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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   Printer-friendly
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

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by west on Saturday March 03 2018, @10:53PM (3 children)

    by west (6884) on Saturday March 03 2018, @10:53PM (#647315)

    lots of commercial shipping companies require truckers to furnish their own semi trucks. its common.
    if their business model is successful then its a good business model.
    nothing immoral is happening here.

  • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Sunday March 04 2018, @05:26AM (2 children)

    by NotSanguine (285) <{NotSanguine} {at} {SoylentNews.Org}> on Sunday March 04 2018, @05:26AM (#647491) Homepage Journal

    lots of commercial shipping companies require truckers to furnish their own semi trucks. its common.
    if their business model is successful then its a good business model.
    nothing immoral is happening here.

    Who said anything about immorality? Well, besides you.

    There are many businesses that sell stuff at way above market rates. There are many businesses that hire people at *below* market rates.

    Is that immoral? Probably not. At the same time, should the above become common knowledge, it's likely that those businesses won't do as well as those that don't attempt to gouge their customers or lowball their employees/contractors.

    If you can't be profitable without one or both, your business process/model is either flawed or there isn't an appropriate niche for it.

    Providing a product/service at a reasonable cost (that has reasonable profit built in) and paying reasonable wages to your workers is just good business. You'll likely have more customers and better workers too, thus enhancing your business prospects.

    I'm all about Caveat Emptor [wikipedia.org]. As such, what's wrong with looking at costs vs. revenue for a particular type of job?

    --
    No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr

    • (Score: 1) by west on Sunday March 04 2018, @02:01PM (1 child)

      by west (6884) on Sunday March 04 2018, @02:01PM (#647616)

      maybe not immorality but yes people CLEARLY have a problem, otherwise why the article?