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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).
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MIT Study Shows How Much Driving for Uber or Lyft Sucks
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Hacking's just another word for nothing left to kludge.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Saturday March 03 2018, @07:29PM (1 child)
That's not as much of a joke as you think. My grandfather wanted to be a farmer, but would work as a licensed electrician for a few years every decade to build up a nest-egg that he would slowly deplete by farming. He knew he couldn't earn a living farming, but he liked it a lot better than being an electrician. (I, OTOH, never liked farming. It involves an incredible amount of hard physical work, getting up very early, being out on cold, rainy weather, and it's boring. But *he* liked it. And so does at least one of my brothers. Who also doesn't quite break even, and knows that he can't quite break even. If he had a good well he could probably break even, but not turn a profit. OTOH, because they both knew they couldn't break even, they didn't go into debt and get saddled with loans.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 03 2018, @09:53PM
People enjoy driving, it's why over-the-road truck drivers will work for poverty level compensation.
Some people enjoy working with kids and virtually volunteer as teachers' aides in the elementary schools - and that's fine for them.
If Uber drivers enjoy what they do and know that it's screwing them financially then that's fine, let them drive because they enjoy meeting random strangers in random places at random times on an on-call basis and driving them where they want to go. It can be interesting, even exciting sometimes...
The problem is that a lot of people will see the short term paycheck and think they're making a living when instead they're actually digging themselves into debt... so that's where fact-based education needs to come in and help those who might not be thinking long-term for themselves.
When somebody declares bankruptcy, the rest of the world that hasn't declared bankruptcy gets to pick up their tab. I'd rather not be picking up the tabs of any happily deluded Uber drivers, or similarly deceived workers at minimal net-gain jobs.
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