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Uber's allies release new study
By JohnAKeith on Fri, 01/23/2015 - 2:58pm
According to a new study (warning, PDF) released by Uber, yesterday, its Boston drivers - of which it estimates there are now 10,000 - are earning an average of $19 per hour, ~33-percent more than area taxi drivers and chauffeurs.
The study came under immediate criticism because its research was co-conducted in-house by John Hall, Uber Technologies' "Head of Policy Research", so, yeah, he had a conflict of interest. He has a doctorate from Harvard University, though, so there's that.
The number of drivers in the Greater Boston area (it doesn't specify where exactly the drivers are from) has jumped more than 50% in about half a year. (These are "active" drivers - at least one trip during the month studied - which I think was October 2014.)
For Uber nationwide, it appears drivers (both UberBLACK and UberX) stick with the program, with about 55% still providing rides 52-weeks after starting. The study suggests those who stop driving do so not from dissatisfaction but for other reasons: other jobs (most drivers work fewer than 35 hours), etc.
Comparing the average Uber driver to the typical cab driver, there are big differences. Uber drivers are different from cab drivers; they're whiter, they're better-educated, and they seem to work a lot fewer hours (perhaps because taxi drivers work full-time, as careers?) More than half of the Uber drivers queried drove fewer than 15 hours per week, while more than a third of cab drivers worked more than 50 hours per week.
Uber drivers in Boston made an average of $19.06 per hour while cab drivers earned $12.31 per hour. (This amount doesn't take into account the costs associated with being an Uber driver - insurance, maintenance, etc. Nor does it include the cost to a cabbie to lease a medallion from a taxi company, which most do.)
PS. Uber has been putting up billboards in Boston guaranteeing its drivers can make $1,600 per week (or, $83,200 annually). That math doesn't seem to work.
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Comments
However you slice it
They're still going like gangbusters. This guy is a convert, though I honestly use UberTaxi a lot (Because I know they'll actually show up). I've only ever used UberX twice, because there were no taxis or town cars available within a 10 minute wait.
I've wondered about this.
I'm guessing that job-wise it's a step up from driving a cab. I don't use Uber a lot but I'm struck by the pleasant difference--friendly, polite drivers (of all colors and ethnicities in my experience) clean cars, very decent fares, though I know it varies. I've always been a defender of cab drivers but more and more it seems as if the "talent" has left the industry and all that's left is some hard-working but desperate guys who don't speak English or have basic manners or driving skills and who spend the whole ride flying through red lights while yelling at their girlfriends on their cellphone.
Bullshit.
Chauffeurs do not average twelve dollars an hour. I'd love to know where this shill for Uber got those numbers.
Most limo companies pay between eight and ten dollars an hour base pay. Then add a twenty percent gratuity to that. So if a sedan is being billed out at fifty five dollars an hour that makes the gratuity eleven dollars an hour adding the base pay of eight dollars that comes out to nineteen dollars an hour total. Drive an SUV that most companies charge eight five an hour for and that brings the hourly earning of a chauffeur to up to twenty five dollars an hour.
A prime contention I've made about Uber is that while they say you make nineteen dollars an hour, that's after you've shoveled out money for your own car, gas,insurance and maintenance. A chauffeur at a busy company can make more than what Uber claims without shelling out a penny.
"Uber's allies"
If I had a nickel every time I wished I could upvote uhub headlines, I'd have like all these nickels
none of my business
Besides the fact that your more certain that your ride will come, a smart uber driver should know how to file his/her taxes and $.55/mile all uber (dont quote that) 50% on your gas at least... can and will catch up to that 25/hr ... you just dont get it until you file your taxes. You are an independant contractor of uber right? So its a loss your company didnt pay ... file your taxes... and dont mind me if im wrong...its none of my business. Go Uber
Nope!
I have nothing to do with Uber. I wait for my clients, they don't wait for me. And the only reason I can see an Uber driver making twenty five dollars an hour is if he gets rides out of the city or when triple surge is in effect.
One other thing. Many of the established limo companies around here used to pay their drivers as independent contractors, leaving it up to them to pay their own taxes. However, when the IRS found they were chasing way too many limo drivers who didn't file, they told the limo owners they'd be liable if they didn't make their drivers employees.
So let's see the statistics on how many of those 1099 getting Uber or Lyft drivers actually file this year.
Ugh, math.
The "33% more" figure should be "50% more". Obv. (12.5 x .5 = 6.25 + 12.5 = 18.75).
And, I didn't have enough time to include all the info and data in the study. The $12.5 average for a taxi driver / chauffeur is from estimates it took from the US Census Bureau, which doesn't break down the data separately - taxi driver, chauffeur. I would imagine, as you do, that chauffeurs can/do make more.