I was feeling like I had the Uber thing pretty dialed in. $1800 in March, $1800 in April. I didn't drive much in May, but I made +$600 driving over memorial day weekend earning north of $60/hour (pre-expense/tax).
Ride share groups I follow all say Florida goes Dead after the winter. I actually figured I'd do better in the summer because I'm at the beach & there are lots of beach tourists. Well, I was at least partially wrong. There may be a decent amount of PAX (passengers), but there are 10x more drivers. I'm not sure if it's just teachers trying to make a few extra bucks, or just generally more people trying to do what I'm doing...but in the last few weeks pay per mile/minute seems at least 30% lower...when you actually can get a ride. As a PAX Uber is offering me a 30% discount promotion.
The last few times I've tried to drive has been mostly a bust. Lots of waiting. I've been trying to adjust my strategy. Even if the map shows it's busy, I always look to see how many XL drivers are out and where they are. A random weeknight can be more productive than a Friday night just due to the competition. If I do decide to drive on a weeknight I bring my laptop. I mostly limit my rides to XL only because X rides that are more than 5 minutes long don't pay. The people that tip either order an XL for extra room or Comfort. Many X passengers are just looking for the cheapest A to B. Last night I drove from 10:30 till midnight and turned on X rides because I got tired of waiting around & there were TONS of drivers out.
In one aspect, It's an efficient display of how a free market should work. Customers are more likely to take an Uber when it's cheap. If there are tons of drivers willing to spend their time, gas $ and lend their vehicle to Uber for <$20/hour...then that's what the job is worth. There's another dynamic that's going to cause issues. Uber is now turning a profit. They get more profitable by gouging customers and pushing down driver pay/benefits. They've consistently done both. As a regular passenger, I've had a few frustrating experiences where I requested a premium/comfort ride & the app couldn't connect me with a driver (RE: no driver would take the ride for what Uber was willing to pay them). Clearly, of the $50 they were charging me, they couldn't find a driver to do the ride for $20 and their algorythm wouldn't bump up the pay enough to get me a ride.
This works for me becasue my 2008 mininvan has 191k miles and as long as it's driving cannot depreciate. I cherry-pick shorter rides so gas isn't much of a factor. My van will age-out of Uber eligibility in 6 months. I'm hoping we can change some things so I can either quit driving or limit my driving to when I'm bored or it's really busy/lucrative. Frankly, the money has made a big impact. I'm pretty sure in the next month or so we won't have to rely on the Uber earnings.
