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Uber Driver Pay Is Broken. Or Is It?

Levi Spires

5,830 views

Uber Lowball Offers, Rate Cards, and What Drivers Really Need: Transparency & Tools

Upfront Tip Newsletter: https://www.levispires.com/uber-drive...

Len Sherman's Article: Medium: does-corporate-trustworthiness-matter

In this episode, I share a conversation with an Uber executive at the Only On Uber event in Miami after showing a Trip Radar offer that would’ve paid me less than New York’s minimum wage once I factored in expenses—and her reaction, “Did you take the trip?” I break down that $9.07, 31-minute, 13.5-mile offer and explain how I use the GigU app to quickly estimate profitability and avoid bad trips. I compare my Friday earnings in New York to what I would’ve made under Washington State’s rate card, finding I’d have earned $61 more (36%)—mostly from long trips—while some short trips would pay less. I discuss agency, upfront pricing and information asymmetry, deadhead miles, and why I want more transparency and better in-app tools rather than a government-mandated rate card.

00:00 Lowball Offer Story
01:07 Podcast Intro Sponsors
01:32 Using GigU Calculator
02:04 Breaking Down The Fare
02:39 What Makes More Money
03:38 Miles Data Blind Spot
05:17 Testing Washington Rate Card
07:34 Short Trips Pay Less
08:38 Deadhead Strategy Problems
09:58 Agency Over Regulation
11:05 Upfront Pricing Asymmetry
14:02 Transparency And Rewards
18:08 What Drivers Really Want
18:36 Wrap Up And Community

Episode 2413

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About the Daily Drive

The Daily Drive is a podcast from Uber driver Levi Spires about rideshare driving, the gig economy, life between rides, and the conversations that happen in the back seat.

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20 Comments

@tipyouintheapp Creator 3 days ago Pinned

How do you feel about low-paying offers from Uber? Do you take them? :_Tip:

@GaryCorzett 2 days ago

As experienced drivers (10.5 years and 25,000+ trips for me), I think our frustration lies in what we used to get paid versus what we now get paid. Gotta let that go, its never coming back. Uber pro levels need to be ignored, and each trip needs to be evaluated on its own merits: revenue per hour, revenue per mile, direction, and final destination. Know what you will and won't accept, and wait for those trips. I drive because I love doing it, I love the freedom I have in doing it, and I make some money doing it. Stay safe, stay happy, and I hope something good happens to you each day! 🎉😊

@darka310 2 days ago

The fact that I can decline a bad offer doesn’t make the offer reasonable. If a company cuts pay and says, “Well, you don’t have to take it,” that doesn’t answer whether the pay is fair

If Uber charges the rider $30 for a trip but offers the driver $8, and the driver declines it, saying “you didn’t have to accept it” avoids the actual issue. The question is why the person providing the car, gas, maintenance, insurance, and labor is being offered so little in the first place

And if drivers are constantly declining these offers because the pay no longer makes financial sense, that’s not proof there’s no problem. That can be evidence of the problem

@ram0166 2 days ago

I will occasionally take a bad offer. Mostly when I'm stranded in a suburban area and need to get back to the city. At least I'm on my way to a pickup while I'm backhauling air.

@Drauzio-Vrau-Nelas 3 days ago

In Dallas i receive offers such as 3.88 for 27 minutes (9.8 miles). Just insane

@6WATCHMEDIA 2 days ago (edited)

Uber is a labor system designed to pay nothing for labor. The bait period is over, now on to the switch... and there is an infinite amount of people who will voluntarily consent to work for nothing, giving Uber no incentive to pay anything and pricing the smarter people out of the Uber labor market. Can't compete with somebody who doesn't know or doesn't care that they're working for less than $0. You also have people who think their AR is a real metric giving Uber the best of both worlds. Uber gets all the upside in every equation.

@k3vid 2 days ago

Uber seems to have changed pay to ignore mileage and mainly pay a lower hourly rate. The longer the trip, the less pay per mile and the lower hourly pay.

Uber won't solve this. The do this to take more of the money. It will take a govt mandate or driver strike or massive loss of to get Uber to pay us fairly.

@Carlos-oy1gl 2 days ago

Bad offers are always taken, bigger cities bring better opportunities, smaller towns, you’ll take trips before others do

@howardfletcher7206 2 days ago

Uber a perfect employment model gain the advantages of willing workers outsource major costs like maintenance repairs fuel depreciation onto the workers then lower pay gradually and achieve a soft mass firing. The firing gets rid of surplus drivers, smart as they may be, safe, professional, proven records they may have, but deemed to expensive by uber. So offer less and less to those older drivers holding out for real money. Bring in the new pay them a bit more hook them and then repeat process of lowering pay gradually.
Both apps achieve a given # of “good” drivers in any given area at any time. Then cut back until reliable service begins to drop.

@briansokolowski5779 2 days ago

This is all so market dependent. Where I drive, on slow days, I’d take the rate card. Busy times, where I set myself up to drive, that’s absolute garbage. No one likes lowball offers. I pay almost no attention to them.

@gsuser-cw7fe3fu1x 2 days ago

Her answer is exactly the problem. They know they can send these shitty offers cause someone will be desperate enough to take it. Every day I see trips on lyft paying literally .50 a mile to the airport.... UH the current tax write off per mile is .75. My question to Uber and Lyft is how long until the Uncle same is like they dudes your drivers are not paying any taxes cause they are making no profit what gives?

@kennethyau1271 2 days ago

Maybe the lowball offers serve 2 purposes:
1. if any driver which is hungry enough or inexperience enough to justify whether to take the trip or not, Uber makes extra money
2. to test how much of a lowball offer on that specific driver / group of drivers / area would accept to better create the next rate card and maximize Uber's profit

I am a typical 10-hour day / 7 days a week driver in Nassau NY (2013 Sienna and would accepts X, XL, XXL, Pets, Kids but not deliveries) and I set my goal to make $300 each day, sometimes I will take the lowball offer to meet my target, it sounds silly but I need the money to keep the food on the table :) I would not be surprise Uber's logarithm can identify drivers with habits / patterns like myself so they would offer crazy rates to us.

@markpelle894 2 days ago

I'm down to 5% AR and have effectively soft quit Uber after 4 full time years. Uber brand will suffer with most 5 star drivers quitting. It is what it is. Low offers feel like an insult at this volume. Good job, Levi.

@russellwickham8334 2 days ago

Minimum fares two weeks ago in my market ran $3.68. For the last two weeks it has been $3.21. I am working on hanging it up because I have lost money every month I have done this.

@mikewhitley6769 3 days ago

In 2026 in our market levi im in ny long island where mechanic shop rates are between 160-180 an hour insurance costs tires gas ect.. the rate per mile should be 2.50 a mile minimum

@llcane1 2 days ago

They out the bad offers out there because they know someone will take it. In my area it has a high long trip request rate. I never take them because it would be insane to do so especially with these gas prices. I got a request yesterday that was $78 for 156 mile trip one way. No one in their right mind should drive 312 miles(5 hours) for $78 before deducting for gas but they do. They really need to fix that.

@kingsaw5282 1 day ago

Why is there no one regulating this? Our politicians are USELESS

@TravisScottLVD 2 days ago (edited)

To answer your question about who is taking the lowball offers, it was me when I had a day job.

Rideshare became one of my best tools for lowering my W-2’s tax burden, and so the pay did not matter as much because the business expenses were so good.

Now that I am driving full time, I had to become better at picking rides to make sure I am profitable throughout the year. Thank you for your hard work and the hard work of other rideshare experts on here that have trained me to become better at discerning rates.

I drive overnight currently, and in my area, there aren’t many drivers out which causes Uber/Lyft to regularly resend offers at a higher rate after I decline the first offer because there just aren’t enough drivers to fill the rides. Glad to report that basic economic is working here! 🥳

@MR-si2cd 2 days ago

The easy fix is for uber to pay more as time progresses instead of taking more as time progresses. Encourage passengers to hurry up by charging more for waiting and passing the money to the driver

@WhiskerWisdom8 2 days ago

Yes, Uber pay absolutely sucks. There is ZERO reason anyone should accept a ride that pays less than $20. I don’t care if the trip is 2 minutes long.
Think about what you’re actually taking on every time you pick up a complete stranger. You’re putting your health, safety, time, and vehicle on the line. Just in the last week alone, I’ve had 15–20 people coughing in my car. And that’s only one of the risks.

There are accidents. There are aggressive or unpredictable passengers. Someone can punch you, stab you, puke all over your car, spill something, leave garbage behind, damage your vehicle—the list goes on.

Then you have gas, mileage, wear and tear, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, depreciation, and all the time you’re spending driving around for these companies.

And somehow Uber and Lyft think $5 or $6 is acceptable compensation for all of that? Those fares are a joke. Drivers need to stop treating them like they’re normal.

If a ride doesn’t pay enough to make the time, risk, expenses, and wear on your car worthwhile, DECLINE IT. Your time and your vehicle are worth more than a $5 payout.