Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2014. All figures are Uber’s own claims from mid-2014 and were widely disputed at the time; Uber’s pay model has changed many times since. Sign-up requirements and Spain’s regulatory situation also reflect June 2014, and UberPop was suspended in Spain in December 2014.
Uber has released its figures, proud of having created 20,000 jobs a month in the United States alone, offering a way to make money to people who can’t find work and, at the same time, a service that users consider cheaper and better than conventional taxis. Perhaps that is why taxi drivers all over the world are up in arms against the app.
UberX drivers, both part-time and full-time, have also spoken out, putting forward figures that make working for Uber a very profitable business.
Working for Uber is one of the opportunities many people have found to make money when they have few other options. Anyone over 23 with a driving licence, a four-door car in good condition and insurance can sign up on the company’s website to become a driver.
You then have to give the company your details, such as your address, driving licence number and Social Security number. Uber will require you to take an online course on its standards: what to do and what not to do to be a five-star driver. Once you have provided all the information, Uber will send you a phone. In less than two weeks you can be driving for the app.
Remember that Uber started out as a chauffeur-driven luxury car service, and over time it has created many other services: UberX, Taxi, Black, SUV, LUX and the most controversial of all, UberPop.
How profitable is it to become an UberX driver?
According to figures provided by the company, half of New York drivers earn more than $90,000 a year, while those in San Francisco earn more than $70,000. Of course, the drivers who make this kind of money usually work more than 40 hours a week, and those earnings are not net: you have to deduct the cost of fuel, Uber’s commission, maintenance, repairs and self-employed insurance if you register as self-employed.
On Quora, many Uber drivers have been sharing their different experiences. A young man from New Jersey explained that one day he worked 12 hours and made $180 before costs.
Others paint a less rosy picture, saying that to earn $75,000 a year you would have to work almost 60 hours a week, but they are happy, because at least Uber gives them the chance to work at a time when there are no jobs.
Other accounts say that if you have a Monday-to-Friday job and can’t make ends meet, you could earn $400 a week by working 16 hours at the weekend (Friday and Saturday nights).
On the other side, there is the controversy
The taxi industry is seriously threatened by this kind of service, as until now it had never faced any competition. Against this background, the Spanish government is trying to settle the matter the easiest way, which is by banning the use and operation of these apps, which let anyone without an “administrative licence” work picking up and dropping off passengers.
While taxi drivers as a whole are at war with these platforms, some are already quitting to go and work for Cabify, another company whose app offers several services, including taxis and chauffeur-driven luxury cars. Its luxury service costs not much more than a conventional taxi, and several former taxi drivers have admitted that they are earning much more with Cabify than they did driving a taxi.
Another advantage of these apps, and one that is rarely mentioned, is the safety of the drivers themselves. Payments are made digitally, so the “taxi drivers” don’t need to carry cash, which makes them less attractive targets for robbery; and customers pay in advance and are registered by the app itself.
With apps like these, assaults on drivers could fall to zero.
Can we predict the future of taxis?
I have no idea, but I would venture to say that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the taxi as we know it. Even if these apps that let anyone become a taxi driver were banned, other apps would find a way to do the same thing completely legally, offering a better price and service than traditional taxis.
The longer taxi drivers take to see this looming reality, the more disappointments they will face in the near future.
Still, playing devil’s advocate for a moment, we also have to understand the anger of some taxi drivers, who complain about the high cost they have had to pay to practise this respectable profession: some taxi licences cost more than a flat a street back from the beach.
What is true is that the people I have spoken to who have told me about their experience with this app say the service is much better than a traditional taxi in every respect.
If, on the other side, the drivers are happy, and these apps can make the crisis a little more bearable for some families in which everyone is unemployed, giving them an honest way to make money by offering a needed, cheaper service to users who don’t take taxis because of the high price, then I think there are many questions that ought to be debated.
Further reading
Featured image: Taxis, taxis everywhere, nor a cab to hire by Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
