Uber Vehicle Choices?

HooRU

This summer I want to do the Uber Rent a Drive system, at least give it a shot. What rental cars do you consider more suited for Uber? Comfort and ease of ingress/egress is important. Also rear seat belt ease.

ThirdShifter

HooRU

This makes no sense.

Rich221976

I have done Uber and Lyft a few times to get extra cash. I haven't tried the rental car route with them always just used my personal vehicles.

I would recommend getting an SUV as a rental. If you want to be able to pick up people that want to go to the airport, you will want space for the luggage.

Astyanax

Paying for a rental plus the gas to drive Uber? Would you even net federal minimum wage after all those expenses?

You'd probably make more money working part time at McD's.

Also you better check with your auto insurance company. It may be "HAIL no!" on covering you doing that at all whether or not it's in your own car.

Rich221976

If I remember correctly and I could be wrong because it's been a while, but I believe that Uber provides the insurance for the rental car. So personal insurance isn't required.

It was something I was looking into as well but I wouldn't be able to drive enough to cover the rental car or make a profit since I have a full time job.

The rental car option on both does make sense if you don't own a vehicle and want to drive a different vehicle every month.

There were days that I only took one or two people a ride and then stopped for the day because it was dead. Too many Lyft and Uber drivers online.

I refused to pickup at bars. Main reason is that I didn't want to have to clean up the drunk peoples throw up. So I stuck to picking up and dropping off at the airport. OIA/MCO. I also would get up early in the morning and hit the people going to work in the morning.

However, I only did this off and on when we were low on money. I haven't gone out and drove since maybe June of last year.

I prefer not to drive though anymore since I don't have the insurance needed to cover me in an accident. Especially when driving other people around. I may drive again for them but it's only when I don't have enough money to make it to the end of the month.

I rather pickup OT at my job since I will make more that way than I would driving. Plus the insurance companies have gotten way more strict about it since uber and Lyft came around. In the past, when I would deliver pizza's for Domino's. I wouldn't tell the insurance company that I was driving.

I only had one on the job accident, that I totaled the car. I had about 15-16 years of good luck with that. However, my next insurance rates were very high. They paid out and I didn't get dropped. Now in today's world I probably would have been on the hook for my own damages and the other persons damages.

Plus what was worst about that accident was that the car was a 2007 Ford Focus, only had 30,000 miles on it. I brought it brand new with only 26 miles on it. I bought it in Dec and totaled it out in June. I only had it 6 months and I put 30,000 miles on it delivering pizzas.

Astyanax

Rich221976 If I remember correctly and I could be wrong because it's been a while, but I believe that Uber provides the insurance for the rental car. So personal insurance isn't required.

They cover the comprehensive/collision but in our state your PIP (Personal Injury Protection), our mandatory medical coverage, follows you no matter what car you're driving in the state. So if you get hurt in an accident doing Uber you're SOL for your medical bills with your auto insurance company and may even have your CLUE report flagged for material misrep. Not good when you're forced to find another company.

takeahike

I’d skip Uber if I were you. It was a while ago (about ten years ago) that I did it and my GF did a lot more trips than I did but they are slave drivers if there ever was any. It started out reasonably generous but then was just like ISPs who try to suck you in with promos and then take a whip to you once you’re stuck on the train. After a halfway decent start they just started taking away one thing after another, imposing more and more charges, cutting commissions to lower levels at every corner (pun unintended). Then they had this policy that they published on the website to riders of “no tipping required” that was just outrageous in my opinion–this may be different now but who the hell ever heard of a cab driver who doesn’t get tips? What could such a policy be except a mechanism to encourage more business at the expense of their already slave-driven (again, pun unintended) drivers? I drove one of those notorious yellow cabs for five years in NYC in the 1970s, and not getting a tip was virtually unheard of, happening maybe once a year, if that, but that was Uber for you. As a result of this posted policy of theirs, despite doing about 150 trips with Uber I never got even a single tip, not even one from this bartender who spent the whole trip complaining about how these guys from out of town spent the whole evening having him serve them and left him nothing. My GF who did about 500 trips got three I believe. Then they had this ridiculous system where riders would rate you, and if your score fell as low as 4.7 on a 5-star scale they would suspend you! So being a slave wasn’t enough, with them throwing you under the bus to boot. Again, I’d stay away, but if you do decide to try it please let us know how it goes and whether it’s any different now. And don’t forget that your gas that you of course have to foot is way more expensive nowadays than it was when I did it.

I’d say that the only benefit was that since the IRS gives you a generous write-off per mile on paper you don’t show any profit, so the cash is pretty much tax-free. But since I used my own car whatever cash I did get was easily absorbed in the depreciated value of my car from all the extra miles put on it, so I therefore essentially traded one thing for another with no net gain in the end, not to mention all the time I put in driving for I still wonder what.

Rich221976

takeahike

I didn't make a profit at all when I was driving on paper. Since the mileage write off was a good amount. I also didn't make very much either. At the time as well, they didn't provide you with a 1099 unless you made over 5000.

I also did Doordash as well a few years ago. I started driving with Lyft before the pandemic. Stopped when the pandemic happened and just did some driving last year with my own vehicle. The nice thing is that you can set it up to be paid on a card. Lyft and Uber provides a debit card and your earnings can be put on the card.

If I drove full time, I could probably get a decent amount from doing it, but I am not going to risk crashing my car with someone else in it.

Plus the fact, that if you were to pick up a drunk at the bar then you have a good chance to have puke in the vehicle. Now you can charge them a cleaning charge. I think it is 50 bucks.

I still make much more at my current employer. I would look for a work at home job that is legit.

Rich221976

takeahike

I just realized something though. If you rent a car to drive for Uber or Lyft, then the issue is going to be is that you can't claim the miles since it isn't a car that you own.

You would be able to write off the rental car expenses though, but if you are not using your personal vehicle then you can't get that write off.

So you would show more income being made then you would with your own personal vehicle.

On my taxes this year, my SO worked as a caregiver but was paid by a 1099. When I did our taxes I was able to claim the miles driven because you have to use a vehicle to get to house to house. The only thing is that the drive to the first house and the drive home from the second house wouldn't be able to be claimed.

But with the mileage and supplies, his income made was only about 125.00 even though it was way much more than that. But you lose some of that with the rental car, to expect to pay more on taxes since you have to pay the taxes that an employer would pay for you and the taxes that you would normal pay. So Social Security and Medicaid you will be paying the full amount.

I was looking at the rental car options with Uber. For me personally, in this area, I would choose the Avis rental car agency because per the website no deposit is required. Unlimited miles and insurance is included.

The rental car option makes sense though because you don't have to put that wear and tear on your own vehicle.

The second thing, for me personally, if I didn't own a car and therefore didn't have insurance, then this could be a good temp option for someone that needed a car. Rent the car for the week. Which Avis has one for 260.00 + taxes. Drive the car for Uber maybe two days a week to make the rental car fee, and then anything extra on those two days is some extra income since I have a full time job.

The main reason I say do this temporary is because It would be about 1040.00 + taxes to rent that car a week. You have to return the car after 8 weeks and make a new reservation to get a car. They will automatically renew you as long as you are paying.

There was a second car rental agency that is cheaper call buggy. However, you have to apply to them to rent a car, and you have to pay a deposit to them of the weekly amount. It wasn't that much cheaper than Avis, I think it said about 243 + taxes.

This also doesn't included the optional LDW. Which if you are driving for Uber I would get it. Since most likely you are going to have scratches from people putting in there luggage and stuff in the trunk. Sometimes they are not good about taking care of your vehicle. However, that would raise the rental cost higher.

I personally have taken the extra insurance on the rentals I got when I had to put my vehicle in the shop.

One thing I would say is that if you are the type of person that doesn't want to own a car but wants to rent one to be able to drive a different type of vehicle every month then this could work for you. However, I can't see spending 1040 of your income to a rental car regularly. Granted the rental car price is a write off on your business income though.

It can be fun, I do enjoy doing it when I drive from time to time, getting to talk to different people. When I was driving I did the airport, I also went to Disney a good amount of the times.

You can also pick up a passenger in one area and have to drive to go to other areas. I was offered a ride to take someone from the airport in Orlando, to Miami. I didn't accept that one.

I have taken from that took me from Orlando to Tampa though. You can set the app to give you rides to get back home as well. I done that. a few times. You can also select rides from schedule rides as well. I liked to get up around 4 am, and head out to drive and hit the people needing rides to work. I had a good amount of Amazon employees needing to get to Amazon warehouse near me.

One thing I liked to do is that Lyft sometimes provides challenges. You have to give a certain amount of rides and you get a nice bonus. I did that a few times and made a few extra 300 bucks.

I probably remember more about what is needed as time goes on..

Somewhat-Reticent

Rich221976 Lyft and Uber provide a debit card

With entertaining fees?

Rich221976

Somewhat-Reticent

No fees that I can remember.

Somewhat-Reticent

Rich221976
Your assumption that rental expense is always lower than owner expenses is … unusual.
Also, revenues are not income. Due Diligence ( Doing the Homework ) is always essential.

Bink63

Rich221976 the drive to the first house and the drive home from the second house wouldn't be able to be claimed.

Home Office.

I could go into a long rant about how being very good at filing and claiming every deduction on my tax returns as a 1099 ( edited )screwed me for Social Security and Medicare, but this isn't the thread for it.

Carry on...

Rich221976

Here is an example of what you might be looking like for rental car charges.

I made a reservation through the app but I did cancel it and I reacted the confirmation number. Nothing else will be showing of personal information.

Sparkchaser

I've never even rode in an Uber. What do they charge?

takeahike

Sparkchaser I've never even rode in an Uber. What do they charge?

Last time I checked it was about half the price of a licensed taxi. So Uber drivers get screwed that way in addition to all the shenanigans I mentioned up thread. At least originally they were not even licensed yet could operate without any gov't interference--try and be a doctor or lawyer or even a barber that way and you will be closed down overnight. Again, it's been a while since I worked for them or have even researched it but it seems that Uber and Lyft are borderline criminals and, like Amazon and other newer tech giants, are a new generation of exploiters.

Zach

Sparkchaser Two weeks ago the 91.2 mile ride from LAX to my house in Llano (the middle of nowhere) ran me $247.80 before tip. The same ride
in 2023 from Uber was $105. Uber and Lyft usually aren't interested in deadheading back to LA at those rates and decline ride requests.

Rich221976

This was the earning that I made in one week. I think I only went out for one day.

This was from last year so I am not sure what the current amount that Lyft drivers are actually making. However, this supposedly shows how much the riders paid and how much lift took off the amount.

Rich221976

Here is the break down of what I got paid per ride that I drove. As you can see some of the rides is very little.

I have days that I went out to drive an I only took 2 rides in 3 hours. That's when you say ok time to go home.

Rich221976

Here is another day

Hopefully this may give people an idea of what you can expect. I have seen on the Reddit for Lyft that some drivers that do this full time make a good amount of money. However, I see that is very busy towns.

Rich221976

Zach

Probably because the driver was probably only offered about 50-70 dollars to take the ride.

Somewhat-Reticent

Rich221976 Which could work out if there were another rider for the return trip.

Zach

Rich221976 No idea what their arrangement is with Uber. The base fare was an incredibly low $105. I tipped $100 and probably should have tipped more. $105 for a 180 mile round trip screws the driver big-time. At the base fare I saw, I don't blame Uber/Lyft drivers for declining long trips to the middle of nowhere. My total taxi ride with tip was $325 which I think is perfectly reasonable.