Nowadays, people find it hard to find a cab especially during the rush hour. The hassle is so high that most people do not want to commute anymore. Not all people also have the patience to get in line waiting for the cab or wait in the busy streets just to be able to ride a cab. If you do not want to have the hassle in going through all these, you still got options; one is to buy your own a car, next is to just sat at home but of course many things will come after choosing that option. You might lose your job, you might break up with your partner, or you might not be able to attend important events in your life. And since the holiday season is coming, I am pretty sure that the volume of commuters will skyrocket and with availability of the cabs to cater the volume, it would be a total chaos for us.
Lucky for those people who do not want to go through all those hassle, a private company acknowledged their concerns. They created a smartphone application that can help the people arrange certain rides which they call as the Uber Application. Through this application, the person is just one click away from getting a private ride from a driver. This is similar to rent-a-car service but one thing that is good from this is that their availability is 24/7. The hassle of waiting in line as well as waiting with so many people can be lifted through the use of the application. You can even spend the time waiting in the coffee shop or you can kill your time in a mall while waiting for your rented car to arrive. The driver would also talk to you where to pick you up and this type of convenience is not given to us previously by cabs or taxi that is why Uber services have the edge on car services than most cabs and taxis now.
So how do payments are made between the customer and the service rendered? The pricing of Uber is very much similar to metered taxis but the payment is made between the customer and Uber and not with the driver. In some cities however, if the Uber car travels at the speed faster than 11 mph or equivalent to 18km/h, the price will be based on the distance travelled, otherwise, the price will be based on the travel time basis. When the ride is done, the complete fare will be automatically charged to the credit card of the customer (Rao, no page). Arguably, Uber service is fast and efficient. The Uber service also offers clear pricing. You can view the rates of the customer’s city in the app. The customer can also enter their pickup and drop-off points and they can get a free quote of their trip.
Uber drivers can earn a living depending on how long they work as Uber drivers. Last May, Uber released a data saying that half of their New York UberX drivers can earn more than 90,000 U.S. dollars in a year and 70,000 U.S. dollars yearly for their UberX drivers in San Francisco. However, this can only hold true if a driver can work or drive for at least 40 hours per week. In addition to that, the shown figure of Uber excludes the costs paid in gas, insurance, parking, maintenance, repairs, and toll fees. An uberX driver in New Jersey said that he can make an income of $180 in gross fares. However, due to the toll fees, the 20% cut of the Uber Company, the payment for gas, car insurance, and self employment taxes, the real earnings of the driver is just $54.50 for driving in 12 hours. That is just approximately $4.54 per hour which is way below the minimum wage (Dickey, no page).
In order for a driver to make a living from Uber, the driver should know the city with the highest rate and he should drive for insane number of hours. However, through the Uber, these drivers can have the opportunity to work in 80-120 hours a week since most companies can only pay you for 35-40 hours of work per week (Dickey, no page).
Uber service is a good type of business. If the drivers will be compensated well along with the least pricing as possible to the customers, optimization is the key to meet both ends. If you can start a business like this, you can earn big amounts of profits since this type of service offers convenient, and quality service to the customers.
Works Cited
Dickey, Megan. Here's How Much Money You Can Really Earn As An Uber Driver. 28 June 2014. 2 December 2014 <http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-you-earn-as-an-uber-driver-2014-6>.
Rao, Leena. "Uber Brings its Disruptive Car Service to Chicago." TechCrunch 22 September 2011.
Rusli, Evelyn. "Uber Gets Uber-Valuation." Wall Street Journal 6 June 2014.
