Yesterday Poor Husband was laid off from his job. Like many, he was victim to a business that follows the ‘move up or move out’ philosophy. If you have been there for a while and you aren’t promoted to management, you get cut. It was no surprise, since many coworkers who had been there as long as he had were vanishing daily. He has been job hunting for the past few weeks.
One of our methods for keeping up with things has been for me to drive for Uber. Now Poor Husband will be doing it as well. It won’t make us rich, but it will keep things together until he gets a regular job. Since lots of websites that give suggestions for making extra money recommend Uber and its competitor, Lyft, I thought I’d point out some pros and cons.
First off, you are an independent contractor. That means that Uber (all this also applies to Lyft) does not collect any taxes. You are responsible for those all by yourself, and are considered self-employed by the IRS. If your driving is more than a once in a while thing, you will need to file quarterly taxes. Luckily, the mileage deduction helps trim back a large portion of your income from being taxable. Still, you should save a portion of your earnings for possible taxes. I try to hold back at least 15%.
Now, some people will tell you that the mileage deduction and the higher mileage on your car means you are losing money. My answer is that when I can buy groceries with the theoretical value of my car, that will be an issue. If you are the sort of person who buys a car and drives it for a few years, then trades it in, you might be concerned with this. For my family, we drive cars until they fall down and won’t get back up again. Our current car has 88,000 miles on it and drives just fine. We have an emergency repair fund for it and keep it well maintained, so its blue book value doesn’t mean a thing to us.
Now, some more down to Earth facts. Some of your riders will be assholes. Not many, but some. I’ve been yelled at for not knowing that when the rider said he wanted to stop at a gas station on a particular street, that the convenience store we just passed (not on the named street, and no gas pumps) was what he meant. I’ve had a few riders get angry at me even though the problem was that they had entered the wrong address into the app. I had one try to change the car’s radio station settings. A couple of times I’ve had people from foreign countries grill me on my political attitudes towards their country. I’ve found trash in my back seat and floor.
But on the flip side, I’ve had some great conversations with people. The overwhelming majority of your riders will be nice, or at the very least silent. I usually take my cue from them. If they want to talk, I’ll cheerfully talk, and if they’d rather look out the window or play with their phone, I’m happy to let them. For myself, I have found that choosing your hunting ground makes a major difference in the quality of rider. I don’t mean only cruise high-income areas. I used to drive near our local university, and got a higher percentage of unpleasant riders. I switched to driving in the suburban area where I live, and have had much better luck. Am I saying college students are jerks? Not at all. But that area of the city just seemed to be bad luck for me. Since I made the change, I not only have less stress from my passengers, I make more money.
Some helpful tips – I have found that after I drop someone off, if I hang around there for a few minutes, I might get a new fare. It was not unusual for me to finish a drive, go on down the road, and five minutes later had to turn around and go back to the area I had just been in. Now I give it a little time. Also, sign up for every gas station rewards program you can find. You’ll be using them a lot!
Some folks will ask Uber vs. Lyft. My answer is whichever makes you money. In my city, it seems that more people use Uber, so I stick with that. Also, there seems to be an expectation here that Lyft drivers will give things away free, like candy or bottled water. If I had the money to give things away, I wouldn’t be driving!
So should you Uber for extra money? If you like to drive and meet new people, and have a car in good shape, it’s not a bad way to earn some extra cash..
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