Christian Perea describes his experience of how driving For ridehail companies went from being a dream job to a miserable experience.

Everywhere I look in this industry right now I see miserable drivers. We are driving harder, farther, and longer than ever before. And we’re making less money in the process. It wasn’t always like this.

This Used To Be An Awesome Job
When I began driving in 2014 I met interesting and exciting people wherever I went. They were eager to sit up front, respect my car, and treat me as an equal in conversation. I would make $20 driving passengers from Ocean Beach to Pacific Beach in San Diego (~30 minutes, ~5 miles). We earned $1.72/mile and kept 80% of the fare while still managing to cost a lot less than a cab. Lyft was still valued at $2 billion while Uber had recently become valued at $14 billion.

I would do anywhere between 8 and 12 rides a day. 20 rides in a day was almost unheard of. There was more downtime between rides but those 8 to 12 rides were usually good for $100 – $200 on a weekday. We took care of our cars, stocked them with snacks, and some of us even refused to accept tips!

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