This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with James Howe, who previously drove for Uber in Denver. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I've driven with Uber for 12 years.
For a lot of that time, I made good money as a part-time driver. I could juggle both a traditional job and drive more than 20 hours a week. I could work whenever I wanted.
It was a good side hustle, especially as people started going out again after COVID, and Uber needed more drivers to meet demand. The company offered bonuses for referring new drivers to the app or completing a certain number of rides.
I could accept basically every ride the Uber app suggested and still make money on it. Uber used a rate card that showed you made X amount of money per mile and X per minute. It was predictable.
A couple of years ago, I started driving for Uber basically full-time after losing my job. I easily drove 40 hours a week and made between $2,000 and $3,000 a week before expenses.
Over time, though, things got more challenging. Bonuses and promotions started to fall off, and I saw a lot of people coming onto the app looking for work.
A few years ago, Uber started using upfront pricing, which got rid of the rate card and used algorithms to determine my earnings. After that, I noticed my time spent online looking for rides was significantly higher, even during busy times. Instead of spending 40 hours a week on the app and doing really well earnings-wise, I found myself spending up to 60 hours to make the same pay.
Many of the rides Uber offered me didn't pay as well as they used to, so I ended up rejecting most of them. I learned to operate more like a business owner and less like an employee.
Driving for Uber led to a full-time job
I haven't driven for Uber since December because I recently got a full-time job in finance, the industry I used to work in. I actually got the job after driving an Uber passenger who is an executive at the company. I picked him up at the airport as he was coming back from a business trip, and we started talking about his business and finances. At the end of the trip, he gave me his card and told me to reach out if I wanted to talk about joining his company.
I'm working to get up to speed in my new job, so I'm focusing significantly more on it than on Uber.
Would driving for Uber have been a sustainable, long-term source of income for me if I had stuck with it? Possibly, possibly not. The time you spend on the app is a lot. I would try to do other tasks while I waited for a good ride to pop up, but your attention would be diverted, and you wouldn't really be focused on those other tasks.
Now that I have my new job, I can take a full PTO day and go skiing in the mountains. I don't have to think, "I'm missing all the profitable Friday trips on Uber."
I enjoyed driving for Uber because I liked talking to people and hearing their stories.
Uber was a really good company when the pay was better. They used to call us "driver partners" — before they started referring to us as "independent contractors" — and you felt that they were looking out for you.
That's when Uber's culture changed for me. They still say they look out for drivers, but I think their actions speak louder than their words.
An Uber spokesperson told Business Insider that the company still offers drivers promotions, such as for completing a set number of trips in a specific timeframe. The spokesperson said the company also has programs aimed at retaining drivers, such as its tiered statuses through Uber Pro.
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