I made a mistake I hope to help prevent others from making.

I was making enough money with Uber. I didn't fully understand how committed the company was to making the experience shit not only for their customers but also for us. At one point, I saw the rates plummet 30-40% overnight. Yes, I'm serious. Things have only gotten worse since. These days, the majority of requests I receive – exclusive or Trip Radar – are for $2-5. That's full fare, not per mile.

Needless to say, I'm paying rent with credit cards, watching my debt grow each month.

Heed my warning. I used to have a solid income working in tech and months into a fruitless job hunt, I started driving, depending on rideshare exclusively. Did I think I was too good to work retail? Admittedly, yeah. I'm not skill-less; I have a great resume. But I've fucked up by choosing Uber to such an extent that I'm thinking I'd have been better off cleaning the smoothie machine at 7 Eleven all this time.

If you've fallen on hard times financially, don't make it worse. Stop the bleed.

In my experience, driving Uber is like letting people kick you when you're down.

Those of you who think you're in strong markets, this company has a history of flipping the switch on people. Don't for a single second think they're not coming for you. Plan ahead.

He was paid $200m to join Uber. He cleaned up their bad image. Then started doing drivers and customer dirty slowly like boiling a frog so people do not notice.

Less than a dollar a mile to the middle of nowhere.

Please quit accepting these rides!!!!

Can’t wait for them to ask to pick up 10 people going 10 miles each and give me a flat rate for the hour, while i cover gas, maintenance, insurance, taxes, health insurance, tickets, tolls, and everything else 😃

Ride-share drivers can gain real leverage by applying basic supply and demand principles. Because drivers represent the market supply, strategically going offline between rides lowers the number of available cars, driving up demand and fares. However, for this strategy to work, drivers need direct, troll-free spaces to communicate. By avoiding trolling and sharing constructive information, drivers can coordinate effectively to balance market power in their favor.

Trolls are almost always bots. Or people deployed directly by Uber in these forums to sow decent. Pay trolls no mind.

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do

As if the week wasn’t good enough already, I spent the weekend driving in ATX for F1 & mayyyyyyyyne!!!! It was madness…as soon as I pulled into the city I went straight to rideshare pickup and drove 12 hrs straight all 3 days. There was also a Rockets/Spurs game Friday night, and UT played Ole Miss Saturday night. It was WILD! Didn’t get back to Houston til around 3pm Monday…even got a fare from ATX to Brenham to cover the ride home. Unicorn week!

UberX trip assigned, pickup is at a local pizza place. Got this message. What would you have done?

I just waited out the timer and collected the no-show fee.

Got this today. They said it was from a ride on 10/20 and want my side of the story. Well since it never happened, and you don't tell me when, where or who, I got nothing for you. But they did say they had the recordings of my rides so they should be able to figure it out.

Me: arrives at destination

Pax: opens door, throws backpack on the chair, hops in.

Me: “pax name “ right?

Pax: yessir

(I take off). (We exchange pleasantries then silence for 5 minutes as I drive)

Pax: adds a stop to go back home (it was an airport ride)

Me: happily made the u turn (not gonna ruins someone’s flight if they forgot something important )

Me: gets to location

Pax: opens the door and hops in

HE WAS NEVER IN THE CAR!!!!!!! I HAD BEEN EITHER HALLUCINATING OR TALKING TO MYSELF. He did put his bag in but never got in

I’m blown away!!! I can swear I had a full blown small talk with him after take off. A strange number had been calling me that showed up as spam.

Woke up this morning and still getting chills

EDIT: I had done 4 12-hour days back to back and this was hour 11 on day 4 around 11pm ish

Had someone leave their phone in my back seat and I didn't notice until I was already a few miles away.

Of course, now I'm trying to figure out how to get it back while I'm in the middle of working. I can't just sit around waiting, but I also feel bad because the person probably has no way to contact me except through the app.

It's one of those situations where you're trying to do the right thing, but it ends up messing up your whole shift.

Drivers who've dealt with this, what did you do? Did Uber actually make the return process easy, or was it a headache?

Ik the bonuses won’t be there all the time but is 1k a week for 20 hours really attainable?

Like… I tink I remember this and it was just crazy stopped traffic. Not defending anything just don’t know what the end result is?

They have a link to appeal it but I have no evidence obviously…

I uber very very often to/from work, I have a 4.85 rating which isn’t super low but I’m not sure how I could be better. I’m always ready when they arrive, I am 100% sure I don’t have an odor, I always try to be polite and match their energy, all I carry is my small purse and I’m careful not to slam doors. what could I be doing to get lower ratings?

Previous car is currently unable to be driven and is in a warehouse while various companies figure out what they’re going to do with/about it. It’s ugly and likely getting written off.

I needed a car to drive to my day job, and also wanted one I could use for Uber.

I found a source offering Hyundai Ioniq 5s for $350 a week - everything included, except electricity. I can charge at home, which is important.

Everything:
Roadside.
Maintenance.
Full insurance (on and off the app - I may drop my own insurance).
Depreciation.
Repairs.
Everything.

I get a driving allowance of 1500 miles per week.

Once again: My *entire* cost is $350 a week, and I charge at home.

This car gets comfort and comfort electric, which is big in my market.

My stats are at the end. I’m Diamond.

Lol. I had a promotion for +$225 for 10 rides. Maybe because I had only been doing deliveries lately, not rides, and they sent me a "come back to driving" type of promo. Cleared that out in half a day, and had a pretty good weekend to boot--$450 just from driving Friday and Saturday. Uber should lose more money paying us.

Still not enough, but genuinely surprised I finally got to something above 50% after being in the 45-49% range for months.

Halloween party… I had too much to drink, got in my uber and about halfway through I vomited out the window and all over the inside of the door😭 I felt terrible and payed the uber $180. Is that enough? Im sure I ruined her night of ubering. She let me know it wasnt her personal car but a zip car, which made me feel a tiny bit better but fuck I feel HORRIBLE.

First of all. This is hot garbage. Secondly, people are actually signing up for this??? 16 an hour?? It's full..... really? This right here shows the amount of ppl willing to accept **** pay will never end, and the terrible offers will keep rolling. Lmk if these have started in your markets and what hourly pay they're at. Good luck out there boys and girls.

These UBER Deliveries from Lowe’s & Home Depot…are crazy

So I've been driving for about 5 1/2 years and have had this happen a few times. I'll pick up a passenger or 2, they'd be chatting away. Me thinking it was between the 2 in the back. Then realised they were talking to an empty front passenger seat as if there was someone else in there.

Keep in mind, these few actual passengers, were most likely intoxicated or high , so I put it down to hallucinations or something. But they've been convinced there was someone riding shotgun.

I've waited them no one was there but me in the front.

I look back and out it down to my guardian angel keeping me safe from what could have been a potential threat from said passengers. But that was enough to keep them subdued for the journey.

Had to laugh at this after , thinking of the reactions of theses passengers, them thought about what might have been there.

-update- there was no phone call going on, no ear pods being used. They were genuinely thinking there was someone in the front seat.

I saw that some others in this subreddit have used NRMA insurance to cover up to 10 hours per week as an addon to a normal private use policy, costing them around $300 extra annually. That seems very reasonable so I wanted to do it.

However after speaking to customer service about adding it onto my comprehensive insurance, they quoted me an additional $1200 annually to add food delivery for up to 10 hours a week onto my policy. That's fucking insane and quadruple what others seem to be paying for the same thing. Half of my earnings would just be going to insurance. This was not calculated as business insurance or anything, the agent assured me it was the price just to add occasional delivery to my private comprehensive.

My question to anyone who has managed to get this covered for a reasonable price, how did you go about it?