You just work a certain number of hours, between X time and Y time for Z number of days per week.
Sounds like a normal job right?
Apparently some jokers offered this plan to prospective Uber drivers.
Some folks want to try driving Uber but are concerned that they won't earn enough income in a month. So these jokers approached these prospective Uber drivers to offer them this plan.
The drivers would drive for a certain number of reasonable hours everyday, for 5-6 days, I don't know the exact details. They would be paid a fixed $3000. But ALL of their Uber earning would go to the "employer".
Basically it's a fixed pay job. Your employer earns your additional productivity and pays you a fixed salary.
Well, based on that number of working hours and working days, they usually make $4k+...
So end of the day, they obviously got "conned" so after the first month, they just became normal Uber drivers.
It's a true story.
So what are the learning points here?
1. As the driver... well it's like a normal employer/employee relationship, most of the time we don't even have the option to fire the employer and work and earn our full value add.
2. As the joker... there are really "smart/cunning" people out there who are making money with these "scams", I doubt it's illegal, hey, willing buyer willing seller. Cos if the driver somehow doesn't make the money back, the "employer" still needs to pay the $3k salary.
3. Uber drivers can earn $4k per month, no benefits, no CPF. Not too shabby actually. You can use the car on your self determined off days as well.
It's a pretty cool story which someone told me recently. I was quite impressed by the "employers".
He's an Uber driver too, quite close to me, he made these points about driving Uber.
1. Driving Uber is fun, you get to meet people and go to places in Singapore where you might not have been before.
2. You need to have patience when driving Uber, there are a lot of unreasonable people around and folks trying to be funny, 1 out of 10 riders have issues. He makes around 20-25 rides a day.
3. After the first week, if you're the type who can shut off, you will start to ignore those people. Some of them can be really unreasonable and mean/nasty.
4. Many Uber drivers don't know the roads well. So they drive in the center lane so that they are better able to filter if the GPS suddenly tells them to.
5. Uber drivers need to take into account ERP charges and all that, it's unnecessary bleeding of money. He once waited for someone at a parking lot and waited for 10 minutes and got charged for electronic parking fees. You may think it's a small amount but these amounts add up. It's like a business, you cut unnecessary costs when possible.
6. Grab's incentives are better than Uber.
7. He drove off peak hours so he gets better traffic conditions but his earnings are less per hour. If he drove peak hours, he would get more surge prices and earn more per hour. Peak hours are around the typical working hours for an office worker.
8. He suspects Lion City Rental or Uber has "mystery shoppers". Who intentionally rides Uber cars and asks the driver to do "illegal" things, film it and report back to LCR/Uber. Apparently, a rider had asked another Uber driver if he could smoke in the car, the driver allowed the rider to smoke and got filmed and reported. So either the rider is really a "jackass" or he's a mystery shopper to spot check the conduct of Uber drivers.
Still want to be an Uber driver?
At $4000, it's not too bad really.
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