Uber impact

Uber has been operating legally in Canberra for just under five months.  The announcement of Uber placed fear in many taxi drivers.  Many thought they would be out of a job, while others thought that their income would be virtually zero.  Uber has had an impact on taxi drivers bank accounts and the days of working for three months then going back home to India, Vietnam or Pakistan for a month are well and truly over.

Uber's biggest impact has been Saturday nights.  I regularly took $500 on a Saturday night but now it's down to $330.  Roughly a 35% cut.  I really didn't like Saturday nights in any case, despite the money.  The age cohort, 18-25 year olds, are obnoxious, rude and just generally lack respect.  And, yes, the odd one will also vomit in your cab.  The Uber drivers can have them.  I noticed last Saturday night that my passengers tendered to be older if I stayed away from the city and this is what I plan to do in the future.  I like doing the $15 to $25 jobs, sacrificing them for the one big $50-$70 job.  I can do two or three of them in the same time as the waiting period for a $50-70 job.  Time moves faster, I'm conversing with more people, and I'm not sitting on a rank for an hour.

Anecdotally, I've heard Uber divers aren't making as much as they were when they first started.  The market has been saturated. What Uber doesn't tell people is that sure you make $25-$30 an hour for a couple of hours but the rest of the time you only make $15 an hour and that doesn't subtract your expenses such as fuel, insurance and maintenance.  Uber drivers and taxi drivers, I've been told, are making the same money.  The only advantage with Uber is you can work when you want.  However, you still have to pay for your own fuel and your own maintenance expenses, something that you don't have to worry about if you drive a taxi.