Have you ever thought about being your own boss and earning a little bit of extra cash as an Uber of Lyft driver? Don't quit your day job, unless you are in a densely populated area which is not oversaturated with rideshare drivers, and don't mind working some pretty long hours. I will give you some perspective as a driver for both ridesharing service providers. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and there is a lot to think about before deciding to take the plunge.
Both Lyft and Uber have different requirements for vehicles and they vary from state to state so I have compiled a list of the requirements.
Uber's vehicle requirements
- Atlanta – 2005 or newer
- Boston – 2001 or newer
- Chicago – 2001 or newer
- DC: 2005 or newer
- Denver – 2001 or newer
- Dallas – 2003 or newer
- Milwaukee – 2001 or newer
- Nashville – 2001 or newer
- New York City: 2010 or Newer
- Philadelphia – 2000 or newer (could be 2001 or newer but not updated yet on Uber)
- Pittsburgh – 2006 or newer (hybrids 2004 or newer)
- LA/OC/SD and SF – 2001 or newer
Lyft's vehicle requirements
Car requirement: A 4-door car that is year 2005 or newer
- Alabama: Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile - 2007
- California (all cities) - 2004
- Colorado (all cities) - 2004
- Washington, D.C. - 2007
- Hawaii (all cities) - 2002
- Illinois: Bloomington - 2007
- Illinois: Chicago - 2004
- Louisiana: New Orleans - 2009
- Maryland (all cities) 2007
- Massachusetts (all cities) - 2004
- Minnesota: Duluth - 2007
- Minnesota: Minneapolis-St. Paul - 2004
- Nebraska: Omaha - 2002
- Nevada: Las Vegas - 2008
- Nevada: Reno - 2002
- New Jersey (all cities) - 2004
- New York: New York City Vehicle age requirements governed by the TLC
- North Carolina: Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham - 2002
- Pennsylvania (all cities) - 2007
- Ohio: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo - 2002
- Oregon: Portland - 2007
- Rhode Island: Providence - 2004
- Tennessee: Nashville - 2004
- Texas: Austin & Dallas - 2004
- Virginia: Virginia Beach - 2002
- Virginia (all other cities) - 2007
- Washington: Seattle - 2007
If you have a new enough car and feel like hitting the road going wherever a passenger wants to go, find your closest Uber or Lyft inspection site and get the process started. Both services require a complete vehicle inspection and offer this inspection for free. If there is not a location nearby that provides a free inspection, many mechanics will perform the inspection for a small fee.
The next step is to find out if your insurance covers your activities while in "the gap" when you are not covered by the rideshare service's insurance. When you have a passenger in the vehicle, both Uber and Lyft are responsible for any accidents, but there is a period of time when you have the app turned on but do not yet have a passenger that is generally not covered by many insurance companies. If your insurance company is one of the ones who do not cover this period of time, they will drop you from their coverage if they find out you are doing ridesharing while insured. Some companies that offer coverage are Geico, State Farm, Progressive, USAA, Farmers, Mercury, and Metromile, which is my insurer of choice. Metromile offers pay by mile coverage and actually doesn't charge for any miles driven with an Uber passenger. They have a partnership with Uber and the app shares ride information with them.
Neither service will be taxing you directly, but instead will provide you with a 1099 form if you earn more than $600 in a year. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a 1099, this means you are responsible for paying the taxes on all of your earnings at the end of the year! Do not forget about this or you will be in trouble. Save all of your receipts, including gas, food, and car washes, as these can all be deducted in the taxes.
Both Lyft and Uber will also do a basic background check and this usually takes a week or so to clear. Once all of the approvals are complete you will be able to download the appropriate driver app and prepare to pick up your first rider. Choosing which company to drive for is a personal preference, but I will try to list as many pros and cons for each of the services below.
Uber controls the largest share of the market, but after recent bad press, has lowered to roughly 75% of the market share. This being said, the frequency of rides when working for Uber is MUCH higher than Lyft. Uber takes a 20% fee for all rides they provide. When picking up a passenger for Uber, there is nothing more than the rider's name and location provided. In-app navigation is a little clunky, therefore using Google maps or Waze is much more preferable. Uber provides up to 6 destination rides, where you are able to enter your final destination and pick up passengers that are headed the same direction. They have also added an arrival time function to this feature recently. Uber now allows riders to enter a tip on the final ride, but since this feature is newer, passengers are much less likely to tip than with Lyft. There is a daily payout function that allows you to collect your earnings every day instead of the weekly payouts that are standard.
Uber also offers the Uber Eats program, and this requires you to enter one of the greenlight locations to pick up a food bag. Food delivery is not my favorite thing to do, because after a delivery, you car will smell like the food you have just transported. This can make for an awkward ride after a delivery. With the massive fees Uber charges for a food delivery, you can basically forget about getting a tip as well.
Lyft rides are less frequent, but have a much higher probability of having a tip included since they have always included this feature right in the app. Depending on the area, an average of 1-4 rides per hour is common. When trying to hit a new sign up bonus that requires a lot of hours, this actually helps in reducing your costs. You will spend less money on gas, yet still log hours towards your bonus. Riders have the option of providing a photograph of themselves for identification which makes picking up passengers in busy areas much more simple. The overall culture at Lyft is much more casual and there are more bonuses available to drivers. Overall the riders are a little bit more classy when working for Lyft as well. This is the service I prefer to work for, unless I end up in the middle of nowhere. Once in the styx, it is much more likely you will pick up a ride from an Uber app user. Fees are similar to Uber and 20% will be taken from your rides.
I have two examples of fairly decent hours worked in a week and in these examples Uber turned out to be the higher paying service.
Notice that Uber does not readily place their fees on the earnings page. Psychological tactics so you forget how much of your earnings they are taking.
If you have decided that working for a few hours here and there and meeting some interesting people sounds like a great time, use my referral codes and we both get a little extra cheddar. Thanks for reading!
https://www.lyft.com/drivers/AUSTIN406736
https://partners.uber.com/i/austinq30ue
thanks to @kristyglas for the line breaks, find more here
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