3 Critical Points Will Maximize Your Rideshare Driving Profits

Why am I not earning as much as other drivers are? This is the main question that you ask as a driver: How can I maximize rideshare driving profits? Why did I end up with no savings this month? Many drivers are asking this because they are not satisfied with their earnings driving for Uber and Lyft. Well, the thing is, sometimes you need to take a closer look at your budget and see that earning the highest possible amount of money from driving may not necessarily lead to savings.

There are many other elements you need to take into consideration such as the cost for insurance, taxes, gas and food savings, and so on. Your driver score can also affect your earnings and the type of cars such as Uber Select or Lyft Lux and Black classifications. Earning more when driving rideshare is not just a time + distance equation. You need to set a budget on all expenses (including the type of car you will drive), maximize earnings, and save money where possible.

 

The 3 Critical Points To Maximizing Rideshare Driving Profits Are:

• Staying Within A Budget
• Maximizing Profits
• Saving Money

 

Staying Within A Budget When Rideshare Driving

The concept of having a budget is probably The Most Important thing any person can do financially in their life. The concept seems simple and maybe even seems like a child would know this. We can just hear a kid saying “But I already know that!” The truth is having a budget is purely about will power. When you go to get in shape initially you say you will lift weights every day for 3 hours, but it never stays that way because you set the standard too high and this type of war is won from many small battles.

How do you set a budget and stick to it, so you don’t overspend and you can actually start Saving Money? Ah yes, a budget is basically what it takes to save money. So we make as much money as possible or maximize profits, but we also set a budget so we can save money. We can also maximize savings a bit more by making sure the services and the costs of doing business are minimized and we are not overspending on the things we do need to spend money on rideshare driving.

This info is not meant to be condescending to you as we know you know this, BUT can you do it consistently?

Most people cannot and this is the difference between most people in any career.

So how can you do this and keep a baseline of spending so you can start to keep more of the money you earn?  A Budget means setting a realistic baseline for what you will spend based off of what you are capable of earning per day, per week, per month. So your spending budget will include food, gas, insurance, phone, mints or water for passengers, maintenance, car-washing, cleaning, and anything else you might need to make more money or keep your business going.

When calculating these costs you will, for example, set a budget for food expenses per day of $20 to cover two meals and a few drinks and some mints. You will set a cost for gas per week based on how much it took to earn whatever you make your first week. You will calculate the cost of insurance per month, phone bill per month, a maintenance amount per year broken down into weekly amounts, car-washing on a monthly amount, etc.

Then you have a budget to work from and your job is to set your earnings level above that by the level of your needed income. Now make no mistake the amount you can earn driving is capped by hours allowed and how tiring it can be to drive too much. We have never maxed that out personally because it just wasn’t worth it to work that much for us, but we have worked 60 hours a week which is a lot.

Gas is a big expense in rideshare driving second only to your car payment. You can set a budget for gas per week based on earnings desired. So if you want to earn 1k per week before expenses for example. You could say you will need to drive  40-50 hours a week. What does that translate into in milage? That will vary greatly based on where and when you drive. We will give you the best advice on how to make the most with the least driving miles below.

You will want to read more about deciding to rent or own a car for ridesharing<— HERE

 

Maximizing  Rideshare Driving Profits

This war is won by many small battles, right? You need to know it is possible to make X amount daily and that you can accomplish that number.

You need to know you can make X amount daily and do it 4,5,6 days a week or however much is possible to hit your weekly number based on daily efforts and how many days you need to and are capable to drive for X amount of hours. You can only drive a maximum of 12 consecutive hours a day for Uber or Lyft. After 12 hours you must be off of drive mode for 6 hours before you can drive again.

This means the most you can drive in a week is 112 hours, but that is not possible as you will need to sleep and do any number of other things during a week. The most one could really work and be effective in life would be 12 hours a day or 84 total hours a week.

The amount you can make in a week will be limited by how much business is available based on the hours and locations that you drive. Some people report making $30 an hour all week long as an average and some report making $15. Your job is to maximize your earnings based on how and where you work.

Tips On How To Earn More With Lyft & Uber

• Try To Stay And Drive In The City:

If you are in a big city, try to stay there and find trips. It’s easier to find more trips in populated areas than in the suburbs. However, if you are driving in a small city, this might be different for you.

• Check The Passenger App

If you want to be able to accept more ride requests, you may want to check the Passenger App to see if there are too many other drivers in your area, and if there are, you can go to another area with fewer drivers available. Of course, if an area is super busy and has a lot of drivers you still want to wait there or maybe move just slightly out of the area to a zone with fewer cars.

• Don’t Drive Unless You Have A Request

Don’t think of gas as a joke. You are paying for it. It adds up over time and costs more than it seems at first and the more you drive without a passenger, the more money you are going to lose over time. So find a good spot to park your vehicle while you are looking for requests.

• Benefit From Surge Pricing / Prime Time Driving For Uber/Lyft

Driving at peak hours when there are more requests for rides than usual can really lead to higher earnings for drivers who are willing to drive during those periods.

However, some say this is a waste of time because most other drivers actually try to do the same thing which makes finding ride requests harder. Some drivers say this can be a real advantage to earn more money. We can say for sure it’s not a waste of time. In fact, different cities might have different peak hours and situations. So the best you can do is try driving a few different schedules and see if it really makes a difference.

The busiest times are mornings and evenings during rush hours and Evenings and weekends when people are going out a lot. However, another good strategy is to drive when no drivers are working because even when it is slow you will get all the trips. Uber and Lyft always have trips but not always a lot of drivers. Try it both ways.  If there are lots of passengers who need rides in your city, you’ll see hot spots on the map on your home screen. Just drive toward these high-demand areas to get ride requests.

Check Out: Driver’s Guide To Pay & Uber Pro

• Have Good Insurance (Maybe More of A Don’t Lose Money Consideration) 

Good drivers always know the value of good insurance so they don’t make the mistake of having an accident without it. You never know when one may happen, and you don’t want to pay out of your pocket because you can’t afford it from rideshare driving. Also, it is important to have good information about different insurance companies and compare them to each other so you find the one which is the most suitable for your situation.

Yes, Uber and Lyft both provide insurance coverage for their drivers, but there are some gaps you need to cover on your own so that’s where good insurance companies can cover you with special plans for ridesharing drivers.

• Uber Cartop Displays

Uber is going to pay very well for drivers who are going to help the company with its commercial purposes.

What they are offering you is to install an Uber cartop on your car in exchange for $300 upfront and $100 every week. It takes only about an hour to install it on your car and it’s guaranteed by Cargo. However, because it might impact your vehicle insurance, it’s best that you consult with your auto insurance provider if it will affect your insurance cost.

Vehicles with sunroof, moonroof, or a roof rack can not be modified with cartop display.

Check Out Cargo <— HERE

• Keep Your Rating High

Having a good driver rating will help you to earn more trips, rewards, and benefits from Uber and Lyft and increase your monthly income. It also encourages more riders to select you as their driver versus a driver with a lower rating. Check It Out —> Lyft Rewards – Lyft Benefits & Uber Pro

• Take A Break

It is going to help a lot if you take breaks between your driving hours, even if it’s a short one. Working consistently will make you tired faster than usual especially during peak hours. So having a small break can really improve your efficiency and attention.

• Provide Service & Safety

Yes. Driving safe, maintaining regular speed, arriving promptly, and having a nice looking vehicle all affecting your ratings and tips. But does it really matter if you don’t have a good relation with your passenger? Being nice and friendly is one of the most important things you have to keep in mind and the other things above make you look professional to the passenger without even needing to appear in a suit and tie. The passengers don’t expect that anyhow.

You just need to look clean as well as your vehicle and mirror the demeanor of your passenger. In other words, if they really do not want to talk do not make them, sometimes people are just trying to relax so do not bother them if they have that disposition. You can professionally ask them if they have a preferred route versus the recommended fastest route being suggested by your GPS.

Remember that just because a route was suggested as the fastest that can change in a minute based on traffic or construction. Politely remind the passenger about this so they do not blame it on your routing abilities and suggest taking the new recommended faster route if there is one in your GPS.

It is better to be safe than sorry. There are a few things you need to check to make sure you will have a safe trip:

Always have a first aid kit in your vehicle
Try to use a phone mount to avoid distraction while driving
Make sure to pick up your passenger at a safe spot
Make sure to have regular maintenance on your car

• Use Referrals and Signup Bonuses

Promo codes and signup bonuses offered by ridesharing companies you are driving for can really make a difference in your earnings. Make sure to check your driver app for these and try to use them as soon as one is available.

• Ridesharing Tax Write-Offs 

Please do not forget tax write-offs are huge on ridesharing. You can write off in 2020 at .57.5c a mile. We have always used the standard mileage rate deduction as it always saves us more, BUT please feel free to calculate it by itemizing all your expenses and see which is best!

You might not want to save all itemized expenses manually as it is a pain and a half, but rather use a tax, mileage and expense app to track everything and it will automatically show you which is best at the end of the year. Read About Ridesharing Tax Apps <—HERE

You can still claim some car expenses if you take the standard mileage rate deduction as well as other operating expenses and also receive a qualified business income deduction or QBI.

Read More About Ridesharing Taxes <— HERE

 

Saving Money On Rideshare Expenses

This is the last main step to making more money with ridesharing is to simply do not overspend on the things you MUST have in order to ride share properly or to make more money driving ride share. Ask yourself how to save money on things, for example, how can you save more money on gas consumption per week?

You can use a gas app like Gas Buddy to find the cheapest gas nearest to you to save up to .25c a gallon or even pay only $9.99 a month in order to save up to .40c a gallon.

That means you can save up to $4 for every 10 gallons you pump or around $6 dollars for an 18-gallon tank. That adds up at two-tank fulls a week on an 18-gallon tank to $12 a week minimum. $40-$50 a month might not seem like much, but it adds up to $500-$600 a year. Also, see above on how to strategize your driving and when to wait.

Do you want to buy a rideshare milage app or tax app? Remember it is a tax write off as well as making saving money easier, so it is probably worth the cost.

Do you want to buy an app like Gridwise or Sherpa Share, that shows you events happening in town as well as airline information in real-time? This info can also help you make more money by staying busy BUT as long as you are able to stay busy it doesn’t matter where you are getting your riders from for the most part and it doesn’t make sense to drive to a location if you are not already near it, UNLESS it is hyper-busy because the bonus amounts you can earn can really be a game-changer.

For example… driving 45 minutes to get to a busy area makes no sense at all unless you know you can constantly pull trips out of the area over and over without having to drive them far often. In this way, you may make many short to medium trips rather quickly. For example in a college town you know you will be very busy on the weekends with many short trips around the town.

Can you get something similar that does the job as well and save money with every 100% necessary purchase you are making?

This is what Saving money on Rideshare expenses means.

 

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