If you drive in a surge or boost area, you get extra money on top of your base fare. Here’s the difference between the two:
A surge is a region that is entirely determined by supply and demand. It will suddenly appear on the Uber map if the demand for drivers (by passengers) outweighs the supply of drivers in specific area. Rates vary from 1.1 to 3.0.
This step is like the golden ticket of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. In order to make big money as an Uber driver, you’ll need to leverage the weekly quests and promotions. Since I mainly focused on Uber quests (since they provided a much better incentive), I’m going to briefly discuss how they work.
If you complete a certain number of trips, you’ll earn extra money as a bonus. The amount of trips you need to do and the bonuses may vary every week. Sometimes, the trips and the bonus rate stays the same, but other times, it changes.
During the last two months of my Uber career, I mainly drove on the weekends so I could have five days off in a row (to pursue other life goals). I made Saturdays and Sundays my driving days, but I occasionally switched it up to Fridays and Sundays.
I did this for several reasons, including:
• Higher demand on weekends.
• Slightly less traffic compared to weekdays.
• Better Uber quests and promotions (which I will explain in Step 3)
Before jumping to Step 1, I’d like to add a few quick notes.
Quick note #1: While the following steps have certainly worked for me, know that they many not work for you. In fact, the money you make ultimately depends on where you live, how often you drive and how hard you work.
Quick note #2: While I did technically drive for both Uber and Lyft, I utilized the Uber platform more because their monetary bonuses.
Quick note #3: The $500-700 in weekly earnings was before taxes, gas, maintenance and other miscellaneous expenses (such as air fresheners).
Okay, now let’s get it officially started.
My name is Jennifer and this is my driving experience with both Uber and Lyft…
When I first started driving for Uber and Lyft, I drove 4-5 days out of the week and averaged about 5-9 hours per day. I certainly didn’t know how to monetize the market well, but I was still making enough money to live off of. My weekly earnings were roughly $300-$500 and I was still in the process of experimenting with the bonus incentives, the best times to drive and the best places to pick up passengers.
The excerpts in this article are meant to serve as an unbiased account of our 3 years of driving from January 2017 to January 2020. While we understand that there are thousands of drivers who have certainly accumulated more driving experience than us, we believe that our insight will provide some sort of use for those who rely on rideshare driving as a form of income, which is further explained in the chapter, How We Consistently Made $500-$700 in Just 2 Days per Week as an Uber Driver. Before diving into said chapters, it’s important for you to note several of the following:
