I will be the first to admit, when I first heard about UBER, I was very skeptical. Matter of fact, if I had to hold my left hand up and solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, I would have to admit that I was downright critical. You see, I was a cab driver for three years and 5 months of my life. My loyalty was the to cab companies and more importantly to the cabbies who are trying to make a living. Yet, the more I began to study UBER and separate fact from fiction, the more it began to grow on me as something that might actually be positive. Something that might even be good for me.
I have a good job. Matter of fact, I have a very good job. Iowa One Call treats me well in a variety of ways, including financially. I make enough money to have a nice home, a nice car and pay my bills quite comfortably. For that I am very thankful. However, I don't make enough money to where I can put much money in the bank for savings. I don't make enough money to where I can throw an extra $100 towards my monthly loan payments to get them paid off quicker. I've tapped into a few different ideas. About a year ago I tampered around with the idea of getting involved with Primerica and trying to sell insurance part time. The more I talked with representatives, the more of a burden it seemed it was going to be than a benefit. I've also contemplated around with the idea of getting a part time job at a convenience store or something of the sort, but with my whacky and goofy schedule with Iowa One Call, which can sometimes put me all the way across the state for days at time, that wasn't going to work either.
An Iowa One Call Board of Directors representative suggested to me to try UBER. He had to talk me into it, but he assured me that I would love it. Well, he was right. Not only do I love UBER, I LOVE UBER. It is 10,000 times better than cab driving. Ooh, let me count the ways.
Now before I get started, there are a few drags with UBER. You use your own car, so you have the wear and tear on you vehicle. Some say that it's also a drag that you have to pay for the gas too, but I had to pay 50% of the gas driving for Number One Cab and a surcharge of $0.50 per trip with Yellow. To me it's not a drag. The only thing that did suck thus far is that I had to upgrade from personal to commercial insurance on my car. I went from paying about $78 a month to now paying $140 a month. I also had to upgrade my phone too, which I doubt anyone besides me had to do, considering I'm the only person I know my age that still uses a "granny" cell phone.
Now, why do I say UBER is 10,000 times better than cab driving?
You Work When you WANT to Work
Until you spend 12-15 hours in a cab a night, every night, seven days a week, you do not realize how awesome this is. Working for yellow cab, I might have 1-3 rides between 6 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. Most nights you weren't really working until 10:00 p.m. - 2:30 a.m. I had nights when I would sit for as long as 5 hours without a single ride. 5 hours where I was making NO money, AT ALL. Yet, I couldn't go to the gym. I couldn't go sit down at a nice restaurant and have a meal. All I was allowed to do was to find a place to park and just sit there.
It was even worse in the morning. It'd be 5:45 a.m. I'd been sitting in a parking lot since 3:00 a.m. bored out of my mind. I'd watch the minutes solely tick by on the clock, begging them to go faster so I could go home. Then at 5:55 a.m. I'd get a call to go all the way across town to pick up Janet and take her to work for her $7, blatantly refuses to tip ride. I'd only make $2.80 off of that ride, and it'd put me back to the office around 7:00 a.m.
In UBER you don't deal with that crap! If it isn't busy, you turn the application off and you do whatever it is you want to do. Go to the gym, read, write, hang out with your friends. If you learn the times and places to be, you work when it's busy. There is no wasting time and I am so thankful for that. UBER-ing kicks the shit out of cabbing.
You don't have to deal with the BULLSHIT
Now don't get me wrong. Many of the customers who rode with Yellow cab were good, decent and fun people. Yet, not everyone was. I can't count the number of times when some pretentious woman who thought because she was good looking, that I should drive her to Northern North Liberty for free. Someone that spent $75 on alcohol that night, but think $10 for a cab ride home is OUTRAGEOUS. How about the times I was robbed? How about the time a guy put a pellet gun to the back of my head? How about the time a guy stole $90 from me? How about all of the shady people I had to deal with?
Guess what, you don't have to deal with ANY of that in UBER. Your fare is paid AHEAD of time. The customer sets up a direct withdrawal and you set up a direct deposit. It is easy, convenient and awesome. You won't get screwed by someone who doesn't have any money. You don't carry any cash on you, so you won't get robbed. It is fantastic.
You know what else? It is so much cheaper to ride UBER than it is to take a cab. At yellow cab in Iowa City when I was driving 2 1/2 years ago, it was $2.50 to start out and then $2 a mile. It was also $2 for each additional customer. I've heard that the rates have nearly doubled.
I took a gentleman and his girlfriend for a ride the other night. If he had been riding in Yellow cab (with the prices I just mentioned) the ride would have been about $25. With Uber he only paid $15. That's $10 he saved by going UBER. He also got to ride in a nicer vehicle. You know what else, even with the $25 cab ride, I wouldn't have made any more money. I got 75% of that 15, for a total of $11.25. I only would have gotten 40% of the $25 for a total of $10 with Yellow Cab. Better on the driver, better on the customer. Once again UBER-ing kicks the shit out of cabbing.
Not Only Do they Rate you as a Driver, but you Rate them as a Rider
UBER cares as much about their driver as they do about their customer. If someone is unpleasant to drive around and they are belligerent and rude, you can give them a low rating. If they get too many low ratings, UBER will not allow them to use the services anymore. They want the ride for the customer to be very pleasant and enjoyable, which is typical of all businesses. They also want the ride to be pleasant and enjoyable for all of the drivers. Now, I will say that certain dispatchers had that attitude at Yellow Cab and stuck up for me and the other drivers. Others however, didn't. At Number One Cab, owner Rafat Alwhn didnt' care if the customer pissed on your head, just as long as he made his money. Again, UBER-ing totally beats the ever loving crap out of cabbing.
Now I realize I only listed three reasons, but you have to realize how big those reasons are. I worked 12-15 hours a day, sometimes for as much as 100 hours a week. For what? An average of $350-$500 a week. I can make that UBER-ing for four hours a night Monday through Thursday and then pulling a 10:00-3:00 on Friday and Saturday. No more, "This $20 ride should only cost me $1 because I am really pretty!" No more, "An extra $1 per passenger? There are only 15 of us!!" No more people opening up the cab door and taking off on a dead sprint. No more BULLSHIT.
I realize that some of my cab friends will call me a traitor. I may even lose some friends over this, but this is one of the best decisions I've made in a long time. I think I'll earn an extra $10,000 this year if I am able to work as much as I'd like to. That goes a long way in getting some of these loans paid off.
My only concern, and I have a feeling that it'll turn into a big concern before long, is that UBER will become saturated. I do fear that. Once that happens, it will no longer be beneficial to me. However, I think it'll be a good long time before it does.
To add to how cool UBER-ing is, you know what happened last night? One of my customers bought me supper. I kid you not. Bought me a sub from Casey's. Now how cool is that?
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