Introduction; First "FAQ" Question Answered


Yay! My very first "Confessions of an Uber X Driver" blog (hereinafter referred to as the COXD blog), and I figure I might as well spend it addressing the most frequent question I get from passengers: "How do you like driving for Uber?"

As of this posting (March 22, 2014) I've been at it for roughly six weeks now. And so far it's been a mostly positive experience. Uber has been a fair company to work with so far. Uber X drivers are 100% self-employed, and not in the "self-employed, wink-wink" variety some companies use to keep de facto employees off their official employee roles. We are responsible to provide our own car, our own insurance (more on that topic in a later post, I'm sure), we pay our own expenses (fuel, maintenance costs, etc.). And in return, we determine our own schedules. I have heard, but don't know for sure if it's true, that some other "ride-share" services require drivers to sign up for shifts. Not so with Uber. I go out and work when I want, and I stay home when I want. If I'm ambitious enough to work 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, I'm certainly welcome to. If I want to take the entire week off, that's my prerogative.

So what does Uber X provide to its drivers? They provide the marketing, the customer stream, and the IT infrastructure that makes the whole service possible. They also provide the iPhone (and pay for the data plan) through which we manage our passenger requests and that serves as the "meter" for your ride. Unfortunately the phone is pretty locked down, allowing little more than their own app to operate -- no phone calls, no Angry Birds, no music library. We need to provide our own phone for contact between ourselves and waiting passengers and any music we want to stream through our in-car infotainment systems. For all this they take a 5% cut from Uber X drivers (I understand it's higher for Taxi, Black, and SUV drivers), which I consider more than fair to the drivers.

More "Frequently Asked Questions" coming soon...