Miami305

Just saw that Uber is dropping prices by up to 40% on uberX in 100 cities across the US and Canada. They haven't officially released a list of the cities yet, but I have read that it does NOT include NYC. However, cities like San Francisco are a part of the price chop.

This must be absolutely brutal for drivers.

Dunbar

Yes, it's 30 cents a mile in Detriot and 64 cents a mile in the Inland Empire here outside of Los Angeles. Anything much under $1/mile and they are basically working for less than minimum wage. One of my guilty pleasures is reading the drivers posts in the forums at uberpeople.net.

Miami305

Has anyone come across a well-written breakdown of what the breakeven point for a driver actually is? (Obviously picking an arbitrary vehicle and fuel cost).

lainys

Sharing some anecdotal data from recent Uber rides:

I had client meetings in downtown SF the same week as the RSA show in Moscone Center. Rather than chance it with traffic and parking (or lack of) I decided to use Uber To SF to and from the South Bay.

Day 1 - to SF - $65 (57 miles - 1 hr 30 minutes - ride start 7:01am, finish 8:32am)
Day 1 - from SF - $113 (47 miles) Surge pricing 1.6X in effect!
Day 2 - to SF - $69 (57 miles - 1 hr 50 minutes - ride start 7:15am, finish (9:25am)
Day 1 - from SF - Surge pricing 2.3X so took BART to Millbrae ($5) then Uber to home - $65 (42 miles - 1 hr)
Day 3 - to SF - $58 (52 miles - 1 hr 14 min - ride start 10:45am)
Day 3 - from SF - $85 (56 miles - 1 hr 15 min - ride start 9pm)

Personal lessons learned:
* Leave before 7am!!
* Recent drop in UberX pricing is definitely a factor in taking Uber 3 days in a row. Easier to justify for expenses.
* Mileage costs I would normally claim to my company would be $60 roundtrip. Add cost of parking $20-40. Total cost to my company per day would be $80-$100 (mileage and parking).
* Even though I sat in morning peak hour traffic 2 days in a row I did not arrive frazzled by using Uber. Bonus - Used the time to catch up on ipad news stories.
* Surge pricing would not justify future Uber round trips (vs claiming mileage and parking expenses) however prudent use of local public transportation (BART) coupled with Uber would be easily justifiable.

BOTTOMLINE - NOT driving in peak hour morning start/stop traffic for 1 hr 50 min PLUS looking for parking (an extra 10-20 min) PLUS walk several blocks to customer meeting site in heels - PRICELESS!!

themicah

No, but by my back of the envelope math UberX in most markets is a pretty terrible way to make a living. I find it hard to believe that anybody can make a full time job out of it.

The price cuts seem likely to make UberX the exclusive domain of people who want to pick up a few extra bucks in their free time and people who are unemployed and want to find a way to keep up with their car payments until they find a real job.

I used UberX to fetch my grandparents in a major Texas city a few weeks ago, for example. They got caught in traffic. The total fare for a 6 mile, 37 minute ride was $12.77. Take away $.25 city tax, $1.95 safe rides fee and 25% Uber commission (I'm not sure if it's 25% in Houston, but I think it's somewhere in the 20-30% range), and the driver received about $8 for almost an hour of work (37 minutes paid ride time, plus it probably took him 10-15 minutes to get to them to pick them up). And that's before he pays for gas, let alone the actual cost of acquiring, registering, insuring and maintaining his car. Or taxes (although for tax purposes he may have lost money on that trip) or health insurance.

When there's less traffic it's possible a driver might squeeze three or four rides in an hour instead of just one. But it's got to be tough to consistently average over $10/hour of net pay in markets like that, especially once you factor in the cost of the car.