I'm a numbers guy. A spreadsheet guy. While I'm primarily a writer, looking at statistics can get you insights that aren't obvious and answer questions that you didn't know you had.
So here's my data set as a rideshare driver, as I type this: just over 12,000 hours in Lyft and Uber. Just over 29,000 rides in all. Been doing it since 2017.
So when I tell you that 2023 has been the very worst year, on the money, to be a rideshare driver? It's not an opinion, it's just fact.
The reasons why:
1) Uber. A few months ago, Uber reintroduced shared rides, then teen rides. Neither of these groups, as a rule, tip. The shared rides also cut the driver's take, because a shared ride never works out for the driver unless someone else gets in the car, and no one else ever gets in the car. They also have cut back on bonuses.
There's also the fact that the majority of the time someone takes a shared ride, they get into the car with more than one person, so even if you wanted to take someone else on, you can't. Uber tells the driver to reject these rides, but you don't make as much when you do that, and you also genuinely piss people off who could really ruin your day. I'm not going to put myself or my vehicle at risk to enforce a policy. I'm also not going to take any more of these rides than I have to, so I'm almost always going into last ride mode when the passenger gets in. I'm just going to, as a rule, give out 3-star ratings to shared ride passengers about 10X as often as I do everyone else. Which also means that people requesting shared rides are going to work with fewer and fewer drivers over time, wait longer and longer, tip less and less, and be increasingly less profitable to the driver. It's a perfect system, if by perfect, you mean ensuring enshittification.
2) Lyft. In the last week or so, Lyft has rolled out what they call Priority Rides, which is where they give some drivers the option to activate a mode in which they will, as well, take lower priced rides. The theory is that since you will be busier and have less down time, you'll be utilized and make more. Work more, make less. It's the same enshittification cycle that Uber has introduced with shared rides, honestly. Oh, and cutting back on bonuses.
3) Inflation. It's not just gas prices, though that's always a factor when you do this work. It's also the price you'll pay at the convenience store for your in-shift food and drink, the ever-creeping toll increases that you'll hardly even notice because all of the fares are on transducers, and the rising rates on car washes, cleaning supplies, oil changes, auto repairs and so on.
4) Infrastructure. I've gotten more and more flat tires over the years in doing this work, despite limiting my work more and more to local driving -- mostly because flat tires always suck, but they suck a lot more when you've got a long drive home on a donut. Maybe I'm just gunshy, but those stranded in Philadelphia, Camden and Newark experiences have stuck with me, even more so than the two that have happened within ten minutes from my home.
5) Passengers. Just because Shared Rides and Priority Rides exist does not mean you have to choose them. Just because there isn't the same societal pressure to tip a rideshare driver as a waiter, bartender or cab driver, doesn't mean you don't have to. My passengers enjoy a clean car, clear communication, amenities and any level of conversation they like. They also, for the most part, are either likely to tip or not tip independent of any action I might take. If I catch rides in Princeton, for drinkers, for white collar folks, tipping. In Trenton, for warehouse workers, for commuters, nope. It all balances out to, as I write this, 5.78% of my income. That may not seem like much, but everything involved in this isn't much, honestly.
On a side note, more and more passengers think that playing their phones without headphones is acceptable behavior in public. It's not. You're rude. I'm not going to tell you, but I am going to rate you, so I don't have to endure this ever again.
6) Me. I'd probably make more in North Jersey, at football games, doing airport runs, pre-dawn, outside of my local area, trying to smooth talk others into doing the work with advice and a referral bonus, and so on. I'm just not going to. The job is dicey enough without taking on additional risk, stress and discomfort, and 12K+ hours in the apps has given me a long list of places not to do the work (take a bow, police of Bordentown, North Brunswick and Pennington! Feel free to tell your citizens why they can't get service), hours not to do it, and so on. I suspect that I give out more 3-star ratings than most drivers, which also probably isn't helping.
Where does all of this end? Well, honestly, I'm just doing it less. The average hours per week that I spend on this is down about 20% from 2022, and that's after a week where I logged a lot of hours -- and by the way, that week was also "Drinksgiving", which was worth, on a per hour basis, about 30% more than it was last year, and that's not even counting for inflation. I toggle the apps on and off a lot more, hunt for surge prices, cancel passengers that don't get in the car before the deadline clock rings (especially for shared rides), and keep wondering if I should just give it up or take a real second job, rather than gig work. I can't imagine that I'm the only driver who feels this way.
So if you can't find a driver, find yourself paying more surge price, and wonder if you can rely on these services?
Well, if the driver can't, why should you?
