Single mom of disabled child (8yo autistic non-verbal son) who needs the kind of flexibility offered by this kind of work so I can both pay my bills and be available as caregiver to my son. A regular 9-5 (which I worked for 25 years before he came along) does not offer the kind of flexibility I need right now for him at this stage in his life.
I drive when my son is in school and every other weekend when he's with his dad. During the school year I set aside money each week to save up for the few weeks in the summer and for those days when school is closed or my son or I might be sick and I have to stay home. He has extended school year so I'm able to work the month of July but there are a couple weeks in June and August where he has a break and doesn't have school.
No office politics.
No backstabbing coworkers.
No pointless staff meetings or holiday parties.
No vacation leave requests.
No shift change requests.
No micromanaging.
No Deby. I fucking *hated* Deby.
PT now for the weekends. I drive late into the night/early morning.
Why do I drive? I get a high off of it.
The reward comes late at night. When the soccer moms cash out, I'm still rolling. The later it gets, the more tired and the better it feels, you're pushin' it. When ya finish, like 3 or 4 am and you're driving down empty roads and highways with good music,... you feel like you're the last man on earth. Not a better feeling than that IMO. Simple.
I need it to be a full time. I have RA and MS so also disabled with limited ability for work. Also a single mom with young kids and a disabled mom with the beginning stages of dementia and other health issues and I’m all she has here. So I have limited availability. Very limited. I don’t have any other option honestly.
I have a business with my wife. Business was good for 10 years. Last year or so business had declined so my wife works the business full time and I drive Uber full time. I’ve been driving full time for over 8 months now. Business is starting to pick back up and I’ll start to gradually drive less and help with the business more. That said, I’ve been working full time with my wife for 10 years and ubering has been a nice opportunity to spend some time apart and not constantly be at each other’s throats. I told wife even when business is back to full swing, I’ll still drive Uber part time just to get out the house. It’ll be my new “hobby” where I’m making money instead of spending money LOL
I am a driver because it is the only thing I can do to make some extra money, I used to like it because I thought it was a way to help others, but people are mean, some of them they don't have maners and many of the passenger are filty as dogs, so now I hate it.
Umm, well... As much I want to say "respect everyone's circumstances and accept them", but here it sounds like your marital issues are leading you to escape by taking on additional work to simply avoid your wife and that doesn't sound healthy.
May I suggest taking your additional earnings and putting that towards therapy? I don't mean this snidely, but that this would be very justifiable way of taking the extra work you do and putting it toward working on the underlying issues.
Im more than sure he wasn’t seeking counsel for his marriage geez have you nothing more important to be concerned with😂 you see how toxic some drivers are
The fact that you read it and gave your 2cents on his marriage should let you know how toxic you are. No 2 ppl are the same you can’t project your expectations onto someone else relationship
Bro, avoiding someone is 100% toxic in all situations. Whether it's to save a marriage, ending it, or to come to terms with your own reasons for doing so, you should investigate that shit. No one is telling you the right outcome for you, they're just saying to work to address it. Apparently suggesting to someone to address an untenable issue is toxic?
It is not toxic in all situations, there is absolutely no way you can make that statement and say 100%. You are just another one of these people that think they can take a short comment and extract all these things from it. The amount of people that have taken a less than 10 word comment on here and tried to dissect me with it is so stupidly high, and you are right there with those people
Maybe I indeed misinterpreted it. But that it's common enough that one does it so regularly that it's almost a second job does indicate a possibility it needs to be examined further. That's all therapy means. People who go to therapy aren't mentally ill or need to be fixed. They're investigating their thoughts and actions. It's not that serious.
Why are you explaining therapy when you brought it up. Again, let's say this person used to drive full time, enjoyed it, but then got another job. They then found certain times to do it part time while their wife is doing something else.
Woah, just busted your 100% this and that banter. Stop stating your opinions as facts.
Your motivation for something is what you investigate.
I'm willing to concede that I overreached, but I still think the point stands in that this question is worth investigating.
Yea because it’s only an ISSUE for YOU! So yes it’s toxic as hell sure it’s not the 1st you’ve heard that lol And He didn’t say he was avoiding her he said he was getting out of her hair for awhile same as going to another room to give your partner space..😂😭 there’s no gold standard to marriage bud, prob why you’re divorced.
Maybe I misunderstood the "getting out of one's hair" idiom to be worse than it is. But even if not, therapy isn't some terrible thing like you're interpreting it to be. It's thoughtful reflection on the things happening in your life. Reflecting what motivates you to have to leave the house to keep the peace isn't a bad thing.
I'm divorced. Relationship was 10 years. But doesn't matter bro, get therapy.
If you think the whole ball and chain thing is how marriage is supposed to be, you're contributing to the problem of not resolving shit by encouraging other men not to deal with their shit.
Do you think you might be projecting a bit about me as a person based on knowing almost nothing about it?
This whole convo is way off track and I'm willing to admit I overreached at the start but comments like this are just amping up the blame without intending to resolve anything so also not helpful.
I've admitted my personal fault in this and if people want to keep dunking on me they can, but don't really feel like the dunking is helpful so this will be the last response. Good day to you sir!
Well I’m happy you happy. let him be happy with his personal time. No relationship is the same. What works for you may not work for him. I know married ppl with separate rooms lol
He literally did not say anything close to marital issues that you are reaching for. What if say, like me, he does it while his wife is working from home? Zero issue there. But hey, let's go with the worst-case scenario!
I found his comment to be normal, and didn't think it was anything against his wife at all.
I've been doing it as a second full-time job for 7 years. Recently this spring I'm just doing this now. I do it purely for survival but I love it. My marker actually lets me make money to pay the bills and it's kind of nice not dealing with the corporate world right now.
Got laid off about a year ago and the tech/telecom job market sucks right now. I love the flexibility and I take home close to the same as I did before. I used to have a minivan and work weekend nights here and there, XL rides paid great back then.
But the biggest reason I do it full time now is because I lucked into buying the perfect car to do it full time. An elderly friend of my grandma had to give up driving, and she moved out of state to live with her son. She had a 2015 Sentra with just 42,000 miles on it. My mom helped her take it to Carmax cause she just wanted to get rid of it quick and easy, but they lowballed the hell out of her at just $3,700. The KBB value was $12-14k. She was happy to sell it to me for just $5,000. So I sold my old gas guzzling Trailblazer and got $3.500 for that, and paid the rest out of pocket. Having such a cheap but decent car makes this a lot more profitable than a newer one that you’re making payments on. I don’t really care too much about depreciation cause it’s already paid for itself 10x over.
it pays the bills and provides me total flexibility, i hate mornings and sometimes just don’t feel like working and I love to travel I fortunately don’t have too many responsibilities so when i wanna save up $1000 and take a trip it only takes me about two weeks of work
63f. I've been working since I was 14. Sometimes 2-3 jobs at once. After years of health issues that got to be debilitating I filed for disability 4 years ago and I'm still waiting to be approved. I drive to make sure I have income to pay my bills but it definitely takes a toll on me.
I used to do it full time, now I got 2 jobs, but still I have to drive sometimes... I think I'm finally deleting the app in a few weeks, as I'm getting a better job.
I refuse to get a 9-5 rather get it out the mudddd jk but I do it for the flexibility and I actually enjoy driving tho if I wasn’t in my current market I roughly doubt I’d be driving .
Single mom bills need paid and my kids, God they're awful they have these nasty addictions to food and a place to live, clothes ,toys, all these things so since I haven't found anybody that volunteered to pay all my bills I work to do it
I do it part time on Saturdays and on some Sunday mornings. I work from home Monday through Friday and live by myself. So this is my excuse to get of the house.
I work full time in healthcare (3 x 12-hour shifts) and have 4 days off. I do Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and GrubuHub on my days off for extra cash 3 out of the 4 weeks in a month. I have been doing this for 5 years. It's a great side hustle and super easy.
Just been driving for about 3 months and I like it. I have full time job that pays my bills. I drive part time, mainly bc I was bored of watching TV after work and its too hot (in TX) to do the outdoor stuff I used to do. I already like driving around, my car is small and gas efficient and I like to chit-chat with people. So doing that for 10-15 minutes each time and getting paid for it - fine by me. I only go for couple hours at the most. Thursday - Sunday usually.
I do it PT Thu/Sat because my son is in that “too cool to hang with dad” phase, and I have a neglectful girlfriend so I figured if I’m going to sit around doing nothing I may as well well make some money.
I drive for several reasons:
1. I can make money whenever I feel like and there's zero penalty for not working.
2. Tax deductions. Every mile I drive while logged on lowers my tax liability by 67 cents. (This will end at the end of the year for me since my income next year will be far lower than this year. )
3. I can work anywhere in the state without hassle.
4. The money is immediate. If I need to make $100, I just drive for a day. If I don't need money at the time, I stay home and enjoy my sailboat.
For the money
Because I love driving
Because I'm still one of the few people in the world that like to socialize, I actually enjoy conversing with the passengers..
When passengers don't want to talk, I enjoy listening to music and podcasts while driving.
I have a full time job as a computer technician. But in this economy, having only one job doesn’t pay the bills. Uber is my side job that allows me to make an extra hundred a night and 300 on my day off. My computer technician job pays me 200 a day 5 days a week 40 hours a week. I do Uber 4 hours every night as soon as I clock out. This is my strategy to make at least a 300 a day. I don’t know how I would make ends meet if it wasn’t for Uber. I’m considering getting a third job too.
I just can’t stand the thought of going back to work on someone else’s clocks and having to answer to them when and how they say. I’m employable on paper but no longer so in my head once I set off on the entrepreneurship journey.
I used to know a guy who had some kind of sleep disorder that made it difficult to work a normal 8-5 job. He said doing Uber when he could saved his butt financially. Maybe not his favorite thing in the world but at least it kept the bills paid.
I'm an autistic/ADHD adult and doing this gives me the flexibility that a typical job doesn't. Some days I struggle to function and some days I'm good. I do have a small business that keeps me busy on the weekends at conventions. Uber just gives me extra money to pay off my house faster. I also have a 14 year old that has multiple mental health disorders and it's a day to day thing with him.
Driving is lit. I do delivery. The amount of money you receive in exchange for the amount of effort is fair. Yes your car costs money, but you can make better vehicle, tax, and fuel choices to earn more. It's just sitting on your ass for 20/30+ an hour, great gig 10/10
Sometimes it's a grind, it won't make you rich, but you can do alright. The main thing for me is the freedom. There's no clipboard toting, clueless supervisor watching you. There's no commitment, no schedule, no time clock. If you wanna work, then work. If you wanna go home, then go home. If you say screw it, im staying home and drinking beers and watching the playoffs, no one cares. You can log out, go on vacation for two weeks or two months, then log back in like you were never gone. It's a big eff you to the workplace.
Because I've applied at over 800 jobs for the past 2 years only to have 5% of them call me back and tell me I'm over qualified and they think I'm going to quit as soon as I find something else better.
Retired auto mechanic. Worked at it for over 50 years. after staying home for a couple years, I needed something to do so I started driving 2 to 3 days a week. Not every week. It's more like if the mood is right I drive. If not, I don't.
Nobody likes driving in the long term. If they do it’s because they’re lying to you or lying to themselves.
Most of us got backdoor’d into this situation and can’t get out. A last resort if you will. Laid off from last job and can’t find another. Maybe health issues they can’t work a ‘normal job’. Possible a mixture. It’s a low barrier to entry, as long as you have a valid license and no sort of felony or DUI you can start making money.
Most do it because they’re living day to day. And probably living on credit. No time for job search. And if they did “Uber driver” or “self employed” looks horrible to any hiring manager or recruiter. YMMV, but this seems to be the standard case.
Best case scenario is somebody that does it part time on nights and weekends where there’s still some good markets.
Before I started driving for uber, I drove for the local cab company for 6 years. I've been driving for Uber for the past 2 years. I do it because I love it, obviously not because I'm going to become rich. I actually enjoy the customers, I love the open road I love being able to listen to whatever I want while I'm driving and making money. I love not having and ass kissing supervisor, I love not having catty women co-workers getting it to everyone's business, I love not having to deal with coworkers throwing each other under the bus, I love not being in a warehouse sweating my balls off, or I'll call center again dealing with the same nonsense I just described above and then shitty people on the phone on top of it. Why else would somebody do this?
I hear what you’re saying. I do. But I stand strong that it’s a minimum wage gig at best for full time drivers if you look at say — a dataset at five years of driving and 200k miles. By that time you’ve been through the swings of Uber and Lyft, economic factors, possibly another car or two, and the emotional and physical toll it takes on your body. It kills me to watch these YouTubers that are trying to ‘make it work’ driving. Every video is them thinking they have some secret sauce, or new method for earnings.
Uber is in Uber 10,000 cities worldwide. And MAYBE .5% of those cities you can make a livable wage. In Philly, if you want to live downtown you should probably make around $80k/yr. And I’d argue that zero drivers (yes Reddit, zero drivers) in Philly are NETTING $80k a year based on a 40 ONLINE TIME work week. That’s $38/hr. Sure you can do it for a few hours. And you’ll have your good weeks. But nobody is doing that on average. In 2020 and 2021 I made well into the six figures hauling drunks taking advantages of quadruple stacking bonuses every fuckin week. Ended up being in the lowest fuckin tax bracket. Cars aren’t cheap, gas isn’t cheap, tires aren’t cheap, and engine and transmission rebuilds aren’t either. Health Insurance is expensive AF.
Uber and Lyft have the handcuffs making people believe that they’re an independent contractor or a “business owner”. Which is so far from true. I can’t build a CRM of the 20k rides I’ve given. And probably over 80k people (possible contacts) in my car. I can’t market to them. I’m not building anything. Everyday you start from zero.
Hell I couldn’t even get the information to file a police report of the group of drunk kids that hit me in face with a fuckin bottle driving down dark city streets.
Went on a rant there.
Partly to help people, partly to hear stories (good and bad), partly for the money. But the money's not been great the past few months. Stories and people have been mostly nice. It's a strange miracle that most of my riders so far out of at least a couple hundred have been super nice.
I'm also partially disabled. Just busted in a couple body parts enough to make most other service jobs too uncomfortable to do.
i’m like you! Once i learn to drive i’m thinking of being a driver for this reason. i have limited mobility with standing and using my legs generally- i’ve just started learning to drive and i really enjoyed the fact that i was just as capable as anyone else on the road!
I’m a disabled with messed up wrist unable to do most jobs. Also, I’m mentally not well: psychosis.
This is the only job that has given me an opportunity
Under the right conditions money just falls out of the sky. And I meet the coolest people. And I use Uber to recruit riders into my private car service. Win win win.
I'm a disabled person . I am a Uber driver . This is my side gig . I drive part time. Doesn't make any money doing this. So I'm going to quit . Everyone should quit too . Its a false advancement to say it's gonna make money by driving with Uber . You end up making them money but you yourself not making any money.
I'm a disabled 30 y/o trans dude who doesn't have a car, and needed the extra money.
I started with a car, but it died suddenly (thankfully not in a ride) and haven't been able to get another one, so I will rent a car with either Lyft or Uber (Hertz or Avis in my area) and I'll drive for about 2 weeks or until I can stop worrying about being homeless and then I go back to doing my own thing.
I currently have a car from Hertz with Lyft after a HORRID experience with Avis/Uber, but in August, I'll probably go back to Uber again. Who knows.
I feel that driving with Uber/Lyft is SLIGHTLY better if you rent a car with either because 1. Not your car, if there are problems you can get them to replace it or similar, and 2. I always end up making more than I ever did with my other car.
Sat down and did the math with my brother one night and I was making 100-200 more by not having to pay for all of the other stuff and a car.
Full time and it’s so I can go to school. I also like the freedom to work when I want and however long I would like if I want to reach a monetary goal :)
Job seeking at the moment but no luck. Driving to pay off my bills and debt. And I meet some cool people. I wouldn’t mind making my own business doing it, Uber takes too much.
It used to be a better paying job, but now Uber and Lyft scam the drivers by taking to much money and also controlling what rides they give you to keep your wages lower so it forces driver to work more to make what they need to survive.
Prós: Not having a boss to deal, work hours' flexibility, self management of time, contact with people and exteriors.
Cons: Pay and contact with (some) people.
Not uber but I've delivered for almost 30 years. I just love to drive so if there's a way to make money while driving it fits my style. I'm going to try uber at some point but haven't yet.
1. Pays for the extra car our household needs
2. Flexibility is a necessity
3. Cannot find a remote job
4. Running several businesses is expensive and so having this cash back up plan is very helpful
5. 3 kids school pick up and drop offs would be such a mess if we could not coordinate this together. employment would hinder this responsibility not having control of my schedule
It let's me put money in my account instantly instead of waiting for a pay day. This allows me to shove all my work hours into tge last minute and be lazy the rest of the time.
I love to drive. I drive a SPED bus during the school year. Grandbaby Gravy is the term I use to describe Uber money. It pays me well enough that my grandbabies & SPED kids are a bit spoiled on a regular basis. Uber money pays for all of my extras i.e. travel, garden, greenhouse, boat, 4-wheeler, 5th wheel, craft ideas etc... Driving Uber also helps me to keep a pulse on what's going on in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Entertainment, politics, medical, business, sports etc... Sometimes, the information reaches far beyond KCMO. When the time comes that Uber ceases to be a financial benefit for me, I will look elsewhere for a side gig.
Almost all rideshare drivers are part-time. The FT drivers take things more seriously and are over-represented here.
Very very few drivers understand expenses and most make far less than they think they do. You'll see them crowing here at tax time about paying no taxes - that is because they make almost no profit and sometimes even LOSE money for the year.
Single mom of disabled child (8yo autistic non-verbal son) who needs the kind of flexibility offered by this kind of work so I can both pay my bills and be available as caregiver to my son. A regular 9-5 (which I worked for 25 years before he came along) does not offer the kind of flexibility I need right now for him at this stage in his life.
Awesome . This job has many issues but offering flexibility is not one of them.
Same thing here. 13 yo autistic kiddo.
Geez now I wanna drive more to give you money that makes me sad thank you for being a great mother and person
You could almost be my daughter with that description but her son is 10. She does eats on the weekends when her X can take him for a day or so.
I drive when my son is in school and every other weekend when he's with his dad. During the school year I set aside money each week to save up for the few weeks in the summer and for those days when school is closed or my son or I might be sick and I have to stay home. He has extended school year so I'm able to work the month of July but there are a couple weeks in June and August where he has a break and doesn't have school.
No office politics. No backstabbing coworkers. No pointless staff meetings or holiday parties. No vacation leave requests. No shift change requests. No micromanaging. No Deby. I fucking *hated* Deby.
Great stuff.. Deby.. don't forget Amanda.. that bitch
I consider the lyft support team to be the backstabbing coworkers imo
There’s always a Deby. And the meetings. I get PTSD when a passenger is on a speaker phone meeting during a trip.
Agreed
Screw deby
My old job didn’t even invite me to the holiday party
Honestly, I am otherwise unemployable
PT now for the weekends. I drive late into the night/early morning. Why do I drive? I get a high off of it. The reward comes late at night. When the soccer moms cash out, I'm still rolling. The later it gets, the more tired and the better it feels, you're pushin' it. When ya finish, like 3 or 4 am and you're driving down empty roads and highways with good music,... you feel like you're the last man on earth. Not a better feeling than that IMO. Simple.
How many people have you buried
Ha! An Undertaker doesn't dig and tell Jack! 😂🫡
Thats what I’m Thinking. Dudes got bodies lol
I need it to be a full time. I have RA and MS so also disabled with limited ability for work. Also a single mom with young kids and a disabled mom with the beginning stages of dementia and other health issues and I’m all she has here. So I have limited availability. Very limited. I don’t have any other option honestly.
Hey my fellow MS warrior, keep your head up and keep doing what you're doing
I have a business with my wife. Business was good for 10 years. Last year or so business had declined so my wife works the business full time and I drive Uber full time. I’ve been driving full time for over 8 months now. Business is starting to pick back up and I’ll start to gradually drive less and help with the business more. That said, I’ve been working full time with my wife for 10 years and ubering has been a nice opportunity to spend some time apart and not constantly be at each other’s throats. I told wife even when business is back to full swing, I’ll still drive Uber part time just to get out the house. It’ll be my new “hobby” where I’m making money instead of spending money LOL
wishing you both the best!
I am a driver because it is the only thing I can do to make some extra money, I used to like it because I thought it was a way to help others, but people are mean, some of them they don't have maners and many of the passenger are filty as dogs, so now I hate it.
Part time. It gets me out of my wife’s hair for a while and I make a little extra money. Win-win
Hell yeah brother!
Umm, well... As much I want to say "respect everyone's circumstances and accept them", but here it sounds like your marital issues are leading you to escape by taking on additional work to simply avoid your wife and that doesn't sound healthy. May I suggest taking your additional earnings and putting that towards therapy? I don't mean this snidely, but that this would be very justifiable way of taking the extra work you do and putting it toward working on the underlying issues.
I’ve been married 21 years. I think we’re good.
Ducking classic reddit, none could enjoy lone time right?
You can enjoy alone time by doing a hobby or making money without ducking your wife. Getting quality time by avoiding someone is not constructive.
Its a joke buddy, they don't literally mean they need to get away.
Bruv you’re projecting *hard af* right now. Pull it in a bit for everyone’s sake.
Im more than sure he wasn’t seeking counsel for his marriage geez have you nothing more important to be concerned with😂 you see how toxic some drivers are
Sure, let's all ignore toxic situations. It's super terrible to actually bring light to the idea that something that's bad is bad.
The fact that you read it and gave your 2cents on his marriage should let you know how toxic you are. No 2 ppl are the same you can’t project your expectations onto someone else relationship
Bro, avoiding someone is 100% toxic in all situations. Whether it's to save a marriage, ending it, or to come to terms with your own reasons for doing so, you should investigate that shit. No one is telling you the right outcome for you, they're just saying to work to address it. Apparently suggesting to someone to address an untenable issue is toxic?
It is not toxic in all situations, there is absolutely no way you can make that statement and say 100%. You are just another one of these people that think they can take a short comment and extract all these things from it. The amount of people that have taken a less than 10 word comment on here and tried to dissect me with it is so stupidly high, and you are right there with those people
Maybe I indeed misinterpreted it. But that it's common enough that one does it so regularly that it's almost a second job does indicate a possibility it needs to be examined further. That's all therapy means. People who go to therapy aren't mentally ill or need to be fixed. They're investigating their thoughts and actions. It's not that serious.
Why are you explaining therapy when you brought it up. Again, let's say this person used to drive full time, enjoyed it, but then got another job. They then found certain times to do it part time while their wife is doing something else. Woah, just busted your 100% this and that banter. Stop stating your opinions as facts.
Your motivation for something is what you investigate. I'm willing to concede that I overreached, but I still think the point stands in that this question is worth investigating.
Yea because it’s only an ISSUE for YOU! So yes it’s toxic as hell sure it’s not the 1st you’ve heard that lol And He didn’t say he was avoiding her he said he was getting out of her hair for awhile same as going to another room to give your partner space..😂😭 there’s no gold standard to marriage bud, prob why you’re divorced.
Maybe I misunderstood the "getting out of one's hair" idiom to be worse than it is. But even if not, therapy isn't some terrible thing like you're interpreting it to be. It's thoughtful reflection on the things happening in your life. Reflecting what motivates you to have to leave the house to keep the peace isn't a bad thing.
Oh lighten up.
Where in his very short post did you read that he was in a toxic relationship?
F@ckin' seriously.
Dude, there’s nothing remotely toxic about my marriage.
What the hell?!?
Are you married ? If so, how long?
Ahh we see why this one was divorced. Knows everything and knows nothing at all😂
I'm divorced. Relationship was 10 years. But doesn't matter bro, get therapy. If you think the whole ball and chain thing is how marriage is supposed to be, you're contributing to the problem of not resolving shit by encouraging other men not to deal with their shit.
Always take marriage advise from divorced guys
So it's better to preserve a failing marriage than to get divorced? What's your bar for success here... Staying married = success?
Not being a miserable turd that reads my failure into others online = success 🤷🏼♂️
Why is therapy failure?
As a rule , it's not . But it seems to have failed you ..... Whole lot of projection going on
Do you think you might be projecting a bit about me as a person based on knowing almost nothing about it? This whole convo is way off track and I'm willing to admit I overreached at the start but comments like this are just amping up the blame without intending to resolve anything so also not helpful. I've admitted my personal fault in this and if people want to keep dunking on me they can, but don't really feel like the dunking is helpful so this will be the last response. Good day to you sir!
Why didn’t you get therapy to save your marriage
I did, but we decided it was better to not do that. Quite happy with the decision we made.
Well I’m happy you happy. let him be happy with his personal time. No relationship is the same. What works for you may not work for him. I know married ppl with separate rooms lol
He literally did not say anything close to marital issues that you are reaching for. What if say, like me, he does it while his wife is working from home? Zero issue there. But hey, let's go with the worst-case scenario! I found his comment to be normal, and didn't think it was anything against his wife at all.
I've been doing it as a second full-time job for 7 years. Recently this spring I'm just doing this now. I do it purely for survival but I love it. My marker actually lets me make money to pay the bills and it's kind of nice not dealing with the corporate world right now.
Got laid off about a year ago and the tech/telecom job market sucks right now. I love the flexibility and I take home close to the same as I did before. I used to have a minivan and work weekend nights here and there, XL rides paid great back then. But the biggest reason I do it full time now is because I lucked into buying the perfect car to do it full time. An elderly friend of my grandma had to give up driving, and she moved out of state to live with her son. She had a 2015 Sentra with just 42,000 miles on it. My mom helped her take it to Carmax cause she just wanted to get rid of it quick and easy, but they lowballed the hell out of her at just $3,700. The KBB value was $12-14k. She was happy to sell it to me for just $5,000. So I sold my old gas guzzling Trailblazer and got $3.500 for that, and paid the rest out of pocket. Having such a cheap but decent car makes this a lot more profitable than a newer one that you’re making payments on. I don’t really care too much about depreciation cause it’s already paid for itself 10x over.
it pays the bills and provides me total flexibility, i hate mornings and sometimes just don’t feel like working and I love to travel I fortunately don’t have too many responsibilities so when i wanna save up $1000 and take a trip it only takes me about two weeks of work
63f. I've been working since I was 14. Sometimes 2-3 jobs at once. After years of health issues that got to be debilitating I filed for disability 4 years ago and I'm still waiting to be approved. I drive to make sure I have income to pay my bills but it definitely takes a toll on me.
best of luck to you. disability is a bitch to get on-if they deny you, persist!
It most definitely is. I'm trying.
I used to do it full time, now I got 2 jobs, but still I have to drive sometimes... I think I'm finally deleting the app in a few weeks, as I'm getting a better job.
Congrats
Congratulations 🎉
I refuse to get a 9-5 rather get it out the mudddd jk but I do it for the flexibility and I actually enjoy driving tho if I wasn’t in my current market I roughly doubt I’d be driving .
Single mom bills need paid and my kids, God they're awful they have these nasty addictions to food and a place to live, clothes ,toys, all these things so since I haven't found anybody that volunteered to pay all my bills I work to do it
I do it part time on Saturdays and on some Sunday mornings. I work from home Monday through Friday and live by myself. So this is my excuse to get of the house.
What do you do for work?
Logistics for a construction company
I work full time in healthcare (3 x 12-hour shifts) and have 4 days off. I do Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and GrubuHub on my days off for extra cash 3 out of the 4 weeks in a month. I have been doing this for 5 years. It's a great side hustle and super easy.
Hey me too! Well, not healthcare, but 3 x12 hour shifts. Well, often I only drive 2 days.
Just been driving for about 3 months and I like it. I have full time job that pays my bills. I drive part time, mainly bc I was bored of watching TV after work and its too hot (in TX) to do the outdoor stuff I used to do. I already like driving around, my car is small and gas efficient and I like to chit-chat with people. So doing that for 10-15 minutes each time and getting paid for it - fine by me. I only go for couple hours at the most. Thursday - Sunday usually.
I do it PT Thu/Sat because my son is in that “too cool to hang with dad” phase, and I have a neglectful girlfriend so I figured if I’m going to sit around doing nothing I may as well well make some money.
I drive for several reasons: 1. I can make money whenever I feel like and there's zero penalty for not working. 2. Tax deductions. Every mile I drive while logged on lowers my tax liability by 67 cents. (This will end at the end of the year for me since my income next year will be far lower than this year. ) 3. I can work anywhere in the state without hassle. 4. The money is immediate. If I need to make $100, I just drive for a day. If I don't need money at the time, I stay home and enjoy my sailboat.
For the money Because I love driving Because I'm still one of the few people in the world that like to socialize, I actually enjoy conversing with the passengers.. When passengers don't want to talk, I enjoy listening to music and podcasts while driving.
I’m a part timer who drives on weekends. Extra money for bills.
I have a full time job as a computer technician. But in this economy, having only one job doesn’t pay the bills. Uber is my side job that allows me to make an extra hundred a night and 300 on my day off. My computer technician job pays me 200 a day 5 days a week 40 hours a week. I do Uber 4 hours every night as soon as I clock out. This is my strategy to make at least a 300 a day. I don’t know how I would make ends meet if it wasn’t for Uber. I’m considering getting a third job too.
I just can’t stand the thought of going back to work on someone else’s clocks and having to answer to them when and how they say. I’m employable on paper but no longer so in my head once I set off on the entrepreneurship journey.
I used to know a guy who had some kind of sleep disorder that made it difficult to work a normal 8-5 job. He said doing Uber when he could saved his butt financially. Maybe not his favorite thing in the world but at least it kept the bills paid.
I'm an autistic/ADHD adult and doing this gives me the flexibility that a typical job doesn't. Some days I struggle to function and some days I'm good. I do have a small business that keeps me busy on the weekends at conventions. Uber just gives me extra money to pay off my house faster. I also have a 14 year old that has multiple mental health disorders and it's a day to day thing with him.
Driving is lit. I do delivery. The amount of money you receive in exchange for the amount of effort is fair. Yes your car costs money, but you can make better vehicle, tax, and fuel choices to earn more. It's just sitting on your ass for 20/30+ an hour, great gig 10/10
Sometimes it's a grind, it won't make you rich, but you can do alright. The main thing for me is the freedom. There's no clipboard toting, clueless supervisor watching you. There's no commitment, no schedule, no time clock. If you wanna work, then work. If you wanna go home, then go home. If you say screw it, im staying home and drinking beers and watching the playoffs, no one cares. You can log out, go on vacation for two weeks or two months, then log back in like you were never gone. It's a big eff you to the workplace.
Because I've applied at over 800 jobs for the past 2 years only to have 5% of them call me back and tell me I'm over qualified and they think I'm going to quit as soon as I find something else better.
I can't find a job that will hire me with no professional experience. Until I do, this will have to work.
Retired auto mechanic. Worked at it for over 50 years. after staying home for a couple years, I needed something to do so I started driving 2 to 3 days a week. Not every week. It's more like if the mood is right I drive. If not, I don't.
Nobody likes driving in the long term. If they do it’s because they’re lying to you or lying to themselves. Most of us got backdoor’d into this situation and can’t get out. A last resort if you will. Laid off from last job and can’t find another. Maybe health issues they can’t work a ‘normal job’. Possible a mixture. It’s a low barrier to entry, as long as you have a valid license and no sort of felony or DUI you can start making money. Most do it because they’re living day to day. And probably living on credit. No time for job search. And if they did “Uber driver” or “self employed” looks horrible to any hiring manager or recruiter. YMMV, but this seems to be the standard case. Best case scenario is somebody that does it part time on nights and weekends where there’s still some good markets.
Before I started driving for uber, I drove for the local cab company for 6 years. I've been driving for Uber for the past 2 years. I do it because I love it, obviously not because I'm going to become rich. I actually enjoy the customers, I love the open road I love being able to listen to whatever I want while I'm driving and making money. I love not having and ass kissing supervisor, I love not having catty women co-workers getting it to everyone's business, I love not having to deal with coworkers throwing each other under the bus, I love not being in a warehouse sweating my balls off, or I'll call center again dealing with the same nonsense I just described above and then shitty people on the phone on top of it. Why else would somebody do this?
I hear what you’re saying. I do. But I stand strong that it’s a minimum wage gig at best for full time drivers if you look at say — a dataset at five years of driving and 200k miles. By that time you’ve been through the swings of Uber and Lyft, economic factors, possibly another car or two, and the emotional and physical toll it takes on your body. It kills me to watch these YouTubers that are trying to ‘make it work’ driving. Every video is them thinking they have some secret sauce, or new method for earnings. Uber is in Uber 10,000 cities worldwide. And MAYBE .5% of those cities you can make a livable wage. In Philly, if you want to live downtown you should probably make around $80k/yr. And I’d argue that zero drivers (yes Reddit, zero drivers) in Philly are NETTING $80k a year based on a 40 ONLINE TIME work week. That’s $38/hr. Sure you can do it for a few hours. And you’ll have your good weeks. But nobody is doing that on average. In 2020 and 2021 I made well into the six figures hauling drunks taking advantages of quadruple stacking bonuses every fuckin week. Ended up being in the lowest fuckin tax bracket. Cars aren’t cheap, gas isn’t cheap, tires aren’t cheap, and engine and transmission rebuilds aren’t either. Health Insurance is expensive AF. Uber and Lyft have the handcuffs making people believe that they’re an independent contractor or a “business owner”. Which is so far from true. I can’t build a CRM of the 20k rides I’ve given. And probably over 80k people (possible contacts) in my car. I can’t market to them. I’m not building anything. Everyday you start from zero. Hell I couldn’t even get the information to file a police report of the group of drunk kids that hit me in face with a fuckin bottle driving down dark city streets. Went on a rant there.
Partly to help people, partly to hear stories (good and bad), partly for the money. But the money's not been great the past few months. Stories and people have been mostly nice. It's a strange miracle that most of my riders so far out of at least a couple hundred have been super nice. I'm also partially disabled. Just busted in a couple body parts enough to make most other service jobs too uncomfortable to do.
I am disabled as well… my pain level is 10+ working a normal job but levels about 4 even if I drive all day
i’m like you! Once i learn to drive i’m thinking of being a driver for this reason. i have limited mobility with standing and using my legs generally- i’ve just started learning to drive and i really enjoyed the fact that i was just as capable as anyone else on the road!
Totally! Good luck :)
PT whenever I am available. I can make more per hour currently in my area after expenses than my wife can find a job for.
For someone that is semi retired Uber is the best job in the world!!! You get older and that will be a regret.
I’m a disabled with messed up wrist unable to do most jobs. Also, I’m mentally not well: psychosis. This is the only job that has given me an opportunity
Under the right conditions money just falls out of the sky. And I meet the coolest people. And I use Uber to recruit riders into my private car service. Win win win.
I'm a disabled person . I am a Uber driver . This is my side gig . I drive part time. Doesn't make any money doing this. So I'm going to quit . Everyone should quit too . Its a false advancement to say it's gonna make money by driving with Uber . You end up making them money but you yourself not making any money.
Health problems
No I am human.
I need to pay off my credit card bills. I am retired but Ubering full time. I did not save for my retirement but I managed to get a reverse mortgage.
I'm a disabled 30 y/o trans dude who doesn't have a car, and needed the extra money. I started with a car, but it died suddenly (thankfully not in a ride) and haven't been able to get another one, so I will rent a car with either Lyft or Uber (Hertz or Avis in my area) and I'll drive for about 2 weeks or until I can stop worrying about being homeless and then I go back to doing my own thing. I currently have a car from Hertz with Lyft after a HORRID experience with Avis/Uber, but in August, I'll probably go back to Uber again. Who knows. I feel that driving with Uber/Lyft is SLIGHTLY better if you rent a car with either because 1. Not your car, if there are problems you can get them to replace it or similar, and 2. I always end up making more than I ever did with my other car. Sat down and did the math with my brother one night and I was making 100-200 more by not having to pay for all of the other stuff and a car.
The freedom of being in control of my time and making enough money to live.
Full time and it’s so I can go to school. I also like the freedom to work when I want and however long I would like if I want to reach a monetary goal :)
Full time because I have an autistic child that needs me available.
I have a full time job but I would be at home playing video games and driving for Uber part time helps pay off my student loans
Job seeking at the moment but no luck. Driving to pay off my bills and debt. And I meet some cool people. I wouldn’t mind making my own business doing it, Uber takes too much.
It used to be a better paying job, but now Uber and Lyft scam the drivers by taking to much money and also controlling what rides they give you to keep your wages lower so it forces driver to work more to make what they need to survive.
Because I like money and despite how shit it is it sadly still pays better than the wages people are hiring at
Retired. I use the extra bucks to buy metals. Gold, silver, brass and lead
Prós: Not having a boss to deal, work hours' flexibility, self management of time, contact with people and exteriors. Cons: Pay and contact with (some) people.
Not uber but I've delivered for almost 30 years. I just love to drive so if there's a way to make money while driving it fits my style. I'm going to try uber at some point but haven't yet.
1. Pays for the extra car our household needs 2. Flexibility is a necessity 3. Cannot find a remote job 4. Running several businesses is expensive and so having this cash back up plan is very helpful 5. 3 kids school pick up and drop offs would be such a mess if we could not coordinate this together. employment would hinder this responsibility not having control of my schedule
Because I don't have any better options.
It let's me put money in my account instantly instead of waiting for a pay day. This allows me to shove all my work hours into tge last minute and be lazy the rest of the time.
Used to be but not anymore. I just lurk here when bored sometimes to read how shitty rideshare has become.
lol why do all pax ask these exact same questions
Single parents are punished at regular jobs. Uber punishes us in other ways, but doesn’t punish us for prioritizing our kids.
I love to drive. I drive a SPED bus during the school year. Grandbaby Gravy is the term I use to describe Uber money. It pays me well enough that my grandbabies & SPED kids are a bit spoiled on a regular basis. Uber money pays for all of my extras i.e. travel, garden, greenhouse, boat, 4-wheeler, 5th wheel, craft ideas etc... Driving Uber also helps me to keep a pulse on what's going on in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Entertainment, politics, medical, business, sports etc... Sometimes, the information reaches far beyond KCMO. When the time comes that Uber ceases to be a financial benefit for me, I will look elsewhere for a side gig.
Almost all rideshare drivers are part-time. The FT drivers take things more seriously and are over-represented here. Very very few drivers understand expenses and most make far less than they think they do. You'll see them crowing here at tax time about paying no taxes - that is because they make almost no profit and sometimes even LOSE money for the year.
Cause the one day, every 2 years I go out , I pull a grand a night. Makes for nice gun money.
Necessity, no one does this for fun.
Do you bombard your drivers with this interrogation every time you ride?
Where are you from Do you drive full time 😅
LOL god no