Crazy amount Uber Eats riders actually make

Drivers for Australia’s biggest food delivery company have revealed how much they actually make.

Would you work 22 minutes for $8?

This is how much some Uber Eats drivers in Australia claim they are making to bring your meal directly to your door.

Some fed-up drivers claim they are actually losing money when taking low-paying jobs.

One rider called Kevin shared details of a recent trip he was offered.

“Yes, that’s 25.8kms of driving + 38 minutes of time for $14.65, which is likely gonna be about $5-8 profit after fuel depending on the car,” he said.

Pack and collect order shows earnings of $22.07. Picture: Supplied

An Uber Eats screenshot shows earnings of $14.65 for a 38 minute job. Picture: supplied.

He told news.com.au he has been driving on and off since 2019, and said most drivers subscribe to a “dollar per km” rule, which ensures a profit will be made after fuel costs.

In the past couple of weeks, more than half of his trip offers offered under $1 per kilometre, he said. Before this he estimated one in five trips would have offered less than the dollar per km rule.

Drivers on social media have speculated that Uber has recently rolled out a new payscale. It has some questioning whether the jobs net them minimum wage and are worth the wear and tear on their vehicle.

Uber has denied this, and said it had recently mistakenly sent outdated fare changes in its responses to queries from drivers.

One driver called James has been driving for Uber Eats and DoorDash full time for 18 months. He told news.com.au he usually works 60 hours a week.

He said a few drivers started questioning the low payments that were being offered from last Monday.

Uber says the correspondence referencing a new fare structure was “outdated”. Picture: Supplied.

Uber Eats drivers have noticed a change in their pay. Picture: Gaye Gerard/ Daily Telegraph

The Queensland delivery driver said Uber replied with a “copy and paste” explanation that was sent to several drivers. It explained pay is now based on the time worked, rather than distance.

“There is no consideration given to kilometres, fuel or any of our other costs,” James told news.com.au

“The offers now are quite ridiculous.. I now decline 80 per cent whereas before I would accept 80 per cent.”

The reply from Uber read: “Please know that the new fare structure is rolled out, you can expect to see changes in what you earn on each trip.

“One of the key reasons for this is that your earning will now reflect the estimated time spent making the delivery, not only the estimated distance travelled.

“This means there will be some differences with some trips paying more, while others pay less.”

Uber told news.com.au it is in the process of communicating this error back to those who received the inaccurate information.

Uber Eats has been accused of lowering the pay rate to minimum wage. Picture: supplied.

Drivers are speculating that Uber has capped earning potential at $23.23 an hour, or Australian minimum wage.

Uber denies this claim.

“If they estimate the job will take 30 minutes the offer will be approximately $11.60. 15 mins will be approximately $6,” James said.

He said he was in a fortunate position to be able to use his electric car for deliveries at a cost of $5 per day.

“The guys running with fuel costs would almost certainly be losing money with a lot of the offers,” he said.

James also said there were some drivers that due to circumstances would have to accept these low fares.

“Many drivers — such as international students — just accept any jobs as they don’t understand and are happy doing three $5 jobs an hour because they can only work a certain amount of hours a week due to student visa conditions,” he said.

One receipt shows $9.33 earnings for a 24-minute job. Picture: Supplied

Kevin said consumers would be impacted by the pay scale.

“If a driver has to work as hard as Uber has made it to make ends meet, even as a part-time gig, then drivers are simply going to do sloppy jobs,” he said.

“It’s also bad for the economy as a whole because an international large multi billion company like Uber should be paying their drivers fairly.

Delivery driver Kevin says the low rate is creating a dangerous environment. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

He said that if drivers were paid fairly, it would inject much more money into the economy.

“It would stop drivers from having to work 2-3 jobs at once to make ends meet thus leaving more jobs for other Australians,” he told news.com.au.

“This low pay situation is causing a massively dangerous environment for many drivers. People are driving while very fatigued because they’re working way too long to just make chump change.

“There are female drivers working late night hours that they wouldn’t usually work as it would typically be considered a bit more dangerous for them but they force themselves to do it to make extra money.”

An Uber spokesperson said the fare calculation has not changed since it was updated in 2020.

“Fares for Uber Eats deliveries are calculated based on the time they take to complete, as well as the distance of the trip. This has not changed since we introduced this approach in 2020,” the spokesperson said.

“What this means in practice is that for two trips of the same distance, a delivery person may earn more if one trip takes significantly longer to complete, for example, if there is heavy traffic on that route.

“We are aware of a recent issue in which outdated language was mistakenly used in responding to some delivery people, referencing changes we made to our fare calculations in 2020.

“We apologise for this mistake and the confusion it may have caused. Immediately upon becoming aware of it, we worked quickly to fix it and are in the process of communicating back to those who received this inaccurate information.”

Originally published as Crazy amount Uber Eats riders actually make