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How to look at rideshare employment?

So would you count only the time you're hired by a customer as actually working? Or would you count the time you spend waiting for a customer too?

If I look at it as being hired by the customer and not so much as being on a clock, then I tend to want to discount the time waiting for customers. It also makes me feel better about the hourly pay.

However if it is in fact that i should count the time waiting for customers it doesn't look as good. But I don't want to lie to myself either LOL


So what would you do? If you're your own business, you can't count the time you spend marketing or whatever you do to get customers to hire you or buy from you(in my case i wait for people who need a ride to hire me through the app). But marketing is still work that you put in to the whole process of making the sale. So how would you look at this?

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Anonymous edited this post .

How to look at rideshare employment?¬ ¬ So would you count only the time you're hired by a customer by as actual working? Or would you count the time you spend waiting for a customer too? ¬ ¬ If I look at it as being hired by the customer and not so much as being on a clock, then I tend to want to discount the time waiting for customers. It also makes me feel better about the hourly pay. ¬ ¬ However if it is in fact that i should count the time waiting for customers it doesn't look as good. But I don't want to lie to myself either LOL¬ ¬ ¬ So what would you do? If you're your own business, you can't count the time you spend marketing or whatever you do to get customer to hire you or buy from you(in my case i wait for people who need a ride to hire me through the app). But marketing is still work you put in to the whole process of making the sale. So how would you look at this?

Anonymous edited this post .

How to look at rideshare employment?¬ ¬ So would you count only the time you're hired by a customer as actualactually working? Or would you count the time you spend waiting for a customer too? ¬ ¬ If I look at it as being hired by the customer and not so much as being on a clock, then I tend to want to discount the time waiting for customers. It also makes me feel better about the hourly pay. ¬ ¬ However if it is in fact that i should count the time waiting for customers it doesn't look as good. But I don't want to lie to myself either LOL¬ ¬ ¬ So what would you do? If you're your own business, you can't count the time you spend marketing or whatever you do to get customer to hire you or buy from you(in my case i wait for people who need a ride to hire me through the app). But marketing is still work you put in to the whole process of making the sale. So how would you look at this?

Anonymous edited this post .

How to look at rideshare employment?¬ ¬ So would you count only the time you're hired by a customer as actually working? Or would you count the time you spend waiting for a customer too? ¬ ¬ If I look at it as being hired by the customer and not so much as being on a clock, then I tend to want to discount the time waiting for customers. It also makes me feel better about the hourly pay. ¬ ¬ However if it is in fact that i should count the time waiting for customers it doesn't look as good. But I don't want to lie to myself either LOL¬ ¬ ¬ So what would you do? If you're your own business, you can't count the time you spend marketing or whatever you do to get customercustomers to hire you or buy from you(in my case i wait for people who need a ride to hire me through the app). But marketing is still work that you put in to the whole process of making the sale. So how would you look at this?

Electric
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It's just like any other job.
You base your platform on an 8 hour day and see what the day brings.

The time spent waiting can be counted as working too. Of course it would be nice to always have a paying customer to get you to the next paying customer, but....ya know. Only in a perfect world.

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Slash wrote:
It's just like any other job.
You base your platform on an 8 hour day and see what the day brings.

The time spent waiting can be counted as working too. Of course it would be nice to always have a paying customer to get you to the next paying customer, but....ya know. Only in a perfect world.

It's not like any other job though.

Yes sitting around for customers and not being paid happens sometimes when it's not busy. But I am not paid for those times I'm sitting around waiting for a customer.

So would you look at rideshare companies like a typical employer since they don't pay you when you're logged in? That would be like the 9-5 type of job where you clock in and get paid even if you stand around and ****fuck off?

Or would you think of it more like being hired by each customer and the rideshare company is more a service that connects you to customers?

So yes technically I'm hired by the rideshare company, but I only get money when a customer pays them to connect to me.

Hypothetically if you were paid $50 by say 10 customers in an 8 hour period of time(that's pretending each customer had a $5 dollar fare), and say it took 7 of the 8 hours you were in the car to pick them all up and deliver them to their destinations.

Would you say you worked for them for 7 hours or would you count the hour you weren't paid sitting around in your own car waiting for someone to pay you for your services?

Now if this ever happened it'd be a crappy day. But if it did, I'd have made 50 dollars in 7 hours of working for the customer. I would have made 7.14 an hour.

OR Do I look at the entire 8 hours. At which point I would be making $6.25 an hour. See what I mean?

Do I consider the entire amount of time in the car? Even the time I know the company won't pay me for waiting for customers? Or do I just count the time I'm actually working? (Picking up, driving and dropping off)

Electric
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I think what you are facing are some of the problems the Taxi industry faces.

What you both have in common is an issue of "time" and how it is spent. It's almost like fishing, no? Cast your line and....wait for a bite?

Time is the enemy when you're not making money.

That's why the Taxi industry has all these little inclusions when it comes to fare.
👉 Get in = $$
👉 Drop meter = $$
👉 Dollar per mile = $$
Etc. These concepts help battle the fiscal erosion of time.

Would you say you worked for them for 7 hours or would you count the hour you weren't paid sitting around in your own car waiting for someone to pay you for your services?

I would count the hour I wasn't paid because I'm still in the car making myself ready for the next hopeful customer. Do you get a customer or don't you - it's anyone's guess because it's like gambling. You just don't know.

I DO see what you mean because that "dead" hour dilutes your financial statistics even further.

What about the times you have "dead days?"

So would you look at rideshare companies like a typical employer since they don't pay you when you're logged in? That would be like the 9-5 type of job where you clock in and get paid even if you stand around and ****fuck off?

Here's the thing, appearances can be deceiving. Those guys that are standing around and *******fucking off are still standing ready for the company they work for. As much power as the company may have, their business relies on someone calling them for a ride.
This is why they have fleets of cars and specialize in hotels, airports and things of the like. If they had to survive on some poor schmuck needing a ride home from the library, the business would tank.

Rideshare companies may seem inviting at first, but in actuality, they make YOU the company AND the driver. Further, you end up using your own car which means you also become the mechanic.

There's no minimum safety net paying you in the background like there is working as a cabbie. No pay for down time.

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soco
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You count the minute you get in your vehicle to work until the time you log off the app to come home. Mileage is counted the same way. Log all your trips for IRS purposes. Do not lie or try to guess; auditors are really good at spotting that.

Ask away if you have other questions. I did rideshare for 6 years, part and full time. Best day for rideshare is Halloween. I would plan on a 14 hour shift on Halloween and be busy 99% of the time.

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soco
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One more tip. Wash the car. Frequently. Inside and out. You can do it yourself or pay someone to do it. There is no second chance to make a first impression. Riders come in all levels of sobriety. If picking up a rider or riders at a bar, make them walk toward your car so that you can see them. You have absolute right to refuse them a ride. No question. This is your business. Too drunk is a no brainer. I back up and leave. They can order another car.

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👆👆👆👆👆👆👆👆
🙌What Soco said.🙌
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Yorick
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nearly-off subject: whats a good general tipping policy?

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soco wrote:
One more tip. Wash the car. Frequently. Inside and out. You can do it yourself or pay someone to do it. There is no second chance to make a first impression. Riders come in all levels of sobriety. If picking up a rider or riders at a bar, make them walk toward your car so that you can see them. You have absolute right to refuse them a ride. No question. This is your business. Too drunk is a no brainer. I back up and leave. They can order another car.

I'll admit, when it was a workhorse for pizza delivery, it wasn't nasty or anything, but it wasn't spotless(you wouldn't believe the amount of customer receipt copies that end up in the floor board....but really it's yall's fault cause you never want them). Now that I'm putting actual customers in my car I've cleaned it up. Ran it by the mechanic(Yup, I'm still driving to make up that cost). But I'm not gonna use my rideshare insurance if I can help it. I want to know customers will be safe in my car. So it's as clean as it can get inside and out. In fact folks are commenting how clean and nice it looks.

They even ask me what kind of car it is. All the while I'm thinking to myself "It's just an old ***ass Altima." LOL

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I tend to look at it from behind lecherous stare

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Lano wrote:
I tend to look at it from behind lecherous stare

lol

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Rideshare insurance is recommended but not absolutely necessary. I never asked for it or revealed that fact to my insurance carrier. Both Uber and Lyft have insurance but it covers your legal passengers only. That being the person who ordered the service in the first place and any immediate family.

Read all the rules! You are not supposed to pick up underage passengers but many drivers do so anyway. But they do so at their own risk. Your rideshare company will not cover any injuries they incur if you are in an accident. I picked up several students from school and took them home. I didn't really mind because tips were generally good from their parents.

I also picked up some live cargo that arrived at the airport and delivered them as a gift to the guys brother. 18 whole Maine Lobsters. That was fun!

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Yorick wrote:
nearly-off subject: whats a good general tipping policy?

15-20 percent tips for all food and beverage employees. When tipping your delivery driver please at least tip this if you can(cool if you can't but might think about carry out options instead).

Really be nice to servers and delivery drivers if you can. We all make less than minimum wage. I make 4 dollars an hour in the car at Dominos.

When your pizza driver brings your food they've literally just done it for $3.25 or more LESS than the MINIMUM WAGE. So anything you can give that makes you feel good, will definitely make us feel good.

15-20 percent is a commonly known percentage. My family has always tipped 20% since I was a kid way before I even started working.

If someone is buying 20 dollars worth of food, even 15% is still at least 3 dollars. A driver may have time to take about 2 runs per hour(give or take a run with the only exception being if they're letting the driver take doubles which my store doesn't). Imagine 4 dollars an hour and getting stiffed twice. You've just made less than 4 dollars for the hour considering the gas you used to deliver the food.

At the pizza store, it's possible to show up to work and leave owing the store money! I've never been a server but they make even less(is why i've never been a server)

Rideshare pay out is a little better than 4 dollars an hour on average because you can choose to work at busier times which helps increase the number of rides per hour a little.
Sadly it can sometimes be really dead and if you don't have customers you're literally just sitting in your car burning gas for absolutely nothing at all. These jobs depend a lot on how busy you can stay. The dead times at the rideshare company also affects my busier times by affecting what my weekly rate per hour ends up working out to be.

Both jobs are a numbers game. The more deliveries/customers you drop off the more money you MIGHT make.

At the rideshare company I make a base rate of .75 cents and .009 per minute and .09 per mile.

So far I've been able to drive enough customers to earn at least minimum wage at this job. It feels a little less like I receive tips out of pity(because customers know that food and beverage employees make 25%-75% less than the minimum wage), and a little more like I get them for providing excellent service. In this position, if you left me a tip of two dollars or more, I would feel a much deeper sense of accomplishment with you.

If everybody stopped tipping at either of these types of jobs, it'd be the employees financial destruction.

I've been in jobs that do not rely on tips(office jobs for example) and it can be a lot easier knowing you have a solid base pay every pay period. Jobs relying on tips, it's definitely a guessing game.

Neither job would pay a driver a livable wage without you.

And even then it's only livable with roommates most of the time LOL

Because companies can undercut employees so much in these types of jobs, 25%-75% under the minimum wage, we really barely make it even with your help. But customers make or break any employee who relies on tips without a doubt. ESPECIALLY in food and beverage.

Super edit:

Also with rideshare, if a customer is concerned about tipping, really pay attention (i think you can see driver locations and follow them in real time i believe in the rider app.) to where the drivers are having to come from.

The biggest deficit to our time is when we're hailed by the app and it asks us to drive 20 or more miles to your location, and(of course it's not the customers fault) has us take you 3 minutes down the road. And on the other side of the coin, the longer the ride, the longer it takes to get our next customer to their destination. So far I've had a really good experience. People have been nice and appreciate the ride. I've liked them a lot and it's fun to be of help at the same time.

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soco
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As for tipping, never never never expect one. If you happen to get one, accept it graciously. Your chances of getting that passenger again are above average. I drove a large SUV; Ford Expedition, black with full leather interior. That allowed me to drive in several different classifications. Uber X, Uber XL, Uber Black, and Uber Limo.

Dress for success. Wearing a nice dress shirt and tie with or without a vest let's you stand out from the rest. No smoking. If you have to smoke use plenty of gum and Febreeze on your clothes. Some passengers are highly allergic to the smell of tobacco.

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soco wrote:
Rideshare insurance is recommended but not absolutely necessary. I never asked for it or revealed that fact to my insurance carrier. Both Uber and Lyft have insurance but it covers your legal passengers only. That being the person who ordered the service in the first place and any immediate family.

Read all the rules! You are not supposed to pick up underage passengers but many drivers do so anyway. But they do so at their own risk. Your rideshare company will not cover any injuries they incur if you are in an accident. I picked up several students from school and took them home. I didn't really mind because tips were generally good from their parents.

I also picked up some live cargo that arrived at the airport and delivered them as a gift to the guys brother. 18 whole Maine Lobsters. That was fun!

If you put a customer in your car and get in a wreck and if either of you get hurt, your insurance WILL NOT COVER IT.


Get rideshare insurance. It's in your best interest. Mine was less than 30 dollars more a month than my personal policy and my new coverage matches my old coverage equally so it's totally worth it.

My insurance provider covers rideshare insurance as a hybrid personal/commercial insurance policy. It covers me personally when I'm not on the app, and when I am online, it covers me commercially. The difference is being paid for a service. Mine is a pretty big and well known provider. There are some other smaller companies you can find that will cover rideshares too.

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soco
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If you drive for 2 or more rideshare companies (Recommended) get an app called Mystro. When a request comes to your phone and you accept, it switches off the other apps so you don't get a second request immediately after. It happens! Mystro has a free trial period but it is limited. You will quickly learn it's value and pay the subscription price. I was paying $50 per year I think. Well worth it.

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not that i'm criticizing any one part of any industry.

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