Man shares breakdown of how much he earns from Uber and how much they keep
A bloke has shared a breakdown of his weekly earnings from chauffeuring people around on behalf of Uber.
There's no shortage of taxis displaying the firm's recognisable logo on UK roads, as millions of people use the ride-hailing service to shuttle them around.
However, there's been a bit of interest in how much Uber drivers take home in total, especially in wake of the introduction of dynamic pricing in 2023 - which means that fares spike during periods of high demand.
The company explained that this was brought in to 'encourage more drivers to get on the road and help deal with number of rider requests', and you'd think that it would mean that those behind the wheel are earning even more money.
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But according to research carried out by the University of Oxford, the use of dynamic pricing has upped fees for passengers and lowered wages for drivers... although Uber's revenue has increased.
The lead author of the study which was released in June, Professor Reuben Binns, said: "The higher the value of the trip, the more of a cut Uber takes. So the more the customer pays, the less the driver actually earns per minute."
Uber said it did not 'recognise the figures in this report', according to the BBC, while explaining that drivers are shown their expected earnings for trips before they chose whether to accept the job.
The ride-hailing company also said that its employees receive a weekly summary of their earnings, which includes a 'clear breakdown of what Uber and the driver received from trips'.
Now, an Uber driver has kindly shared one of these seven-day summaries with the rest of us, so we can get a real idea of how profitable working for Uber really is.
Taking to Reddit, the Brit explained that he had racked up 'a little over' 13 hours of driving time during this period.
In total, he earned £663.49 for his 'rider fare' - but he doesn't get to keep the full amount, as a host of other entities get a cut too. Instead, he got to take home 67.9 percent of this sum.
He lost 4.5 percent of his total earnings on 'third-party fees', which set him back £30.
Another £9.74 - or 1.5 percent of his wages - was then subtracted for rider promotions.
Out of the £663.49 he earned for the week, his employer got a 26.1 percent slice and the firm raked in £173.11 from his hard work.
Meanwhile, the Uber driver's earnings - excluding his £1.76 tip - were listed at £450.64 for the 13 hours he spent ferrying people around.
Social media users were left pretty shocked by the amount, with one saying: "Yeah that's rough."
Another wrote: "More than the tax man."
And a third added: "So you earned about 34 quid an hour? How much did you spend on fuel?"
That's another thing to bare in mind - Uber drivers have to pay for fuel, insurance and take into account that their car is depreciating in value with each trip.
Earlier this year, another Uber driver explained he forked out more than £400 in expenses such as these while also sharing a breakdown of his earnings from the ride-hailing app.
A spokesperson for Uber told LADbible: "Drivers choose Uber because we offer flexibility over where and when they work, and transparency over every trip they take - including the fare, destination, and their own earnings, before they decide whether to accept.
"The study is not accurate and relies on incomplete and selective data. The researchers themselves admit that their analysis ‘does not enable [them] to isolate the causal effect of dynamic pricing on pay’, making any conclusions about driver earnings misleading. We are proud that thousands of drivers continue to make the positive choice to work on Uber as passenger demand and trips continue to grow."
Olivia Burke