Watch my full rideshare driver masterclass - Thrive! This project is a comprehensive course designed to help Uber and Lyft drivers thrive. I cover mastering markets, picking trips, financial management, gig worker life, and more.

"…push with your thumb and then grab…" I offered to help William with the Tesla door. "I'm all right." He had a cane in one hand and a grocery bag in the other. After getting the door open, he sat down, right foot outside the door. Then, after a pause, he put both hands under his thigh, huffed and groaned, lifting and then swiveling his foot in. "I've never seen a design that is that stupid,” he said. I tried to explain the Tesla door handles, again. This was maybe our sixth ride. Something about electric cars and wind resistance at high speed. One of those things engineers do. "Make things stupid?" “Well, what’s new sir?” "You know. It always is a little painful not being able to drive anymore. But you get used to it." The last time he drove was 5 years ago. “I can't clip my own nails, it's too painful, and I can't bend that low. He's my favorite doctor." He told me one day he was driving to that doctor and he couldn't feel the pedals anymore. He gave his car to someone who needed all-wheel drive. "How is this in the snow?" Stopping at Target, he reached for the door. "Same problem," I said. "The button and the door, same time. Push it."

"Market Dependent" Is a Lazy Answer - I push back on the line drivers love to use and explain how I drive a college campus differently than the airport. #uberdriver #rideshare #miami #strategy

Why I Stopped Taking Long Uber Trips - A five-hour long-distance trip out of Boston paid about $350, but the unpaid drive back taught Rafael short city trips pay the same or more. #uber #uberdriver #boston #longtrips

Uber has a take rate problem. I’ve completed 16,487 Uber trips over the past 6 years and 8 months. I decided to pull my own numbers to see what’s actually happening. I started with 3,400 short UberX trips. No surge. Just ordinary rides, 20 minutes or less with a passenger. They’re the most common trips I take and the easiest to compare. Here’s what I found. In late 2024, I received about 45% of what the passenger paid. Today, I’m getting about 35%. Where did the other 10% go? Mostly to insurance and operating expenses. In December 2025, Uber changed its insurance and operations charge from a relatively fixed $2.74–$3.07 per trip to a variable amount that now averages around $5. The passenger pays more. I get less. Over the same period, passenger prices per mile increased 16.7%. My base pay per mile actually fell 0.7%. And that’s before inflation. But here’s where it gets really interesting. I’ve driven between Ithaca and Syracuse 177 times. The median passenger fare was $123.48, and Uber kept an average of about 19% after insurance, taxes and fees. But Uber’s cut on individual rides ranged from negative to nearly 42%. Last week, a passenger paid $207.15 for a ride to Syracuse. I received $73.02. Uber kept $86.52 after insurance, taxes and fees. I’ve driven that route dozens of times for far less. Same road. Same car. Same driver. Wildly different prices and cuts. Neither the passenger nor I knows why. And it’s not just long trips. On surge rides in 2025, Uber sometimes kept almost nothing. In 2026, it’s keeping roughly 22–25%. Now, you might think my income has collapsed. It hasn’t. My hourly earnings, after vehicle expenses and including tips and promotions, went from $23.14 to $24.26. That’s a $1.12 raise while passenger prices climbed and inflation ate away at my purchasing power. Uber has enormous pricing power. It can charge passengers one price and offer drivers another, with very little transparency connecting the two. And because it dominates the market, there’s not much either side can do about it. At least not today. AI is making it easier for drivers and passengers to understand the numbers. Meanwhile, Waymo, Zoox and Tesla are building their own vehicles and platforms to compete for those same rides. I don’t think Uber’s biggest problem is that it takes too much money. It’s that nobody can explain why it takes what it takes. And the less transparent its pricing becomes, the more opportunity it creates for somebody else to offer a better deal. More competition. More transparency. Less room for enormous margins. Today’s opportunity is tomorrow’s problem.

Does Car Brand Matter for Uber? - Is Toyota reliability an old wives' tale? Todd says most cars are built well now and maintenance history matters more than the badge. #toyota #uberdriver #carbuying

Is Asking for Tips Rude? - John won't ask for a tip because it feels rude; I ask for ratings, and for tips when riders want a favor, and we both know "I'll tip you in the app." #uberdriver #tips #lyft

I Made $600 on Vacation. That's When Everything Changed. - Trent sold 17 items while on vacation, realized he didn't need to drive anymore, and hasn't turned on the Uber app since June. #ebay #reseller #uberdriver #palmbeach

Define a "Bad" Uber Trip - An 80-cents-a-mile ride can still be good if it goes where you want, like Joseph's $70 trip from Orlando that paid him to drive home. #uberdriver #rideshare #miami #orlando

I Quit My Job to Become a Gig Worker - Lisa worked all through COVID for her employer, then had to prove she had COVID and use vacation days for it, so she went where she knew the money was. #gigwork #covid #uberdriver

Will a Bank Finance a Car for Uber? - Todd says new drivers hoping to finance a car on future Uber earnings should expect to put money down unless their credit is strong. #carloan #uberdriver #financing

Xin and Hao were future quants. They were Cornell grad students heading back from Taughannock Falls 11 miles down Cayuga Lake to Ithaca. After a few minutes Xin asked me if he could add a stop at a Chinese church after we dropped off Hao at his apartment. Xin said he was “uh, well, partially” Christian. “Partially?” I asked. Hao stayed on his phone. “Because we are Chinese, growing up, our education taught us to trust the science,” Xin said. Hao said goodbye at his place near the Ithaca Commons, leaving Xin and me alone. We didn’t say much on the 5-minute uphill trip to the church. “Take care,” I said when I pulled up. “Bye,” he smiled back and shut the door.

The Best $1 Tip - A former military officer and executive, Bill says loading an older rider's groceries and getting a $1 tip beats any private-jet-terminal pickup. #uberdriver #tips #cleveland #rideshare

My Passenger Tried to Sue Me - After a tiny fender-bender, Trent's own passenger pocketed the other driver's cash and then called a lawyer on him. #uberdriver #rideshare #palmbeach #lawsuit

She's Terrified of My Self-Driving Tesla - Halfway through the ride, Lisa realized nobody was actually driving my Tesla. #tesla #fsd #selfdriving

Who Actually Tips Uber Drivers? - After tracking 150 of my own rides, the biggest tip factor was passenger rating, and John explains who gets his five stars. #uberdriver #tips #riderrating

Todd's advice for a full-time driver's car: blind spots, your back and legroom for you and passengers come first.

I gave Grok years of my driving data and thousands of trip offers. Then I asked how much better I could be doing. Its estimate? $20,400 more per year. Uber has an algorithm. Now I have one too. DIY LINK: levispires.com/uber-driver-b… Daily Drive 2436 – at Cazenovia, NY

The Biggest Uber Lie - It's not "I'll tip you in the app." #uber #uberdriver #tipyouintheapp #rideshare

I Made $30,000 a Year in Uber Tips - Rafael's best year brought in about $30,000 in Uber tips; last year it was $17,000. #uberdriver #tips #boston #rideshare

I like being an Uber driver. It’s not always easy. There are drunk people to deal with and an app that feels like a casino. Your beautiful car gets destroyed. So does your back. And the money isn’t that great either. But I like it. I love it. It’s the people. Even some of the drunk ones. I like meeting a random stranger and learning even the smallest thing about them. The conversations are great. But that’s not really what I mean. I learn a lot about people from where I pick them up and where I drop them off. The way they enter the car. The way the stuff in their purse rattles when they toss it onto the back seat. I notice smells, both good and bad. I hear music leaking from their headphones or fingernails tapping against a phone. And I wonder what they notice about me. Probably what I wear, usually just a T-shirt and sweatshirt. I hope I don’t smell, good or bad. I hope they notice how I drive. The way I slowly come to a stop. How I position the car so their door is right next to the entrance they’re heading toward. I think about these things. – at Cazenovia, NY