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MIT Study Shows How Much Driving for Uber or Lyft Sucks

posted by mrpg on Saturday March 03 2018, @12:35PM   
from the dont-do-it dept.

NewNic writes:

A study conducted by the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research analysed revenue and costs for over 1100 Lyft and Uber drivers, with the conclusion that most earn below minimum wage for their state and about 30% actually lose money when all the costs of owning and operating their vehicles are taken into account.

"A Median driver generates $0.59 per mile of driving, and incurs costs of $0.30 per mile", "On an hourly basis, the median profit was $3.37 per hour".

Because actual vehicle operating costs are significantly lower than the IRS allowance of $0.54/mile, many drivers report incomes that are substantially lower that their actual incomes, leading to a large pool of untaxed income (although it is small for each driver).

Techcrunch has a summary

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Original Submission

• need for tickler file option need for tickler file option (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @02:36PM (2 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @02:36PM (#647057)

  I'll ask again -- can we have a bot (or something) that auto-re-submits articles at some time in the future? In this case, in 6 months--

  This link suggests that the full paper will be available, just not yet,
      http://ceepr.mit.edu/publications/working-papers/681 [mit.edu]
  Clicking on the "Full Paper" link pops up this message:

  For Sponsors Only

  As a benefit to our Associates, the latest Working Papers are embargoed for a period of up to six months before becoming accessible to the public. If you are interested in becoming an Associate or learning more about the benefits of sponsorship, please click here.

  This page http://ceepr.mit.edu/about [mit.edu] says that,
  > CEEPR is jointly sponsored at MIT by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), the Department of Economics, and the Sloan School of Management. Financial support comes from a variety of sources, including state and federal government research funds, foundation grants and contributions from our corporate and government Associates (see Support).

  This is like the MIT Media Lab funding model where (as I understand it) the sponsors fund the lab as a whole, not specific research. In exchange, sponsors have early access to results from the whole lab.

  How does this compare to the German model where university research and staffing are often closely tied to corporate research labs (at least in engineering areas that I'm familiar with)?

  Parent

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+4
  Interesting=4, Total=4
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		4

• Re:need for tickler file option (Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday March 03 2018, @09:33PM

  by tftp (806) on Saturday March 03 2018, @09:33PM (#647277) Homepage

  Configure a web page watcher to that url. When it changes you get an email. Then you can post.

  Parent

• Re:need for tickler file option (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @08:02AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @08:02AM (#647548)

  I'll ask again -- can we have a bot (or something) that auto-re-submits articles at some time in the future? In this case, in 6 months--

  That's an awesome idea! Grab the sources [github.com] and let us know when you've finished writing the new feature.

  Soylentils are amazing. Thanks for offering to write it. You go, girlfriend!

  Parent