4 Reasons Why I Became a Full Time Rideshare Driver

Today, The Rideshare Guy contributor Jay is going to share with you the four main reasons he decided to become a full time rideshare driver with Uber and Lyft. And stick with us to the end because he is going to show you some pay statements!

Take a look at Jay’s video, then check out the video transcript below if you prefer to read.

To give you a little bit of background: It was January of 2016, and I needed to find something to do. I heard about Uber and Lyft. I decided to give it a try. I got my car set up. And I went out and I worked. I was living in Sacramento. And I worked for six hours and I made $100. And I thought to myself, “I enjoyed that. I wonder, if I really applied myself, what I could really do.”

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What made Jay decide to go full time?

Then I got on to YouTube and it seemed like it was a gold rush to get down to San Francisco.As you can see on this map, it’s a long trip to get to Sacramento. But I drove down, did a few weekends, and yeah, I discovered that I could make a lot more money. I decided at that point to go full time. Let me tell you what went through my head when I decided to go full time.

The work is enjoyable

Reason number one I decided to go full time is the work is actually very enjoyable for me. I enjoy getting in my car and driving. I like being outside. I like seeing all the landmarks and all the buildings and the architecture. And I like people, so it’s nice when they get into my car. We have a chat. I always learn something.

Let me show you last weekend, I was driving through the park with a woman and we were talking about porpoises. And as you can see in this picture, she said, “Look, there’s a coyote.” So I said, “Great, great, great.” So I turned around and went and we got this picture of a coyote. That was pretty cool. Every day, I seem to learn something from my passengers and I find that to be wonderful.

Rideshare drivers have freedom and flexibility

Reason number two is this job has as much freedom and flexibility as you could possibly want. And there are two reasons why that’s important to me. First, I like to take vacations and travel. This year alone, I’m gonna take 3 three-week vacations. In fact, in two weeks, I’m leaving for a 16 day vacation to a little island off the coast of Bali. I’m excited about that.

Where else can you start a job and in your second year take nine weeks of vacation? The other part about it is you may not want to drive full time for year, after year, after year. I’m gonna not do this a whole lot longer. I’ve been doing it for two years now. So this job gives you the opportunity to pursue other businesses, other opportunities, other revenue streams, so you can figure out what exactly is that you want to do. So freedom and flexibility, very important to me, I like not having a boss. I like working my own hours. I like taking trips. And I like that I’m able to set up my future in a way that is really desirable to me.

I feel good about the work I do

Now, if you’ve ever had a job where you did something and you weren’t feeling really good about it, you know what I’m talking about. It’s nice to do something that’s simple, that delivers a good service, and the customers are happy. I’ve sold some things in the past that were of questionable value, especially for what the customer was paying. And I didn’t know if they were getting enough value out of it. With this, I know the customers. I’m taking them from A to B. And they’re happy. I’m happy. They get in my car. They hear some music playing. We have a little chat. It’s a smooth ride. Perfect. So it’s good work. We do a good service. We help people get to work. We help people go to the airport. We help people go to a party. If you drive at night, you help people who really need to be in a car. And that’s reason number three.

The money is a good reason to drive

Reason number four, of course, is the money. Now, if you’re in a market that has bonuses, like San Francisco does. Driving full time allows you to get these bonuses. Now, let’s take a look at some pay statements and I can show you what a percentage of my total pay the bonuses were.

Here are some pay statements, one from Lyft and one for Uber for the first week in August. What I wanted to show you is what a large percentage of my pay comes from bonuses. So in this week, and I worked a lot this week. This is not a normal week. I don’t claim this is a normal week. This was a 70-hour work week. I worked seven days this week. But this particular week, I made $1900 with Lyft and $700 with Uber, so $2600. Look at this, under Lyft. The power driver bonus that week was $400, and I made an additional $300 over here with Uber. So out of the $2600, $700 of it was in bonuses. As a full time driver, this is something that you can take advantage of if you’re in a market that has the bonuses. All right? So pretty compelling reason to become a full time driver.

Last year, my first full year, I made just over $90,000, that was my net from Uber and Lyft. And out of that, about $26,000 was in bonuses. That’s a significant chunk. So if you’re in a market where you can get the bonuses, this makes a lot more sense driving full time.

Now, I’m not saying that driving for Uber and Lyft is all rainbows and unicorns. There are definitely some drawbacks. And I will, in great detail, go over those drawbacks in another video. So if you like the video, please go ahead and like it. This is Jay Cradeur with The Rideshare Guy. Be safe out there.

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