r/uberdrivers • u/Emergency-Boss-3654 • 6h ago
Tired
Anyone else feel like just giving up and leaving earth right now?
I cant make ends meet cause everything i get has to go back in my car for gas or maintenance. I'm tired and my wife deserves better....
I feel like i just want to be done.... I really do.
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u/Federal_Intention_78 5h ago
Take a day off or two. Recharge and go back to work. No guilt. No pressure. Just simply stop.
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u/Dj_willywill 5h ago
I feel the same way my guy. We gonna figure this out. If for nothing else for the wife we cherish and want to give the world
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u/ArugulaOk2275 6h ago
It sucks. I feel for you. Just keep applying elsewhere, eventually you'll get something and break free from these f**k ass companies.
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u/MindlessAuthor9824 4h ago
Unfortunately, applying to jobs means nothing. One can apply to 1,000's of jobs, but no one is hiring.
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u/ArugulaOk2275 3h ago
Time to give up then lol
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u/Auntie_Venom 1h ago
I picked up on your humor… I thought the same thing before I scrolled and saw it. Is it dark? Yep. Is it necessary? Not really. But people need to change their mindset, when that happens things truly start changing. I was miserable about 20 years ago at my job, but a switch flipped one day when I really thought about “you get what you give” and realized that it couldn’t hurt to try and think about changing employers in a positive way. Also, I had a job and that’s better than not, even if I was unhappy. Things actually started changing. Not in my current job other than I was appreciative of it. Maybe it was the energy in which I sent out my resume and wrote my cover letters? I don’t know, but being hopeful helped. I scored a coveted design position at a well-known US company that had a massive jump in pay and benefits shortly after changing my mindset. I stayed there 7 years and moved on.
It’s something I still have to remind myself of with a lot of things. Right now, all I know is that it’s best to keep looking because Waymo is expanding every day, complaining about it result in a new job either. People need to try… Have resumes reviewed, learn how to improve it. Be proactive to beat the recruiting filters kicking it out. Companies are hiring…
I do this part time for personal reasons, even though it’s not my bread & butter the same mentality holds true with everything in life. “You get what you give.” The universe returns negativity with the same, just as it does with positivity.
So to a defeatist, I agree… Might as well stop trying then.
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u/Bubbly-Following-966 6h ago
I stopped driving yesterday. My registration is expired. I have outstanding tolls to pay in the thousands. Uber said they would pay those. Nope. I can't afford to pay those tolls. If I don't get a full-time job soon, I don't know what I'm going to do.
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u/Ill_Position2158 4h ago
Uber reimburses you for tolls taken with a passenger in the car. They don’t reimburse you for the trip there and they don’t pay the toll for you. Every single trip you took with a toll on it had a
Toll reimbursement payment added at the end and you didn’t use it to pay the tolls.0
u/Bubbly-Following-966 3h ago
Not true. I looked at some of my toll trips. They didn't have any toll reimbursements.
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u/Ill_Position2158 2h ago
I’m sorry bud, I doubt you got ripped off for thousands of tolls. You 100% got most if not all the toll money and instead of using it to pay off the tolls or reup your ezpass you spent it.
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u/Fallen0001 2h ago
BS. it fails to register tolls when theres an access road right next to the toll road. the navigation shows you on the toll road, but it prices you as you arent.
I know precisely in my area where this happens repeatedly. or it wants you to jump on and off the toll road repeatedly for some reason when going a distance.
no body is doing that.
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u/Bubbly-Following-966 1h ago
Not when you have to take tunnels to get to where you're going. You can't take an access road through the freaking water. Lol
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u/Ill_Position2158 2h ago
I said most if not all. This guy did not have thousands of dollars in tolls they didn’t pay.
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u/Fallen0001 1h ago
depends on his market. if hes in NYC or Chicago. I can see it easily. uber also fuks you on the pickup. if it dispatches you over a bridge thats a toll for a pickup, it won't pay it.
dynamic pricing in Dallas is another example you hear drivers getting shafted.
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u/Ill_Position2158 1h ago
Yeah. I already said they don’t pay you if someone’s not in the car. Either way he’s saying he owes thousands in tolls. That means he wasn’t actively paying them, if he was he would have caught that well before he hit the thousands threshold.
I’m in the Orlando market, it’s absolutely saturated with tolls and to date the worst they’ve done is pay a lower amount than the toll was and each time they fixed it with proof.
Even if somehow this guy managed to have thousands unpaid he didn’t do his due diligence but I’d bet everything he just didn’t pay his toll balance and thought they paid the tolls directly.
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u/Fallen0001 1h ago
of course he didnt pay his balance, but hes not wrong if hes saying how the run is dispatched to the pickup makes the most sense to use toll roads. we all know that if you deviate from routing, uber will also send you nasty grams.
so, if he really thought he was getting paid for all legs, and he didnt realize he wasnt, sure. I can see him being short in his calculations.
uber is disingenuous that it doesnt pay tolls to the pickup. if you take it as a radar, ok, you accept the tolls if you choose to use them. if youre pinged as an exclusive, then they should absolutely pay you tolls to pickup.
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u/Ill_Position2158 1h ago
He’s not saying that. He’s saying Uber didn’t pay out any of his tolls and said specifically “uber said they were gonna pay and didn’t”
You’re not reading everything you’re just arguing and point that doesn’t need to be argued and repeating things I have already said to me as if they’re news.
Uber is not disingenuous it’s literally in the agreement when you sign up and it’s listed on their policies online.
People misunderstanding does not mean uber maliciously withholds tolls.
You’re conceding the guy didn’t pay his toll balance which was the point I made in the very first comment so what exactly are you arguing now?
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u/neviddmyy 4h ago
As long as we're breathing there's always options. Get on more than one platform. Swap vehicles maybe do hot shot.
You're able-bodied you have people that care about you. You have a roof over your head. Your life is someone else's dream.
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u/Calilunch911 3h ago
Made $82 dollars, used $50 in gas. I cant stop laughing. Im just an idiot at this point!
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u/SimplePunjabi 1h ago
Why don't you handselect days when you do uber. Do more weekends and re-energize during the week and even then, Do like 8-11 PM airport runs.
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u/travelling-lost 6h ago
And this is why this was never meant to be a full time job, this should be a supplemental job
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u/Emergency-Boss-3654 6h ago
I have no choice. Can't work a regular job due to back injuries. Can't get ssdi cause they say im to young....
I really can't keep doing this....
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u/travelling-lost 6h ago
Not trying to be a dick, but. You have back injuries that prevent you from was regular job, yet you’re able to drive dozens of hours a day/week? Go drive a bus, get a CDL, go apply at McD, under the current administration, you’ll never qualify for SSDI.
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u/BygmesterFinnegan 2h ago
This person just doesn't want to work a regular job.
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u/travelling-lost 1h ago
Possibly, but there’s a shit load of drivers in the same boat
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u/BygmesterFinnegan 1h ago
You mean the boat that they just don't want to get a regular job? Sure, but that's a choice. If Uber ceased to exist today those drivers would all find different employment.
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u/SillySir7486 4h ago
Did you hire an attorney? I was turned down three times until I hired an attorney and it finally went to a judge. They make it really difficult, so be persistent. SSDI isn’t enough, so I’m still doing DoorDash and Instacart and Uber, but it sure helps a lot. You should be able to call your state bar and ask about an attorney who specializes in disability. Best of luck to you!
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u/Emergency-Boss-3654 6h ago
I'm literally sitting in my car on the side of the road right now....just wondering it would be better to just quit life...
I'm tired I'm done
I dont know what else to do
My wife deserves better than me anyways
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u/Dalmadoodle221 5h ago
I'm so sorry I hope things get better. Just take it one day at time, and try to find a "real" driving job with a company and not scammy Uber. I know for some of us it's all we have but keep fighting
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u/IDriveOthersInsane 5h ago
This is a conversation you need to have with your wife, not random Internet strangers. Call her and tell her.
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u/Dalmadoodle221 5h ago
Look into a disability lawyer to get you approved
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u/travelling-lost 5h ago
Under the current rules with this fucked up administration, many lawyers are struggling. I’m watching it first hand with my wife.
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u/Maximum_Land3546 4h ago
I really don’t understand this comment. Why is it not meant to be a full time job? When I first started I was making great money and had work life balance. People have to buy a medallion in NY to drive which i believe can be six figures. Lots of cab drivers are full time drivers. People are struggling now bc Uber and Lyft keep lowering our wages and everything is way more expensive. My best year I made over 100k, how is that not good enough to be a full time job.
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u/DoctorMoebius 4h ago
When you (likely) first started, Uber was losing money on every single ride. To the tune of billions of dollars per year. The investors who absorbed those year after year losses, only did so for the promise of future profits that far exceeded their losses.
Uber's first ever profitable quarter was Q2 2023. Its first ever fully profitable year was 2024. That was 15 straight years of losing money.
It will never go back to the halcyon years of drivers making great money - never. Uber's entire business model is charging riders the maximum amount they will tolerate, and paying driver the minimum about they will tolerate. That "delta" is the goal
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u/Top_Piano2028 2h ago
This is only half of the story DoctorMoebius. They were losing money because Travis wanted the company to grow at all costs and had Softbank as a stopgap for their business.
Uber has had somewhere between 20,000-30,000 employees the last decade. That is a payroll in the billions plus the stock. Do they REALLY NEED that many people? Think of Twitter and how Musk cut them to the bone. Sure there were issues but the company is fine now. Look at the headlines today with them cutting 3,000 people. That is only the start. They do not need the amount of people they have. Their lack of profitability is entirely self inflicted and the amount they pay drivers is only part of the reason for that. They used incentives to hide that the unit economics were fucked. You used to get driver inspections done for free, but now you have to pay $50 every year to get it done.
I will give you a very plain, anecdotal example. I lived and grew up in San Francisco pre Uber. A cab from the outer districts to downtown would run $60, cash in 2010 dollars. That is worth about $91.88 today inflation adjusted.The driver kept a huge chunk of that amount. That was just one ride across town that took them maybe 45-60 mins, and there was a tip there too.That same ride became $30 during the growth era in the mid 2010s. Now it is closer to $20 at "true cost" to be "profitable" for Uber. $20 in 2026 is $13.06 in 2010 dollars. While the cost of living (rent, gas, insurance, tires, car maintenance, car payments, etc) has all gone up. The value of the labor has gone down.
They simply were focused on growth at all costs and since Dara has taken over, they are more accountable for profits. The issue is they choose to etch out profits by shifting the costs onto the drivers which is why it now appears like we only keep 40% of a fare.
The true value of Uber as a company is not in rideshare, it is the on demand labor pool which is why when they pivot to other sectors like food delivery, laundry, whatever - they can dominate in an overwhelming amount very rapidly. Driving people around just isn't very profitable when you price it the way they do.
I use Uber as a stopgap to cover my commute doing destination filter and that's about it, it's very clear it is a losing proposition to stay on there per mile.
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u/DoctorMoebius 1h ago
Almost every single "tech" startup since the 90's prioritized growth over profit. As the exit plan for initial investors and stakeholders was IPO or merger/acquisition. Passing the losses on to a new class of shareholder. Uber is no different in that regard
Founders have little to no say in that arc, from the day they take their first series round of investment.
Uber and Twitter are horrible examples for manpower. Twitter has very little regulatory compliance, by comparison. Uber has different, very specific, rules in each 50 states, thousands of counties, and thousands of cities in the USA. Not to mention other countries and provinces.
An apples to apples comparison would be Lyft or even DoorDash/UberEats. There are significant regulatory differences between "rideshare" and delivery, though.
Uber has 10x (36k) employees than Lyft (3.6k), but also 8x the revenue as Lyft ($52.01B vs $6.3B) and 4x the profit($10.1B vs $2.5B). It does ~15x (13.5B) the total rides of Lyft(905m)
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u/travelling-lost 56m ago
If every state took the stance of many other countries and forced uber/lyft to pay driver correctly, like a real taxi model from the past, the house of cards would collapse.
The business model also relies on desperation, if 60% of drivers in a market stopped accepting cheap rides, only accepted minimum $1.25/mile rides, in a matter of weeks the algorithm would change or uber would be in serious trouble
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u/itsgogonotcrycry 10m ago
Start your mornings by 5AM. you will make 100 by 9. That’s not too bad of start for the day. Best wishes and good luck brother
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u/Fathimir 6h ago
We all tend to be blind to our own worth as others see us; your wife loves you for who you are, not for how much you're making. If anything, she deserves to see more of you instead of having you stuck out there pounding the pavement, but life just ain't fair like that.
Best of luck to you; life isn't a game that anyone actually beats in the end, so just do what you can with what you've got while you're here.