October 2019 Uber Earnings Report

30 Oct -7 Oct £434.52 (£22.23 Per Hour)

This week kicked of October really well earning £434 in less than 20 hours on the Uber app for an hourly average of £22.23.

But it could have been better as a couple of rookie mistakes stopped me from being out on the road earning.

Monday morning started of really well with £34 in less than 1 h 1/2. As I was dropping off the last rider I was logged off the app by Uber because my insurance documents had expired. This was purely my fault as I had a week to get the new documents uploaded, but as usual I left it to the night before. At the moment I am renting the car through Drover on a 4 weekly contract and the new insurance documents no longer have your name on, which means you have to upload supporting documents to show that you are insured on the car. I had uploaded the documents in the wrong section, which meant that by the time the new documents got accepted, I was out of action for a whole day.

This also prompted me to sign up with a second rideshare app, so if for any reason I couldn’t log on to uber again, I would have a second option to keep on earning. I’ve decided to go with bolt as they seem to be the second best option after Uber, but I will be looking into signing up with Viavan and Kapten also.

Remember, when uploading your insurance documents on the uber app, it is in the Permission Letter section that you have to download the supporting document.

On Saturday, I made the same mistake as I did when I first started driving Private Hire and that was forgetting my Private Hire Badge at home. I could have just carried on working, but in lieu of me starting full time next week, I couldn’t risk getting caught by a TFL inspector, so I ended up doing a 2 hour round trip on a busy saturday to go home and pick up my badge.

As frustrating as it was, it was a lesson learned, so from now on, I’ll be leaving my pco badge in the car at the end of my shift.

I chose this weeks ‘Job Of The Week’ because it is a good example of how quick, short trips, with a bit of luck, can sometimes pay more than much longer trips. The 1.22 mile trip took 6 minutes and 51 seconds and payed £7.07. This was due to the fact that I picked it up within the CC zone which paid an extra £1 and it was on a 1.6x surge which paid an additional £3.04.

Being in the CC zone on a busy night in a constant surge can really pay dividends.

As mentioned, next week will be the start of me entering the gig economy and going full time in the Private Hire industry.

I feel like I have done a good job maximising my time and earnings as a part time Uber driver. Lets hope I can replicate this going full time.

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7 Oct – 14 Oct | Uber £941.46 | Bolt £5 |Cash Tip £10 | Total £956.46

This week was my first week as a full time app driver in the gig economy. I’ll be writing soon about why I decided to leave my secure well paid job to be a self employed private hire driver, but for now I will just say that I couldn’t be happier with my decision.

Overall, it was a great first week driving rideshare, even though I just missed out on my target. I was aiming for £1000 and ended up with a respectable £956.46

All of that was driving on the Uber platform apart from the 1 trip I did with Bolt for £5. The reason I used Bolt only once, was because I had uploaded my old driving licence which meant that the address didn’t match with my private hire licence. When this was flagged by Bolt, I was deactivated from the platform, but hopefully this will be resolved by next week so I can start using Uber and Bolt simultaneously which will give me access to more rides and promotions.

This week I used as a feeling out process to try and slowly figure out a strategy to be able to maximise my time and earnings. It’s funny, because I feel like a beginner trying to figure this whole game out again. Doing this part time was pretty simple. The strategy was finish work, go home to eat and see the kids and then head down to the West end to hopefully pick up some surge for 3-4 hours, then head home.

Now I have 24 hours to plan my driving around so it is a lot more involved. Additionally I need to work around my children’s school runs in the morning and afternoon so it’s going to take some serious planning to be able to comfortably hitting my target of a minimum of £1000 every week

This week I worked a split shift from 8:30 am till 2 pm and then from 8 pm till 1-2 am with a few more hours thrown in the afternoon when I had the chance. In total I worked 54 1/2 hours for the week which sounds like a lot but in reality wasnt that tiering at all.

I also intentionally avoided any jobs that where going into the congestion zone and tried to stay local to the North of London to see If I could hit my target without having to travel into the city in the day.

Considering I never worked the early morning rush from 5 am onwards and only stayed in the suburbs in the day, I am happy with what I earned for the week and optimistic for the future.

The plan for next week is to experiment when 5am starts to hopefully hit the majority of my daily target by the end of the morning. I will also start accepting trips that are going to take me into the congestion charge zone and then stay there to take advantage of the extra £1 per trip and higher demand.

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14 Oct – 21 Oct | Uber £576.82 | Bolt £196.10 | Total £772.92

After working every day last week, I was feeling exhausted on Monday so I only worked a few hours and got any early night to rest, recuperate ready for a 5am start on Tuesday.

The early morning start worked out quite lucrative as I was £100 by 11am. No traffic and high demand meant that it was a nice and easy run of continuous work. After 11 I ended back up to the north of London which was deadly quiet which seems to be the trend.

On Wednesday morning I picked up my first airport run from central London to Heathrow and got an immediate rematch to Hackney. By now it was peak early morning rush hour with problems on the roads which meant it took me 2 hours to complete the second journey. Both airport runs did not pay great and we’re really not worth the hassle. I’m still not sold on airport runs being the way to go and are probably worth avoiding unless they are very early morning or very late at night to avoid the traffic.

To add insult to injury I also got a flat tyre near the end of the second trip which put me out for a couple of hours.

By Thursday, I was finally reactivated on the Bolt platform and ended up with loads of work from them all week. They also pay better than bolt and there seems to be a high demand for Bolt in my area of Enfield so having the second app running to fill up the dead time with Uber is working out really well.

Unfortunately I didn’t work friday night and all day saturday because of an emergency so I didn’t hit my target of £1000 this week but all things considering £772 wasn’t too bad.

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21 Oct – 28 Oct | Uber £631.88 | Bolt £358.15 |Cash Tips £11 | Total £1001.03

Great week this week and finally hit my target of £1000 for the week. This week was especially good because it validated why I decided to become a private hire driver in the first place. Trying to fit family commitments around a full time job was always a problem for me especially during holidays and half terms. Because of the flexibility this gig allows you, I was able to spend all day with my kids for the first time during half term and I still managed to earn £1000.

As you can see, I worked every day this week but not for a crazy amount of hours apart from Friday and Saturday night where I worked 9 and 10 hours respectively.

The strategy this week was to work split shifts from 5am till around 10am and then a few more hours in the night.

Early morning starts are definitely the way to go as there is high demand and no traffic so I will definitely be sticking with that and so should you too. To be successful in this game you need to work smart and working times of low demand is not a good strategy. If your trying to figure out what times are best for you to work, I highly recommend you wake up as early as possible and start your day with a bang.

This week I also used Bolt for the first time all week which I also highlighted to me how important it is to be using at least 2 apps at the same time. Having 2 apps running at the same time gives you so much more opportunity and reduces your waiting time drastically. Although Bolt pays better than Uber, it doesn’t show the destination so I have had to use it strategically. I am only using Bolt early morning at the start of my shift when I haven’t got any time constraints and I know I’m going to be working for a good few hours. If I know I need to be somewhere, or I am coming to the end of my shift or if I’m trying to avoid the congestion zone then I will only use Uber. Uber showing the destination is really a blessing and allows you so much more control over your work day. Hopefully all the other apps follow suite.

Over all, it was a good month and a good learning process as I adapt to full time as a Private Hire Driver. Strategically, I am taking a lot of good stuff into next month and physically I feel like I have finally adapted to the rigours of being a full time driver although I have to make sure, just like you do to stay on top of your health and fitness and not allow this job to affect that because that is very easy to do.

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