Comment by jellicle | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jellicle | Hacker News Reader

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So let's do the math. $21/hour for 7 hours, $150/day, gross.

I found some estimates online that a taxi driver might drive about 150 miles per day. Let's say 125 since this was sort of a short day. The IRS mileage allowance is 56 cents per mile - this is supposed to be an "all-in" number that includes all of the costs of owning and operating a vehicle. So that's $70/day for vehicle costs which the operator will have to pay - fuel, repairs, tires, whatever.

So we'll knock that $150 down to $80. So he's earning around $12/hour, before taxes, doing one of the more dangerous professions (cab driver is more dangerous than police officer, for example), and he's doing it completely uninsured - if he cracks up that Tesla during an Uber trip his insurer is not going to pay out on it. If the Tesla is stolen during an Uber trip his insurer is not going to pay out on it. If he has one accident, ever, he'll lose more than he could ever earn from a lifetime of working for Uber.

> 1. Never, ever try to call Uber with problems… because they don’t even have phones and there is very little if any reason to talk to them.

And Uber won't even pick up the phone to talk to drivers.

It doesn't cost $70 per day to go 125 miles in a city. Otherwise my car with 59000 miles would have already costed me $33K in all expenses. It hasn't.

Further, this is what the IRS allows you to DEDUCT. So his taxable income is reduced by the 56 cents per mile - to the extent that his costs are less than 56 cents per mile, he is making more due to the tax-advantaged nature.

Also, at the end of the first year he can elect to either use per-mile deduction, or, the MACRS method, which may or may not give him an advantage (but he has to choose and use one or the other for subsequent tax years).

> It doesn't cost $70 per day to go 125 miles in a city. Otherwise my car with 59000 miles would have already costed me $33K in all expenses. It hasn't.

But remember to factor in depreciation and wear and tear on the car, in addition to all the gas and repair costs. If you're driving an old Toyota Yaris it'll be much less than 56 cents per mile. If it's a brand-new Mercedes S-Class you've financed, it's probably going to be more.

You're not including the cost of the car. You should.

It's bad enough that it's so hard for users to communicate with tech companies like Google and Facebook and PayPal. When a company won't even communicate with their employees and contrives to assert that their employees aren't their employees, thereby denying accountability to their employees and to society, that's unconscionable.

Yes, the paltry wages earned by Uber drivers really disturbs me. So the job is "preferable" to working at McDonald's; except that if you deduct the cost of the car you may find you're better off at McDonald's. How did Uber become the super-hip high-tech story? By using technology to convert an (almost) middle-class wage job into roughly the equivalent of "fryolator operator" at McDonald's?

Well lets be honest here no Taxi driver has ever worked a 7 hour shift. Minimum is 12 and they often go more than that. They would go 20 if they were not regulated. Thanks to Uber they are not now. Many taxi drivers who switched over are turning in 16 hour shifts daily.

Better money for them?? Yes Safer for the traveling and waling public? Not so much.

Your general point is a good one, but it's a mistake to simply take the IRS numbers for the maximum that it should cost to operate a passenger vehicle as a good estimate for what it does cost any particular driver. OTOH, it's possible that IRS is lowballing it in order to screw over people who drive for a living.

cab driver is more dangerous than police officer, for example

While cab driving is one of the more dangerous occupations, I'd avoid that comparison. Police officer barely rates as occupation of above-average danger in most ratings of fields.

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