Income as Lyft or Uber driver ?

[offroad]

So it's UBER carjacking service ? One of the reason am hesitant about this.

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

well they he didnt work for uber, but a low budget taxi in bmore. he didnt have the option to refuse a shady request/part of town

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i think uber drivers dont get paid in cash so they dont carry a 'nut' to steal. that probably removes some danger.

 

[caseyc]

Here is my experience and impression regarding the application process for both Lyft and Uber. I first tried applying to Lyft, and for the past several days, they have been telling me by email that they need to escalate my application to their superiors for who knows whatever the h@ll reason. To this day, I'm still frustrated by Lyft. Lyft is an amateur company and they don't have their act together. I give up on them.

On the other hand, Uber has been a pleasure to deal with. They actually have *real* staff on hand to help me with the vehicle inspection and online application. Took me only 2 to 3 days for Uber to accept me as a driver and confirming I passed all their inspections. Uber is very organized. I have confidence in Uber as a company, whereas Lyft is simply a joke in my opinion.

The only thing I didn't like about Uber is they are essentially "forcing" me to use an iPhone in order to use their Uber app for picking up passengers. I'm an Android guy, and I don't care for an iPhoney phone. Plus it's the older iPhone 4 model with a tiny screen and keyboard. It's sick! Uber told me they will hopefully have their Android version Uber app running soon so I can use that on my huge Samsung Note smartphone with its 5.5" screen. Does anyone know if the Uber app works correctly on the Android platform?

The reason I want to do this particular job is that I have the freedom to work as much or as little as I want, plus the ability to dictate my own hours and locations. I'm essentially my own boss doing my own thing making money whenever I want to, that's the attraction for me. It's not the same concept for taxi cab drivers. That's completely different. Taxi drivers know nothing about the passengers they are driving, and they have to accept cash or credit. Whereas Uber/Lyft drivers are cash-less, and the entire transaction is handled by the company, not by me. I don't accept any cash or credit, the company charges the passenger and in turn deposits the earned income electronically to my banking account. Plus I will NOT be driving in any bad or sketchy neighborhoods, period.

As for the recent news article about the "holloween girl" being overcharged by Uber, that had to be the most stupid story I've read all month. Even more stupid is that she raised nearly $600 in online donations to help her pay for the Uber bill. So she ended up getting a net profit from her drunken stupidity! If she wasn't young and cute, she would have received diddly squat from online donations.

I think I will go to Macy's to buy a cool dressy vest, plus a chauffer cap to complete my new "look", haha! As I said before, you may now call me Jeeves. That will be $40 for the ride, please...hyuck yuck!

Casey

Let us know how the profits roll in. And if there is any hassle.

 

[offroad]

Casey - nice deal!!

 

[caseyc]

By the way, I'm thinking of mostly driving only during "premium pricing" times. I think that means commuter rush hour times, plus maybe special holidays, off hours, etc. That way, I can earn 1.5x the normal rate, or maybe more. Uber's policy is for NO tips to be accepted via the Uber app, unless the customer truly wants to pay me in cash for tipping. Lyft on the other hand does accept tipping via their own Lyft app. The premium pricing would essentially be my tip, haha! My first goal is to get rid of the debt I got myself into. I bought the Toyota Camry on my credit card. I hate financing a car through the a bank because I don't want my vehicle to be held hostage by a bank. My bank offers me a low fixed APR rate because it's a credit union. I hope to rid the credit debt in a few months or so.

 

[caseyc]

Yet another update here. Hey, at least I provide updates, haha!

Last night, I kept debating whether to try out Uber driving for the first time. I kept thinking to myself, am I prepared yet? Do I know what the heck I'm doing??

After 20 minutes of self-affirmation pep talks (yes, I talk to myself sometimes), I got the courage to turn on the app to say I'm "Online" and available for customer pickups.

Sure enough, within minutes the company provided iPhone 4 was ringing and I got my first customer! I almost freaked, cuz I didn't know how to press okay to accept, as I know I only have a short 15 seconds to respond in the affirmative. Within minutes I was picking up my very first passenger! I even told the guy he's the first customer, and he was a bit surprised. He sat in the back seat and kept to himself on his smartphone, but he was very cool.

I ended up having a total of 4 customer pickups in less than 2 hours in the evening. All the passengers were super cool, no problems whatsoever. The iPhone kept buzzing me for new customers within a few short minutes of finishing the last dropoff.

I dropped off the last customer at 8:00pm last night, and I had to quickly go off-line to stop accepting new requests because it was getting late and I was starving for dinner and in need of a shower. Had I kept the phone on for acceptance, I'm pretty sure it would have kept buzzing me for more customers for hours and hours. I was only driving around the nicer parts of downtown and tourist areas, so no sketchy neighborhoods!

Yes, I did in fact go to Macys last night when I finished and bought a cool dressy vest and cap to give me that modern chauffeur look. Hyuck, yuck. Yes, that sleek black full size 4 door Toyota Camry sedan seemed to be appreciated by all the passengers, so I'm thankful I made the right choice. I'm still sad to give up my 2 door Bimmer convertible, but alas, I guess it was meant to be.

The hardest part of the job, you might ask?? It was trying to figure out how to use both the Uber software and iPhone hardware on that piece of cr@p old iPhone 4 with its tiny @ss screen! I'm a dedicated Android guy with the latest large screen smartphone, so the iPhone 4 was a huge step backwards in my opinion. But fortunately, by the time I got to my 3rd customer, I finally figured out how to use both the Uber driver app plus the crappy iPhone 4 for navigation.

I still prefer to use my own Android smartphone for navigation. Plus I just bought the top of the line Garmin stand-alone GPS with the latest voice activation feature. The sucker cost $350 at Best Buy, but I really want that voice activation feature which Garmin never had in the past. I literally have 3 separate GPS navigation devices running simultaneously while driving! Me drive around lost? You kidding!

Before I started driving last night, I was tired from the day earlier. But after finishing driving for 2 hours, I was actually energized from it! I wanted to do more driving! But it was getting late. I can't wait to do it again later today! For anyone contemplating doing this type of work, I recommend it! Beats working at any retail store or waiting at tables.

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EDIT:
Below is the current top of the line Garmin stand-alone GPS device with the new voice activation feature. Best Buy is currently selling the unit for $329. The voice activation (speech command) is not perfect, but it works pretty well. I say commands like "Find address; 100 Market Street, Yes, Navigate". Then the sucker starts navigating! I can also say things like, "Find Place, Starbucks" or "Screen brightness, 60 percent", or "Stop navigation", etc.

I have purchased many GPS units in my life over the past 12 years or so. I even dare say I have as many GPS units as I have watches, haha! Problem with GPS units is you need to throw away the old ones because they no longer work properly due to aging technology. The new models are way more accurate with many more features.

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-3597LM...qid=1415292906&sr=8-1&keywords=nuvi+3597lmthd

 

[offroad]

Highly concur with Garmen tech. And to always have it as a dedicated hardware. And to have backup because these will fail at the wrong time. There will eventually be more regulation and more competition. But get the experience while you can.

Good to know voice recognition is coming to a useful level of functionality without needing a remote server. SIRI needs a remote internet connection. Does garmin also have traffic guidance?

 

[Spirituallifetime]

Keep track off all your miles while working, maintenance costs, repairs and gas and any other related expenses. Keep track of all income also this way you can figure out if you are actually making money after all expenses, and by keeping track of the mileage you can figure out how much your expense are per mile and profit per mile.

 

[offroad]

Cleaning is an expense. Don't forget that cost.

 

[Spirituallifetime]

Also the postage and envelops used to mail in the car payments if you still use the old method of payment is an expense.

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And find a good accountant now to help with taxes, not a tax prepareror they don't know what they are doing when it comes to business taxes.

 

[caseyc]

Yes, the Garmin unit I got has traffic alerts which is built into the power cord. Many years ago, the old design required to attach a separate antenna wire for traffic alerts, which sucked and wasn't accurate either. I rather prefer using Google Navigation for traffic alerts as it gives me a bold red line to indicate heavy traffic congestion. I find Google Navigation to be pretty accurate most of the time for traffic congestion. As for mishaps regarding navigation, I regularly have problems with both my Verizon Samsung Note 3 using Google Navigation, plus the Garmin also acts weird every so often. Sometimes Google Navigation on my phone will simply exit out of the app for no good reason. Or will randomly tell me to make a U-turn in the middle of driving for no good reason. Worse, sometimes the entire phone might do a random soft reset which will take a few minutes to come back on. Even the Garmin acts weird at times and will also randomly redirect to weird alternate routes. Same goes for Google Navigation. Bottom line is that I use navigation devices often enough to know sh!t always happens. Hence I use multiple devices while driving. The Garmin relies on satellite technology, whereas my smartphone relies on the Verizon signal. It's rare for both devices utilizing 2 separate technologies to fail on me at the same time. Plus the Uber provided iPhone 4 operates on an AT&T signal. Hence it's pretty much d@mn impossible for all 3 devices running simultaneously to fail all at once. I will NOT miss that darn freeway exit, haha! You should see all the power cords I have plus various external batteries to power all this stuff!

Highly concur with Garmen tech. And to always have it as a dedicated hardware. And to have backup because these will fail at the wrong time. There will eventually be more regulation and more competition. But get the experience while you can.

Good to know voice recognition is coming to a useful level of functionality without needing a remote server. SIRI needs a remote internet connection. Does garmin also have traffic guidance?

 

[offroad]

Use WAZE on your android for traffic. It's really cool tech. To me better than google maps.

 

[caseyc]

Does Waze offer lane assistance? The new(er) version of Google Navigation now has lane assistance which I find useful.

Use WAZE on your android for traffic. It's really cool tech. To me better than google maps.

 

[offroad]

Your garmin does lane assist. Do you want double redundant lane assist and redundant traffic ?

 

[caseyc]

Actually, I prefer triple redundancy, haha! I find lane assistance to be extremely useful.

By the way, Uber already posted what my paycheck will be. The approximate gross amount earned is $38 for 4 different customers ranging from 15 to 25 minutes long ride each. I drove approx for about 1-1/2 hour with virtually no down time during that short amount of time. The net amount after deductions will be $29 that I will receive tomorrow by electronic paycheck to my checking account. Uber pays weekly every Thursday.

Obviously I need to drive for many more hours and days to be able to better figure out an average amount that can be earned per week. But it was important that I got started yesterday, even if only for a short amount of time to get my feet wet.

Even more important, driving for pay keeps me from loitering at the shopping malls buying more watches, haha!

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Edit:

For my purpose, having my smartphone is more useful versus simply a Garmin device. That's because a customer might tell me to go to XYZ Hotel downtown without knowing the address, which actually happened yesterday. Therefore, I simply clicked on Google search on my phone, did a search for XYZ Hotel, which showed the address, then clicked on the Directions button to activate Google Navigation. That's why my smartphone is better suited for the purpose of driving around customers who don't necessarily know the exact address or location of their destination. If the Garmin was connected to the internet, that would be another matter, but alas, it isn't.

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

Thanks for sharing! Have customers been nice or relatively straight forward? How do you recognize them..are they standing there with a thumb out?

 

[caseyc]

Additionally, Uber (including Lyft) both emphasize heavily to use GPS navigation in order to reduce the chance of getting lost. We are also encouraged to ask the customer if they have a preferred route they rather have us drive. That way if their favorite route is screwed up, it's not the driver's fault. Plus asking and using their preferred route would better garner a 5 star rating they give their drivers. What's also cool is that both driver and passenger rate each other. I gave all my passenger customers 5 star ratings cuz they were all cool with no problems. I'm pretty certain they all gave me 5 stars too. It's important to maintain as close to 5 stars as possible, otherwise I'm guessing sh!t will happen, haha.

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I've only had a total of 4 customers on my first day yesterday with less than 2 hours of driving. But they were all cool. They were all consumed by their smartphones, and they even told me they are replying back to emails, etc. One guy from New Jersey was very talkative and we have a nice conversation for 20 minutes. He complimented my driving skills and told me I'm much better than any taxi cab driver. I've been driving since 17, and will be 49 soon, so I consider myself an expert driver. Hey, maybe I can stick on a decal on my dashboard that says "The Transporter", ala Jason Stratham, haha!

As for recognizing each other, that can get tricky. The only info I have of the passenger is their first name and phone number. However, the passenger has more information about me, including a picture of my face, a picture of the car, make and model. Plus maybe license plate, I'm not sure.

When I get very close to the customer's destination for pickup, I click on the button "I've Arrived" which notifies the customer I'm at the pickup point. I then stop my car (usually double parked), and lower my windows. Within seconds, a person will come up to my car which I can then presume will be the customer. I then ask the person, "Are you Snoop Dog?" (Joke). If the person respond yes, I ask them to hop in. The way the Uber app works is that both me the driver and the passenger can see each other on a GPS map in real time as to how close I am in reaching the customer.

The customer can see my car on a map approaching him/her, plus gives countdown time as to how close I am (eg: 2 minutes to arrive). Yesterday, the only one big problem I had was stopping at a very busy touristy intersection, and trying to find the customer while it was dark due to daylight savings time. But after pressing the "I've Arrived" button, the customer came up to my car within 10 seconds and hopped in. It turned out to not be one customer, but 3 customers who were were all girlfriends. They were all young and cute Japanese foreign students heading back to their art school after shopping for clothes. They were rather quiet since English wasn't their first language, but I did strike up a moderate conversation since it took 25 minutes to drive to their destination.

Thanks for sharing! Have customers been nice or relatively straight forward? How do you recognize them..are they standing there with a thumb out?

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

i looked at the app on gplay, screenshots show driver picture, star rating and plate.

 

[caseyc]

I just finished driving another 2-1/2 hours this evening for a total of 5 customers. All went well. I'm starving now, so had to call it the night. The Uber phone was buzzing me nonstop for new customers. Unfortunately, my energy level stopped, hah!

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

Heh, i was doing some reading. Neither company has come to WV yet, though uber expressed interest in morgantown and charleston. But the taxi association here have already tried to force legislation changes through the commission to prevent ridesharing competition, even going so far as trying to make it a misdemeanor crime for the drivers. The commission denied them on the basis they cant change legislation.


BTW, its nearly impossible to find a taxi in this state (even the 'cities' are more like towns anywhere else..), im shocked to even learn they have an association. Probably only in charleston.