is saying them can be fun but isn't required.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2015 23:02

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

Series DD Funding posted:

No, it means drivers are the ones who need to be persuaded to work for Uber. And yes they do advertise to riders, I've gotten multiple free ride credits from them.

You get it! Hooray! Apparently this is an accomplishment! :barvo:

# ¿ Jun 18, 2015 02:17

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:26

Necc0: Jun 30, 2005; by exmarx; Broken Cake

Jeza posted:

Unless I'm reading that post wrong, he got the car effectively for free because of Australian tax breaks for small business. So in a way, he got a free car literally because driving for Uber counts as running a small business and he got the tax deducted from his previous earnings, because clearly he might not be making 20k worth of taxable income as an Uber driver.

Sure Uber profits off him, but then again the level of effort involved in setting yourself up as an independent driver or just signing up for a service that simply drives all the business to your door is world's apart. It's like any other franchise, in principle.

Tax deductions != cash rebate

# ¿ Jul 16, 2015 19:10

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about being an Uber Taxi Driver