New update from my blog
During the past few months, I became one of the highest-rated Uber drivers in the city at 4.92 stars. For me, it was not very difficult to maintain a good rating. I enjoy talking to people, but I keep it professional and let them steer the conversation. I also keep the car clean and just try to be efficient for my riders, in general.
Occassionally I made decent money, and occassionally it was amazing- like when a got a surge ride to the airport, making $56 in 50 minutes. But there have also been many frustrating periods, times when I would make $10/hour. The only viable path I see to really be successful with Uber is to drive during peak hours only, which happens to be around 2am. No thanks for me!
The picture below is from one of those frustrating periods when I turned my app on during a high surge period... and sat there for 10 minutes without any pings. That shouldn't happen.
I wish I could provide the reader with a long-term average of my earnings per hour, but Uber doesn't make that easy, as far as I can tell. I would guess I'm averaging about $16/hour. I will now be switching to Lyft to take advantage of their $500 bonus after 40 rides.