Driving for Uber and Lyft full-time becomes harder

A new investigation by JPMorgan Chase indicates that working full-time as a pilot becomes financially untenable. In 2017, motorists earned half of their gains in 2012 and 2013, according to the report. In practice, this means that drivers earned an average of $ 1,469 in 2012. In 2015, the average monthly earnings dropped to $ 783.

In recent years, drivers have consistently complained about lower rates of pay.

Uber quickly stated that "monthly earnings" are not the same as "hourly earnings", which the report did not comment on. Libby Mishkin, senior economist at Uber, said in an average article that earnings may be falling because more people were driving for Uber. In 2014, she says, 160,000 Americans worked for Uber; today, this figure exceeds 900 000. "If the share of our partners who drive only occasionally increased over time, it goes without saying that the average monthly earnings (or even weekly or annual) of each driver decrease. "

The JP Morgan report acknowledges a study from 2018, in which Uber participated, that the fall in hourly wages between 2014 and 2016 was stabilized by an increase in trips per hour on the Uber platform. The report also indicates that the decline in earnings could be related to a decrease in the number of hours worked on average, but he adds that the reason for the decrease is less important than the decrease itself: "The decline in wages hours or both, this indicates that driving is less and less likely to replace a full-time job in the last five years, as more and more drivers have joined the market.

It becomes essentially unrealistic for drivers to use platforms such as Lyft or Uber to work full time. According to Uber's own account, more than half of the drivers work less than 10 hours a week.

Some workers who work more than 40 hours a week have argued in lawsuits that Uber and Lyft misclassified them as contractors and won. But as the number of workers working full-time hours declines and schedules seem more flexible, Uber's position – that its workers choose their own schedules independently – becomes stronger.