Hi Mike: Although I do not have any data, I believe it is an inrush of school teachers onto the platforms. I can open the rider app and see 6 cars on just about every major intersection in cities across the Chicagoland area. I have never seen so many groupings of rideshare drivers. I am also seeing the O'Hare Airport Que at numbers I have never seen before as well. Sometimes upwards of 180 drivers are in que for a pickup on both platforms resulting in over a 2-hour wait time in some instances. That amount of time for a $15 to $40 fare makes absolutely no sense. In the winter/Spring, there was usually half that amount. The third being good weather and more people walking the short distances. I am seeing as little as one ride per hour for hours on end now whereas 2 to 3 rides was the norm for the vast majority of my hours behind the wheel. Another problem is Uber's relentless push to increase profitability by reducing driver pay. In a nutshell, Uber is diverting more funds into their coffers. I am on the 75 percent of earnings to me scale but when I look at the waybills, Uber is actually collecting upwards of 35 percent after bonuses by playing the Verizon game of Service fee/pickup fee, and adjustment fees. Bonuses have dropped yet again with the only one available over the past three weeks is $90 for 55 to 60 rides Monday through Thursday and again Thursday through Sunday. Gone are the shorter 30 to 45-rode bonuses and morning and afternoon Rush Hour bonuses except in downtown Chicago. In those areas, it is not so much a bonus as but a stipend to cover the horrific traffic which does not allow you to move and reduces income further. If Uber only got that a increase for drivers is also an increase to them but they are trying to compete with entities I do not know. Cabs are still 2 to 4Xs Uber rates yet Uber continues to squeeze. I suspect after the fall school semester starts and they lose the teacher drivers, they are going to end up short in Chicago as the driver over representation and earnings squeeze is making me contemplate walking away with earnings well ahead of expectations through June 1st. All in, Uber is squeezing driver earnings while trying to keep a nice PR face on for the public as a guess. I have spoken with East Coast drivers - Boston, Providence, Cape Cod, and they are not experiencing any falloff in earnings so it appears to be a Chicago issue? I have spoken with one other Chicago area driver who is getting killed with an earnings fall off as well. Tires at 36k are only down 2/32 to 3/32 from new. It is surprising given the abuse of the tires and brakes are having to endure when downtown running speed bump to speed bump, stop sign to stop sign, light to light, and very poor road conditions everywhere. I am taking about 18 and 19 mph avg, speeds including 100-miles of Interstate to and from everyday and sometimes an hour to cover 3 miles. Efficiency of the 18 Elantra ECO is actually climbing with the earnings fall off as I am moving for further distances driving between hot spots instead of into small enclaves of the inner city again and again. I am up over 42 mpg average with 60+ mpg always showing up on the Interstate before hitting the City of Chicago and watching the average fall into the garbage. Having just finished washing the car, having to clean wheels because of brake dust is so out of the ordinary. I mean who here has ever had to worry about brake dust??? I am also finding my light timing and glide skills are degrading as there are simply to many distractions with pedestrians, road signs, road debris and poor road conditions to deal with. Wayne
Brake dust ? I know what dust is , but brakes ? Not so much. If I had to drive downtown , my number one priority would be avoiding an accident. I'm so lucky to have a nice suburban commute that I'm VERY familiar with by now. It's nice to hear about how the Elantra ECO is working out for you.
Great write up. I may have missed it, did you install inside cameras and have you had any altercations or no pay/cancellations while driving.
HI Jud: The pay continues to fall so I will be glad to give up on Chicago in just a month, Cancellations happen all the time. Only one while I was driving and the passengers on board came up with $5 to cover the last 4-miles of the ride. The worst are the Pings while you are driving at 55 to 60 mph down the Interstate, hit the off-ramp and within the 2-minute free window, the passenger cancels. The spin costs 5-minutes or so given you have to run surface streets to the next on-ramp or the next U-Turn op somewhere ahead. Wayne
Hi All: An update through today as I am in California waiting to get all of my registrations transferred over. Uber - 3,174 rides to date 1/29 - 2/05: $ 108.61 <-- Short first week in Milwaukee 2/05 - 2/11: $ 00.00 <-- San Diego to Milwaukee to Chicago Uber region swap 2/12 - 2/19: $ 692.10 2/19 - 2/26: $1,493.67 2/26 - 3/05: $1,613.91 3/05 - 3/11: $1,667.14 3/12 - 3/18: $1,085.48 <-- 4.4+ days lost due to Elantra door dent repair 3/19 - 3/25: $1,703.27 3/25 - 4/01: $1,010.84 <-- Short final week First 8 weeks: $9,375.02 Travel between California and Illinois 05/21 - 05/28: $ 953.78 05/28 - 06/04: $ 585.66 06/04 - 06/11: $1,922.71 06/11 - 06/18: $1,962.22 06/18 - 06/25: $1,681.38 06/25 - 07/02: $1,973.57 07/02 - 07/09: $1,881.91 07/09 - 07/16: $1,637.23 07/16 - 07/23: $1,783.13 07/23 - 07/30: $1,699.00 07/30 - 08/06: $1,653.21 08/06 - 08/13: $1,717.88 08/13 - 08/20: $1,549.70 08/20 - 08/27: $ 203.66 <-- Crossing the country to CA 08/27 - 09/03: $ 10.92 <-- Crossing the country to IL 09/03 - 09/10: $ 278.82 09/10 - 09/17: $1,184.69 09/17 - 09/24: $1,283.73 09/24 - 10/01: $1,355.67 10/01 - 10/08: $1,230.22 10/08 - 10/15: $ 898.62 <-- Crossing the country to CA ________________________ Uber Totals: $36,822.73 Lyft - 965 rides to date 1/29 - 2/05: $ 658.18 <-- Short first week in Milwaukee 2/05 - 2/11: $1,755.15 2/12 - 2/18: $1,140.40 2/19 - 2/25: $ 721.40 2/26 - 3/04: $1,344.56 3/05 - 3/11: $ 159.39 3/12 - 3/18: $ 296.88 <-- 4.4+ days lost due to Elantra door dent repair 3/19 - 3/25: $ 160.30 3/25 - 4/01: $ 176.19 <-- Short final week First 8 weeks: $6,412.45 Travel between California and Illinois 05/21 - 05/28: $ 16.24 05/28 - 06/04: $ 139.82 06/04 - 06/11: $ 550.88 06/11 - 06/18: $ 233.77 06/18 - 06/25: $ 213.92 06/25 - 07/02: $ 48.43 07/02 - 07/09: $ 0.00 07/09 - 07/16: $ 65.10 07/16 - 07/23: $ 97.04 07/23 - 07/30: $ 186.71 07/30 - 08/06: $ 183.43 08/06 - 08/13: $ 147.66 08/13 - 08/20: $ 87.59 08/20 - 08/27: $ 77.77 08/27 - 09/03: $ 0.00 <-- Crossing the country to CA 09/03 - 09/10: $ 18.16 <-- Crossing the country to IL 09/10 - 09/17: $ 377.00 09/17 - 09/24: $ 268.40 09/24 - 10/01: $ 309.59 10/01 - 10/08: $ 496.59 10/08 - 10/15: $ 564.34 <-- Crossing the country to CA 10/15 - 10/22: $ 857.83 <-- Crossing the country to CA ________________________ Lyft Totals: $11,352.72 Uber and Lyft Cumulative Totals - 4,139 rides to date Gross earnings: $48,175.45 + $1,410 insurance loss of use = $49,585.45 minus $210 deductible = $49,375.45 $1,828.72/week average over 27 weeks Cumulative miIes on the (2) platforms: 53,600 miles with an additional 13,400 for drive(s) out and back to California 3 times. Consumable Expenses come to a grand total of $3,997.20 and include the following: $ 75 in Jolly Ranchers $ 5.60 in water per week for a $151 outlay $ 12 for the Lemon Grass and pads which should last for a year or more for a < $1/month $ 121 in Illinois Tollway charges $3,101 in fuel at 43.2 mpg $ 101.20 for (8) months of vehicle insurance $ 416 for phone -- $22/month for the phone and $60 for the service All-in gross earnings to date: $45,398.25 net - Does not include the vehicle expenses and taxes Fuel: $0.057/mi <-- Accounted for above so it does not come out below. Vehicle Expenses = $0.200/mi: Insurance: $0.012/mi Oil Change: $0.004/mi Tires (est): $0.005/mi Brakes (est.): $0.004/mi Depreciation + M&R: $0.11/mi Fed and CA State Taxes: $0.065/mi (16 percent of 40 percent of gross) Per Mile (Earnings and Expenses) Earnings: $0.921/mile incl. consumables expense Expenses: $0.20/mile incl. taxes Earnings minus expenses to date $0.721/mile: $0.921/mi - $0.20/mi = $0.721/mi Just 83k more miles to go and the study will be complete! Wayne
Hi All: I posted this on the Chicago Rideshare forum on FB as well. Thank you Chicago and members of this forum. My last and past 3 days through 11:00 am this morning included $1,130 of earnings minus just over $10 in tolls and $60 in fuel after 55-hours of on-line time with 7-hours of sleep in the O'Hare queue. Another $210 in private rides and $ tips are not shown. Uber quests and finally a sensible Lyft ride challenge bonus with a few streak bonuses from both platforms thrown in for good measure are beginning to make Chicago rideshare at least worth doing vs the past 4-months and I hope this continues for all of you. Running the Uber platform in a vehicle with Android Auto allows you to hit Navigate which auto populates Android Auto on my 18 Elantra Eco's 7" central display. I find it good to have both running just in case. Exit 51-I on the Jane Burn interchange is showing open in Google maps when it is definitely closed. Be careful with that one. Also, the new Waze sensors on lower Wacker appear to be working as Google maps via Android Auto was tracking Lower Wacker Drive while my Garmin and Uber maps on my Samsung were frozen with "Searching for GPS" or no Sat reception notifications showing. I have a private ride to Lincolnshire at 03:15 am in the morning and will grab a few rides until one to OHare pops before 06:00 am. Afterward I am heading southwest to Texas for the Texas Auto Writers Truck Rodeo and onto my home just north of San Diego, California by early next week. Again thank you all for the informative posts and knowledge many of you pass on to others including myself that are new or did not know. Good luck to you all. ********************** Here was my last straw with Pool rides on the Uber platform!!! 55-minutes in the airport que, 2 hours and 7-minutes for this lousy 20-mile trip into downtown, and a whole $32.01 to show for it... Just as I am readying to leave the Chicago market for the last time... Again, I spoke with Uber support about the low Pool per minute rate of $0.1125/min vs regular UberX at $0.1575/min. Having completed 17 Pool rides and 48 non-Pool rides this Monday - Thursday, just 4 had more than one rider. The $4.00 extra did not make up for the lower Pool per minute rate or the less than minimum wage rate to pick up the second rider(s). Tips were lower and less frequent as well. Although it took 20-minutes on the phone, I was able to opt out of Pool rides and should never see them again. This will surely lower ride counts but drivers subsidizing Pool riders with lower pay makes no sense to me. I may lose a quest bonus - or not? - which will be the next test. In any case, my Pool rides are "supposedly" now off in the software and I hope to never subsidize another Pool rider again. I hope that helps? ********************** There was an earnings boost in my final two weeks in Chicago and it came from Lyft. Working 100 hour weeks showed I could only reach the second tier of four bonuses. Far north Chicago suburbs of course. Now the entire std. weekly driver challenge bonus is achievable without having an acceptance rate at 90+ percent and reaching a certain number of rides during the hours Lyft stated. ********************** I also deactivated my Uber account while crossing MO when I received this. I looked up the last 20 Uber ride waybills - Earnings details - and only 3 rides of my last 20 in the Chicago area would have made more $s - 17 less - under this new "neutral" rate plan. Talk about a kick in the teeth for Chicago suburb drivers!
Hi Mike: I knew the Chicago rideshare documentation experiment was heading south in a hurry when I began to see this kind of activity at the O'Hare Uber rider Queue in the evening and overnight hours during August. On a weeknight, Chicago's O'Hare queue reached 220 drivers at 12:27 am! Some of these drivers will not get an airport ride out until 08:00 am while burning through 8-hours of their 10-hour Chicago maximum limit. Chicago Rideshare guys and gals have to become much smarter and darn soon... There are far to many drivers in the Chicago market given the above. ☹ After the new app update reached Chicago in September, here is another Tuesday night just before 09:00 pm and there are 250 Uber drivers in queue? WTH? Hoping for a unicorn ride out of O'Hare with a 3 to 10+ hour wait ahead? A drive from ORD to downtown at this time of night is at most a $25.00 fare? Wayne
Hi All: Remember when I had to come back from California to close on a home in September? I fired up the apps on Sept. 12th to document Southeastern WI from Kenosha to Milwaukee. This is the kind of earnings that will incur regulation quickly. And unfortunately that probably means eliminating drivers to keep the regulators at bay through the rating system. That morning I took off at 06:55 am. After 5-hours and 15-minutes over the course of 126.5 miles, a $40 earnings stream was the result. This is ridiculous. The Mitchell Field (MKE) lot was filled to cap under both Uber and Lyft the 3 times I past it as well. If the Milwaukee region is any indication, Rideshare is quickly becoming broken for all but the most desperate in many areas of the country. Wayne
Hi All: On August 21st while headed to the 2019 RAM 3.6L eTorque first drive, I fired up the Uber and Lyft apps at the Detroit airport. Both logged in fine and Uber even provided airport pickup instructions. IL, WI, and MI are open to all Chicago area drivers. IN should be as well but I have never crossed the border to find out. Kentucky was also good for Chicago Lyft and Uber drivers. Only 2 Lyft drivers in the Lexington, KY driver queue as well! Wayne
Hi All: While in Burlingame, CA approximately 4 miles outside of SFO on a Sunday evening - 08:02 pm - last month, I fired up the Lyft app to see this... I guess San Francisco Uber and Lyft drivers are just as crazy as Chicago ones. I am not sure about the number of passenger/arrivals at SFO that night but I bet there are not as many as O'Hare. Wayne
Hi All: In early September while in Monterey, CA on business, I spoke with an Uber driver behind the wheel of a white Prius v. He was a bit unsure but said his mileage rate here was $1.65/mi. I am not sure about the per minute rate but I suspect it is a lot more than the $0.1575/min in Chicago as well? While few can afford to live in Monterey, those rates are more than double Chicago's. I am also not sure how busy he was given the 6 Uber drivers within a mile of me as I type this up but at least every ride was surely worth taking. Wayne
Hi All: One of my final nights of Uber and Lyft rideshare in Chicago. To the boondocks on a Saturday night in 6 easy pings. Zion, IL to Libertyville, IL. Check Libertyville, IL to Highland Park, IL. Check Highland Park, IL to Glenview, IL. Check. Glenview, IL to Chicago, IL. Check Chicago, IL to Lockport, IL. Check. Lockport, IL to Elwood, IL. Check. Oh *&%#, I am 106 miles away from home!!! A ton of deadhead miles back to Chicago... I had to slow a bit to capture this from my Garmin. It was 02:00 am when I dropped of a passenger in Elwood, IL and it was Death Valley dead. As in nobody was up other than the passenger and I and no car on this road for 10-miles. I did however see 2 coyotes, 1 skunk, 2 possums, 6 rabbits, and a deer while out in the sticks! Wayne
Hi All: In August, I was thinking it is a good thing I am almost done in Chicago. Uber Quest bonuses have fallen from $135 to $120 to $100 to $80/$85 over the course of just 6-months... In another 6-months they might be at $35? A year from now non-existent! Wayne
HI All: In mid-September, this was my first ride of the week. There are a lot of Rideshare guys and gals that get pissed off for driving "things" vs. people even though it it s the same $s. As long as you can see it and it is not drugs, firearms, illegal contraband, I do not mind at all. The best passenger is no passenger in my book. "Just drop off the keys at the address please." I wonder if I will get a 5-star rating for this? Wayne
Hi All: Rideshare in Chicago... The final days. A late night on the dangerous Southside: I picked up a mom and daughter from a Bible revival and saw the Deacon get hit by a car right on front of me! This was an extremely poor area that nobody ventures into for any reason. I called 911 of course, got out to see if I could help - a lot of off-duty Nurses and EMTs were there. Two rides later and just ahead, three punks were dumping garbage out of cans on the street and stealing the plastic bins??? Just one ride after that I hear three gun shots a few blocks over... I decided it was time to get the hell out of that area after the last incident. The following morning I see this in Highland Park, IL - one of the wealthiest Northern Chicago suburbs in IL - just a stones throw from "Deerfield" Road. The irony between night and day was duly noted... How many more miles of Rideshare did I promise again??? Wayne
Lambert's Home of Throwed Rolls! So on the way across IL... Oh wait, the Destination Filter to St Louis is running on both apps. I am heading down the Kennedy almost to Ohio and I receive a Lyft ping just off Orleans. Sure I said. Passenger was heading back toward Wrigleyville! Lyft has one hell of a Destination Filter! I was pinged around the city for a few hours before being shot out to OHare and out to Wheaton to begin the road trip in earnest. 2 lousy Lyft pings in Bloomington, IL for a $6.75 take. The Lyft rate card says it is only $0.60/mile and $0.11/minute there. Ok, that sucked. However... From ~ 20 miles north of Springfield, IL on 55, Uber is not showing me on the rider app??? I log off and back on and Uber states pick an eligible vehicle for this city. I call Uber and they state Chicago registered drivers cannot pick up in Rockford, Peoria, and Springfield. WTH??? I also could not logon to Uber from Springfield, IL all the way to East St. Louis. I could not logon in Missouri either. Lyft on the other hand carried on like nothing happened across all of IL and Missouri as expected. Early this morning I picked up 2 pings in the south St. Louis, Missouri suburbs. $0.94/mile and $0.15/min rates there and took in another $12.50. I am headed down 55 to Memphis to see what happens in TN. I hope to pick up 2 rides on either of the platforms while skirting the far west side of the state before crossing the rest of Arkansas this afternoon. I am currently parked at the famous Lamberts, Home of Throwed Rolls in Sikeston, MO. How is that for a killer Intentional Farm truck?
Hi All: Uber was good - read Live - in KY a few months back but it is not in TN. I am in the Lyft queue at the Memphis airport now. The rideshare queue is a very large cell phone lot right next to the terminals. Now this is great and beats the hell out of MKEs 40 place lot, and both ORDs huge lot and MDWs medium size lot 6+ minutes away! No bathroom facilities however. Coming in there were 16. When I got here at 03:25 pm there were 10. I am #7 after 15-minutes. I hope the countdown is quick. As an edit, the queue appears stalled at 5 after 30-minutes in the lot. I spoke with another Uber driver here in the MEM queue about the ins and outs. He gave me quite a few tips on where to pick up/drop off and how to avoid tickets. Pickups are next to Arrivals Door A, B, or C but do not stop in the walkway and do not roll the terminal stop signs as the cops are waiting. Apparently there was a news crew here yesterday documenting Uber and Lyft drivers screwing up with deactivations by Uber and Lyft immediately afterwards. I will try not to screw this up and hope the upcoming rider(s) are headed towards Texas or California! Wayne
Hi All: The TN drive results were not so good. On Lyft anyway. Uber locks Chicago area drivers out of the state so that is a no go. The rate card was $0.64/mile and just $0.0825/min in Memphis. I drove around Memphis for 45-minutes without a ping, sat in the Memphis airport queue for 35-minutes, took the almost hour long ride out, and returned to Arkansas were I started after another 45-minute drive back. How the hell do these guys and gals work for that little in TN? Just over 3-hours for $31 and change. At least you know where not to drive in the future. Wayne
