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).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 03 2018, @05:44PM
What's surprising about that? Get a vehicle that does well over 30 MPG, has good reliability (in particular, low maintenance costs), is already heavily depreciated because it is several years old, and a reasonable commercial insurance policy. The rest is just minor costs for a high mileage driver - or paid for by the passenger (toll roads). And if you're not a high mileage driver, only come out when fares are higher.