An honest, short personal history of my rideshare experience as a driver for Uber and Lyft.

My name is Tim and I started this blog in 2015 with the idea of chronicling my experiences with driving in the rideshare industry. At the time I was living in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. I drove for Uber for about four months at the beginning of 2015, usually about 15 to 20 hours a week. I was fairly happy with the pay as it seemed in the ball park of what Uber advertises drivers can make, $25 to $35 an hour. Some days came out to lower than $25 an hour and some days were higher than $35. Being in the East Bay I spent a lot of time driving in Berkeley, where the students seemed to use Uber quite a bit, Oakland and some of the surrounding smaller cities.

 Many times I would end up going across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. San Francisco, I discovered, uses Uber and other drive sharing companies a great deal more than anywhere else in the Bay Area. Although driving in SF can be more stressful than other cities because of the traffic, it is also where a driver can make more money per hour. This is because the wait in between rides is much shorter and also because Uber charges more in SF.

I was making a few hundred dollars a week driving in 2015. Then in April I got a new job in Mountain View, which is about an hour away from the East Bay and located in the South Bay, just a few minutes north of San Jose. I also moved to Mtn View. I was busy with my new job so I didn't try driving until a few weeks after my move and was disappointed in the number of people who were using Uber. It seemed to me that the South Bay hadn't caught on to ridesharing like the East Bay and SF had. So, I stopped driving for the rest of 2015.

I took 8 months off from driving for Uber and wasn't sure if I would drive for them again. I wasn't even sure if they would let me after taking so much time off. Then in February of 2016 I decided to try driving again because the Super Bowl was coming to the Bay Area, specifically Santa Clara which is just 10 minutes from Mountain View. I thought it would be a good chance to make some extra money with all the thousands of people coming into the area from all over the country. I easily had my driving account with Uber reinstated and started driving a couple days before the Super Bowl to get back into a groove. By the way, one of the things I like about being a driver for these drivesharing companies is the freedom to drive when I want. The fact I could stop driving for 8 months and then just start again easily is a real plus for me.

So, after driving on Super Bowl weekend and making some pretty good money I kept driving for a few more weeks. However, I was starting to get disappointed in the money I was making, or not making. Many times I would drive for several hours and not even come close to the $25 to $35 mark advertised by Uber. Of course, there is also the expenses such as gas and wear and tear on the car which if you aren't making a decent amount really bring into question whether it is worth while. I was wondering if I should keep driving, was it worth it. About this time when I was considering stopping I saw some emails from Uber about promotions for drivers. The first ones were about a guaranteed income for driving at certain peak hours. The problem with these though is that I already had a full time job and it was hard to drive at these times.

Then I received an email with a promotion that said Uber would pay an additional 10% to 20% of fares if the driver would get 80 or 100 rides in a week. Plus, they also had two separate promotions giving bonuses for rides according to the total number of rides per week.

I figured I would try to see how much I could make with these promotions and started by driving on Monday, which is one of my two days off from my regular job. I ended up getting 26 rides on that Monday which earned me about $250. My goal was to reach 100 rides to receive the 20% bonus and I was already over 1/4 of the way there with six days left. ( These promotions start on Monday at 4am and end the following Monday at the same time ).

The remainder of the week was a bit harder. I worked my day job and then drove at night, usually 3 to 5 hours a night. By Sunday, my other day off from my regular job, I was at around 80 rides. I realized I would at least reach the 10% bonus range. However, I wanted to reach the 20% goal because I was testing out these promotions to see what I could do. That Sunday I drove enough to reach 100 total rides for the week.

It was hard. I drove for over 42 hours and this was in addition to my 40 hours at my day job. Over 82 hours total! I'm 58 years old and this was tiring to say the least. Now I wanted to see what the pay would be. A couple days went by and then I checked my bank account for the automatic deposit that Uber does. I was happy to see that about $1,400 was deposited into my account. This came out to be close to $35 an hour. Not bad.

I realized I could sustain the hours I worked the prior week and the following three weeks I worked less hours. Still, I averaged about $1,000 a week for those three weeks too.

I did some research and found that Uber was taking some ideas for bonuses from what Lyft does. I was happy they were trying to help divers make more money, where ever they got their ideas from. If the drivers weren't happy then they had a serious problem. I was ready to quit and now the bonuses would keep me driving, at least for now.

I had heard many times that some drivers use both Uber and Lyft. I had considered joining Lyft before but still hadn't. Then I met a Lyft driver who talked me into trying driving for them. What convinced me was a bonus for new drivers. At the time, March 2016, the bonus was $750 once the new driver reached just 50 rides in the first 30 days after being approved. I figured I could do that easily and was right. By the way, the bonuses are different for each city and the amount can change from month to month. Here is a link where you can see what the amount is and terms are for the city closest to you:

Click Here to Drive For Lyft

I drove for both Uber and Lyft in March and April and easily earned my $750 bonus for getting 50 rides in a month, in addition to the other income I made driving. Nice deal!

By the way, Uber also gives bonuses to new drivers. Again, the amount of the bonus and terms such as number of rides needed to get the bonus differs depending on which city. Here's the link to getting started with Uber as a driver:

Click here to become an Uber driver and get bonus

Please make sure you use the referral code szjhy when signing up to become a new Uber driver. This way you will get your bonus and I will get mine also. These referral bonuses are two sided, meaning both the new driver and the current driver who is referring a new driver get the same amount of bonus.
So, to make good money driving for either Uber or Lyft, make sure you watch for the promotions and then try to use as many of the promotions as possible. Doing this makes the difference between making close to a minimum wage income and making a more livable income.
In future posts I will continue to update my progress as being a driver and also give some tips on what works for me. I have a 4.90 rating as a driver with both Uber and Lyft. I'll also compare the two companies from a driver's point of view.

Tim