Why Rideshare Driving Could Be The Perfect Fit For You
You’ll find a plethora of online articles and opinion pieces that warn budding rideshare drivers about ‘things to consider’ and ‘what to look out for’ when considering work as a driver for the likes of Uber or DiDi. This is all fair enough. Working as a freelancer in the gig economy is a big responsibility. It helps to be aware of these things, because you’ll be more likely to excel as a rideshare driver.
But what draws people to rideshare driving—Uber in particular—in the first place? We thought we’d go through a list of the reasons why being a rideshare or Uber driver could be a great fit for you.
You can squeeze Uber driving into your daily commute
What if you’re already employed part-time? A lot of drivers see Uber work as a second income stream. A smart way to approach this, especially if you’re just starting out, is to switch on the Uber app for the drive home from work.
Incorporating Uber driving into the daily commute for your main gig is a really smart way of finding out what works and what doesn’t. Demand for Uber cars behaves differently and fluctuates depending on where you live.
Approaching Uber driving as part of your daily commute will help you get a feel for how demand works in your area.
If you incorporate Uber driving into your daily commute, it could be a sensible idea to rent a car. This will enable you to use the one car for dual-purpose, without having to worry about getting your own vehicle up to the required specifications.
Flexibility
Driving an Uber car is not a structured 9-5 gig, and a lot of Uber drivers find this really appealing.
As an Uber driver, you can literally work when you like and for as long as you like; you can almost literally work where you like. (Uber is working to take the ‘almost’ out of that last sentence).
What does this mean? Well, no one is assigning you to a specific suburb or timeframe to work in. So, to use a Sydney example, if you find that driving around Drummoyne from 8AM to 2PM is too quiet, no one’s stopping you from trying out Enmore from 5PM to 10PM.
You have the flexibility to set your own hours, to discover what works for you, and to discard what doesn’t.
You’re pretty much your own boss; you’re partnered with Uber, but it’s almost entirely your gig.
Develop skills
If you start driving an Uber car and you stick with it, you will have developed a specific set of skills.
- Communication
- The regulator of quality in the rideshare industry between drivers and patrons is the star rating system. Successful, five-star Uber drivers are excellent communicators. They know how to tune in to what their riders want, and they know how to contribute to a conversation.
- Organisation
- If you’ve ever wanted to develop some organisational skills, driving an Uber car will teach you just that. Succeeding as an Uber driver means being well organised. This is because you have to independently manage yourself, keeping a detailed record of expenses, logging fuel, and keeping a record of driving between each customer.
- Goal-setting
- Uber drivers who see a profit are excellent at setting goals and achieving them. Successfully driving an Uber car—or driving an Uber car for rent—will mean that you have learned to set short-term and long-term objectives and developed strategies to achieve them.
A great first step to developing your organisational and goal-setting skills as an Uber driver is to keep a detailed schedule.
It’s an awesome networking tool
The peer-to-peer aspect of the rideshare industry makes it perfect for networking opportunities. This is because part of the service you provide as a driver quite often involves good conversation.
You will meet and talk to a wildly diverse range of people and personalities in the course of your journeys, and some of these points of contact will turn out to be quite useful to you.
Again, it all comes down to your skills as a good communicator.
If you run a startup business and are driving an Uber car on the side, you will have opportunities to talk about this when the conversation presents itself. Hint: keep a set of business cards handy.
You don’t need to own a car
Yes, you obviously need a vehicle, but it doesn’t have to be yours. In fact, it can be argued that it’s better not to use your own car for Uber. You can simplify and streamline your Uber experience when you rent a car.
Renting an Uber car from Keyz means that your vehicle is fuel-efficient, you’re insured, and you don’t need to worry about the ‘depreciation’ factor of the vehicle.
