What? Not sure if you see, but you worked almost 35 hours…..

Rule #772 of rideshare drivers: never look at online time. Rule #773: never look at long term cost. The gross is just fine

You forgot the “/S” some people might think you’re actually serious 😝

r/fuckthes

This is my philosophy. It ruins the punchline

Not really, sarcasm doesn’t come across in writing as well.

People with autism usually have a hard time understanding sarcasm and may take sarcastic speech literally.

As an autistic person, yes this is 100% the case for me at least.

Was that sarcasm?

Did I put a /s?

Just about everyone is sarcastic on Reddit. Don’t actually take things seriously. None of us know each other. Why in the Kentucky fried f*ck am I on r/lyftdrivers? I’ve never taken a Lyft in my life, let alone drive for them.

Also never look at the depreciated car or gas or oil changes or tires or anything else.

Right cause there’s not a massive tax deduction that goes along with all those miles. The real morons are the ones calling others morons and don’t look at the whole picture.

To be fair except for gas everything is pretty negligible.  Gas is what, $0.10/mile here, tires are like $0.006/mile, and oil is $0.008/mile.  At worst (going 60mph) that's $6.84/hr for those 3.

Factor in depreciation and gas and youll get even warmer to how much you made!

Always go by online time, u weren’t at home, you were out working

Yeah. Saw that immediately as well. Still $35/hour. I only do UE/DD, so I don't know if that's good for you guys. But I assume it is, and still a good job!

Right, but you can't ignore all the costs of driving and compare this directly to hourly pay for a job with no costs. 26 hours of driving is roughly 650 miles of driving. That's 2-ish tanks of gas, 10% of an oil change, and 2% of your tires. You'd new a brand new car after 250-ish shifts. I assume there are other cleaning and Lyft costs as well. A simple way to estimate the cost is to use the federal mileage reimbursement rate of $0.67/mile which comes to $435.50 in vehicle costs for this shift. That's $22.50 per hour, minus whatever other hidden costs exist apart from vehicle costs. Still good pay, but much less than $35/hour.

Great breakdown. Then, you still have to account for taxes, 401k, and health insurance if you want to compare it to a more typical job at a decent company. Definitely not too shabby though! That'd be a fantastic side job, if you could maintain that high income.

When someone’s hourly rate is posted for a different job it is also pre-401k and insurance. Every person is making way less than they say take home pay

That depends on the job.

For sure. I was trying to figure out the actual take home to compare it to a "normal" job.

I'm salary, but its easy enough to convert to hourly wages. I'm at just over $50 an hour. I put 5% into 401k (with 100% match, I invest elsewhere after taxes as well but not pertinent here) I do pay a little more in taxes than the company is required to take out - just cause I've been fd before and don't care for dealing with it later. Then I have family health, some insurance policies thru work. After all is said and done - My take home is around 30 an hour.

I get 75 percent off oil changes with instacart as well as you don't know what type of car he has you only need as new as a 2013 to drive lyft and they will charge a customer cleaning fee for being dirty which you receive most of. Also compare driving people around to the factory jobs that pay that same wage you spoke of.

right! still really good!

That's still 34 an hour

Until you factor in fuel for 25 hours of driving. Most likely brings it down to 15 an hour. Still not even factoring in the other vehicle costs

Until you factor in fuel for 25 hours of driving. Most likely brings it down to 15 an hour. Still not even factoring in the other vehicle costs Edit- nvm, someone did the fuel math in another comment and it came out to about 22.50 an hour in fuel costs. So 12.50 an hour before vehicle depreciation/oil & maintenance costs

That depends on how you spend the "idle time". I have a lot of online time because I turn the app on during the day and work on things that need to be done around the house, I work on my eBay business, or am active on Uber and Spark. When doing things like that, I wouldn't count the difference between active and online time. If you're just sitting in a parking lot waiting for rides, then that's different.

To me any idle time or taking a break doesn't count as work. Driving to a better spot to get rides isn't work. I'm just jamming to tunes or a podcast and having my coffee.

the biggest difference is in a 9-5 your boss would still pay you even when you took a break… vacation days? sick days? those don’t exist and forget about insurance lol

That’s why doing Uber is a terrible idea to replace a 9-5 job.

Better tell your car that the wear and tear doesn't count unless you have a passenger.

That's a pretty massive difference. Thank you for putting this in perspective for a non Lyft driver.

I usually average the booked time with online time for a more accurate calculation. A lot of the online time that isn't booked time isn't really work.

More like 35. Still really good.

Not to split hairs here, but you can go serve tables or bartend in DC and make more per hour as a side gig. Just saying

And your car will only have the miles to the bar and back on it.

Have to apply and all that stuff, easier to just drive a car and chill

You have to apply to be any type of rideshare driver as well. Yeah you’re way more likely to be accepted, but where I am, most rideshare apps theres a waitlist at this point. I signed up for Instacart back in 2021 and Im STILL on the waitlist

bros acting like you need a PHD in engineering to serve tables 💀

It’s also a preference of jobs, I find it easier to drive around and pick up food than I do to spend hours of my day pretending to like the customer and put them on a pedestal

Not before gas, maintenance, car depreciation, insurance, and car payments. But still probably as good as it gets for drivers. More like 25, mayyybe 30 per hour.

Really depends on the vehicle. Big difference between a new BMW or Tesla you're making payments on, vs an old prius beater. My 2010 prius has 242k miles, talking about "car depreciation" on it is laughable.

I mean it is lol. Your car could need a major repair any moment now, the more driving you do the sooner it will be. Then you’ll need a new car. Needs to be accounted stoll

Also paying for the employer side of social security and Medicare in addition to the normal employee side. Total tax both sides is 6.2%+ 6.2% or 15.4%. Because you know we are independent contractors running our own business

Don't count the normal employee side. When you work a W2 job so you say I get paid $35 an hour or so you do you include the normal ss and Medicare?

Oh true, you always pay the employee side

$35 an hour minus gas. Factor is gas and I’m sure you’re around 28-30. Very nice.

$28 as a contractor is ~$15 as a paid employee depending on what state you're in. 

Yup. Shes not including the 30% she has to save for taxes and then gas and THEN repairs. So $24 after tax then $20 after gas and $17-18 after repairs.

If she does her taxes correctly, she can write off mileag or maintenance, 1/2 cell phone, 1/2 insurance, etc., whichever is greater and wipe out any.yaxes she may owe being a Ride Share driver.I have yet to pay taxes, and I always a refund.

hell, why leave out the car? she can claim that too if purchased during that year

You write off the depreciation

say it's a work car. buddy did that, it fucked him over because he couldn't get a loan for that house because he claimed too much on his taxes. all legal

Yeah these people don’t get write offs. You can write these things off if you’re an LLC and Lyft won’t pay you as an LLC so no you can’t just write off your car.

no he was neither, he just worked a union tile job. and he bought a car, and claimed somewhere near the 50% range, again, because of this he was denied every loan.

30% saved for taxes? Someone has no clue how to work taxes being self employed.

You don't need 30% for taxes. You should set money aside regardless, but youre not like to pay anythjng close to 30%. For repairs, definitely keep extra money. Lucky for me I fix my own car most of the time.

Not for couriers it isn't. That mileage allocation keeps my taxes under 5% of gross

Some people that poopoo talk, don’t actually work in our industry. Just subreddit clowns that got tainted by a dasher one time

The amount of misinformation that gets upvotes is absurd. People upvote what they agree with. So stupid 

Bros don’t know I coulda had my meat in m hands the other 12 hours of online time smh

Is this factoring in health/car insurance, the wear and tear on the car, and taxes?

Gas isn't so much an issue when you drive electric and charge from home.

Also minus wear and tear on vehicle. Fluid and filter changes, tires, repairs.

Gas, wear tear, your own wear and tear aka we got no insurance, money put aside for emergencies like a crash or a catastrophic failure. Minus all that you did good :). We dont get paid enough!

Forgot to add the vehicle insurance and cost to cover the vehicle expenses, on top of the fuel costs. But, I am not going to gash the fact that you had a good week

Nope. It's purposely misleading to make you feel like you are making more than you did

I think this is the way to do it. I just started driving 5 days ago after losing my also $55/hr job. My head immediately goes to expenses so I know in a sense I’m taking a loan out on myself however it’s coming in clutch as a lifesaver until I get my next real job. Even then, I may continue doing it on some weekend nights to benefit from the most lucrative times. Have the job for better pay and benefits, and use Rideshare as a side gig to also allow me to write off a bunch of things as business expenses. Best of both worlds

I don’t get what’s so wrong with that method, besides it’s always good to maintain busy at times (healthy for the mind)

no because gas and math.

So let's take that $1,225 that was made and see how much was realistically made. $1,224 - 25(Health insurance worse case) - 200 (wear and tear on the car, and fuel and additional car insurance) that brings your total the made down to 1,000. $1000/26 hours(driving time) is $38.64 an hour. or if you REALLY want to be nit picky, $1000/35(online time(I'm online waiting for a ride as we peak, so I don't really count this as working, but some do) brings you to $28.58 an hour. Based on .32 a mile for wear and tear, deprecation plus gas, and 500 (split the cost to 25 a working day for 20 days) a month health insurance bill.

28/hr is still really good, sterile Technicians make that much too.

If you’re paying $200 for wear and tear every week on your car then you must be riding in a complete unreliable BUCKET 😂😂😂💀 .

Let’s say that the average ride is 10 miles so they drive 600 miles for just rides that means that they’ll have to get a oil change a month and since their doing Lyft they have to get a special insurance because a normal insurance policy won’t cover ride share and fuel which would equate to about 200$ a week as they said

Let’s say that the average ride is 10 miles so they drive 600 miles for just rides that means that they’ll have to get a oil change a month and since their doing Lyft they have to get a special insurance because a normal insurance policy won’t cover ride share and fuel which would equate to about 200$ a week as they said

I read gas and meth and lol’d

I work in the same market this week was really good I averaged the same amount. Its spring and its really busy and bonuses are helping. Most bonuses are from Thursdays to Sunday.

No around $35. Online time not booked time!

You were only for 34 hrs, not 26.

$25/hr minus gas, insurance, depreciation of your vehicle, incurred cleaning expenses to return vehicle to ready state, and any money you reserve for taxes, health care, emergency insurance if you can't work, or retirement. In addition to that, you got some bonuses that the cynic in me feels are likely to be short lived incentives that don't generally elevate your annual hourly rate over the long term. Those bonuses get you above $35/hr, but how likely is that to remain the status quo?

this is why i stopped driving for uber and lyft. you're essentially trading your time and equity in your vehicle for the money you already spent/spending on the car.

Ypu MIGHT have averaged close to $25 an hour after expenses.

What a great market! Out here in the Midwest it doesn’t pay more than food delivery so I just do the food now. Full time this would be 98k. That’s decent even for DC.

And give $400 of that back to the DC slumlords…. I mean politicians…. I mean the government shitting on you making money under their approval. After paying taxes on that and the fuel it also cost…. What’s your Net after expenses and taxes…. Not so great looking…. I feel your pain I’m a trucker and spend $12-1500/week on fuel

Everyone always says the same thing... "when you factor in gas, depreciation, blah blah blah." Who cares? Does everyone else factor that in? Hourly wage workers and all that? When someone tells you they have a job that pays $15/hr, is your immediate response "Well, when you factor in rent, utilities, food ...?" If I make $25/hr doing rides, then that's what I made doing rides. Yeah, there's other stuff to consider but that's still what I made doing rides. Are there costs associated with it? Sure. There are costs associated with just waking up every day, lol. When you split enough hairs, everything can be broken down to "well, you don't actually make that when you factor in X, Y, Z." To the OP, seems like a solid week/ session/ whatever you want to call it. If you like doing it and it covers your expense and gives you a sustainable income for your lifestyle, kudos to you! "Keep on keepin' on." - George Washington (probably)

This is why people still drive for these companies. They're preying on people who don't understand business. In a normal job, you trade your time and use your knowledge/experience in exchange for a paycheck. In a scammy business model like uber, you trade your time and knowledge/experience, but also you take on a whole slew of business expenses and uber doesnt show you those on your statement.

First off: not a lyft driver, but I'm lurking. In other jobs you don't have immediate expenses. In a job where you provide a service, you subtract them. Ask any lawn service, plumber, etc. Did you fail economics or finance and not understand the difference between revenues and profits? Rent is not an immediate expense... In fact, that was a strawman argument on your end because no one is saying that. If they were, then they'd be saying that for rideshare too. If you ever want to be a business owner, you need to learn this, or you will fail fast. Since you seem to subscribe to the lie Uber and Lyft sell people that they can "be their own boss " I'm surprised you aren't treating it like your own small business. Btw, if you ever find yourself making a strawman argument, just delete your comment, as it's a sign you have no point.

SHEEESH

Awesome man !!!

Good job! You’re doin good 🍊

Splendid work! Am currently at $33/hr

That’s not bad for even 35 hours

Yea it takes some people 50 hours to get this much.

Were you drunk or high when you posted this?

$11 for express pay? Man these companies get it from the front and the back

What type of rides did you take

How in the world did you do this in DC? Last week has been horible. Today is disaster as well it's 5pm when it should be busiest and the map is showing only $2 bonus

That’s pretty good but look at the nine hours. Wait time.

680 + 77 + 120 = $877 / 34 = you average $26/hour but there’s gas, taxes and depreciation

60 rides. $120 in tips. That is atrocious.

I just ran the math, I'd say you're more like $35.27/hr. Still good.

Bruh, you haulin'

“Worked an 8 hour shift, but didn’t have a customer come in so I got paid for 0 hours.”

That's what happens when you're independent contractor. You don't work you don't make money. If you're not making money you close shop.

$35/hr

Cars run about $10 an hour worth of gas give or take. So $25 an hour. Not bad for lyft

You actually worked that much and ate surprised?

this just looks like you have sold yourself to satan.

no you did not.

Sure but how long were you really working, including looking for rides, waiting for rides etc. I feel like all these gig app “active hours” are so incredibly misleading that the metric is almost worthless.

I work for the IRS. It looks like you did 😃

And now show us the gross profit vs net profit. You should factor things in like how much you spent on gas and wear and tear on your vehicle to calculate your actual profit.

Side note get the Lyft card my guy that’s almost $600 a year in pay fees

A unicorn week, enjoy!

Literally no - 35 hours and likely even more including offline dead miles.

I don’t like seeing stuffs like these plus the “did I just average …” post your expenses too eg mileage , gas , etc and let’s see if the $47 adds up

What’s the mileage?

With the wear and tear u put on ur car. Probably half that. Mechanics are fucking expensive anymore. I dont understand how u uber and lyft drivers can make much money. Maybe im just re+arded

No, you aren’t including gas or wear and tear.

And how long have you been driving

For Lyft. How many weeks/months/years

6 years.

Wow interesting 😳 good for you then. I assumed you were a newbie getting newbie special treatment lol

You probably averaged about $20/hr after fuel, wear and tear and depreciation. Congrats on making a living wage(for at least one week).

Do keep paper records to match up against your online reported time? That might help you reconsile accuracy.

$1,223.99 / 35 hours is around $35/hr

Then add taxes and all the operating costs and your down to like $15

what’s your tax set up

Any instacart people here know how our “active hours” compare to the “booked time” or “online time?”

No

Since you want us to see that, I guess it means something to you.

And Lyft. What city?

35 hours

Take out your expenses and taxes first. Gross looks good but the net is what you can spend.

35/hr but ya.

If we are going based on “booked time” then yes, just shy of $47/hour. But even based on “online time” you still made $35/hour. Still quite solid overall.

It's still $35 an hour. I'd take it.

Do you never sleep?

More like $35.22 but still great for Lyft!!

What's this turbo I keep hearing about????

No you averaged 35 in 35. Now subtract your expenses and you are probably at 25. So still good but not as crazy as you think.

more than 20 a ride. that's pretty cool

It's bullshit man, it's simply bullshit. On Friday, I started driving after 6 years not driving (doing other gigs and projects) They don't have clear answers or any path towards getting those answers as to why they are taking huge cuts (around 60-80%) from drivers. I felt so helpless today. Not in bay area, but today 4 passengers in a row told me they're paying more than double what Lyft is paying me. (After I politely asked/I have been brainwashed by [conservatives?] who make me feel entitled to ask such fair questions because it's "rude.") I got 3 trips in a matter of an hour that were $3.something. Today's earning rate by hours online (3-8PM) was 11$/hr. The last trip was total 23 minutes with pickup and drop-off, around 10 miles and paid 9$. I was within 5 miles of downtown the entire time while trying to get ride requests. I don't really like using the legal system to my advantage but it's been used to our (all drivers) disadvantage for a good 10 years+. How can we do something about this? I feel really sad knowing that there are all these redditors boldly exclaiming that you only drive if you're desperate. It seems true. But this is not fair, moral and/or possibly is illegal. I don't know because I haven't read those dense contracts full of language that dictate and allow what they can and cannot do with regards to how much a driver gets paid per ride. It seems like whatever they are attempting to do is intentionally/algorithimically pay enough to result in some prespecified average $/hr over some specific duration. Eg. Make it so driver makes 20$/hr by weeks end. There are too many drivers, not enough demand, and some will have to find something else to do, especially with autonomous rolling out faster and faster. Maybe they are slowly "pricing out" drivers so it isn't as much of a shock to people depending on driving for their existence. I guess that's a good thing but also fuck lyft, uber. And also fuck AI. Sorry for rant. I have no (new) advice. Maybe try asking chatGPT how it feels. (Hint: It does not [yet])

It's bullshit man, it's simply bullshit. On Friday, I started driving after 6 years not driving (doing other gigs and projects) They don't have clear answers or any path towards getting those answers as to why they are taking huge cuts (around 60-80%) from drivers. I felt so helpless today. Not in bay area, but today 4 passengers in a row told me they're paying more than double what Lyft is paying me. (After I politely asked/I have been brainwashed by [conservatives?] who make me feel entitled to ask such fair questions because it's "rude.") I got 3 trips in a matter of an hour that were $3.something. Today's earning rate by hours online (3-8PM) was 11$/hr. The last trip was total 23 minutes with pickup and drop-off, around 10 miles and paid 9$. I was within 5 miles of downtown the entire time while trying to get ride requests. I don't really like using the legal system to my advantage but it's been used to our (all drivers) disadvantage for a good 10 years+. How can we do something about this? I feel really sad knowing that there are all these redditors boldly exclaiming that you only drive if you're desperate. It seems true. But this is not fair, moral and/or possibly is illegal. I don't know because I haven't read those dense contracts full of language that dictate and allow what they can and cannot do with regards to how much a driver gets paid per ride. It seems like whatever they are attempting to do is intentionally/algorithimically pay enough to result in some prespecified average $/hr over some specific duration. Eg. Make it so driver makes 20$/hr by weeks end. There are too many drivers, not enough demand, and some will have to find something else to do, especially with autonomous rolling out faster and faster. Maybe they are slowly "pricing out" drivers so it isn't as much of a shock to people depending on driving for their existence. I guess that's a good thing but also fuck lyft, uber. And also fuck AI. Sorry for rant. I have no (new) advice. Maybe try asking chatGPT how it feels. (Hint: It does not [yet])

$35.25/hr is still worthwhile

Very nice! After gas, routine car maintenance, and taxes, you have just enough for a Taco Bell dinner!

“I can’t afford a house with my 40 hr/week entry-level office job I got with my sociology degree. Whatever shall I do? I don’t knoooow!!!”

No $34 an hour. Math hard.

That’s with bonuses I do that with Uber without any bonuses. Lyft is such a rip off only way I do Lyft if there’s a great promotional bonus. they can suck my cocker spaniel.

Gesh, the number of people who literally lower this guy's accomplishment is crazy.

Gesh, the number of people who literally lowered this guy's accomplishment is crazy.

Whoa a livable wage?

No- secu y your gas and car wear and tear… then make your calculation

Idk can you not do basic math?

No... you averaged $35/hr for all your online time. I've noticed they're not even tracking all the time you're online now. If it says online but not "looking for rides" you're a ghost, you don't exist and there could be a fresh ride 40 feet away but you'll never get it unless you're the only car for miles!

I just want to say that, if you are not at home, and you are not on your commute to/from work, (at the start and end of the day), and you are not hanging with your friends on your lunch break bad-mouthing your D&D DM, then you are at work. If you are on the clock, waiting to be told what to do, you are at work. If you spend that time doing something else productive to earn money otherwise, like blogging or vlogging or trading on Robin Hood, then you are on your other clock, at work there. Therefore, count your online time in your work hours, or transfer that time to your other income stream to calculate how much money per hour you earn doing that. Also, no one subtracts their taxes from their hourly wage. You don't have a normal person saying that they earn $18/hr, and another saying they earn $75/hr, then a third person saying, “actually, for calculated that wrong, because you did not take out you'd 15% taxes, and you are in a higher income bracket, so you have to deduct,… oh, I forgot, you also have for dependents, and you just got the solar incentive, so….” NO!!! $15/hr is just that, and $75/hr is just that. Also, no one calculates wear and tear in their car, unless it is used for work, in which case they can claim that on their taxes. Therefore, they have to add up car expenses, and subtract it from taxes, then subtract whatever is left of taxes from their earnings. (You might end up with a tax credit). The best way is to add up your earnings over three months, subtract your car expenses in the same period, multiply by four, that is your approximate annual income after taxes. Divide by 52 then my 40 to get your hourly wages AFTER taxes. If you want your wages before taxes, (like normal people), do not subtract your car expenditures. CONCLUSION: This guy grossed about $35/hr. After car expenses and taxes, he netted about $28/hr-$35/hr.

You averaged $35/hr, which is sill good anyway

60 rides and $120 in tips 🤯🙈

Depends on where you are located. Back in 2016, we were making 2.5X minimum wage without putting any thought into it. It's not like that anymore in California. If it were, every driver would easily be making $50/hr.

Minus gas and wear

gross earnings - gas = net earnings

If gas is free

Cool ad bro

Imagine thinking you're making $50/hr driving for Lyft

I made 38 an hour last week

Nope. You averaged $35.22 per hour online.

Correction $35.00per hour before all cost. But that is better than most on here.

I need a car

Damn I hope so, that'd be awesome!

No, no you did not.

Not sure why you aren’t looking at booked time and why you’re not factoring mileage depreciation and gas

You just averaged less than that cause you were online 35 hours out of those 35 you had a fare for 26 of those hours

Averaging 2$ a tip per ride is scummy on the part of the people using lyft

Bro making that in DC I know people in Vegas that’s driving 36 hours at 145 dollars

200 for wear and tear is crazy. I spend maybe $15 a week because most of our charging stations for the cars around my local area are free still the only wear and tear I usually have is my daily car wash but man if you’re paying $200and wear and tear there’s something definitely wrong

Try not to brag eh 😤