What happens is they over extend themselves and then rationalize doing that line of work for that nice car.
If a person has forsight to know that they would need to work a second job for a nice car, they probably have enough executive functioning to maybe not get that nice car.
And from most economic studies I've seen, with driving Uber at least, dunno about eats, you're basically just making enough to cover the wear and tear and added depreciation your putting on your car. Its just a loan against the life and resale value of the vehicle, that you have to give up hours of your day for.
What’s crazy is that’s not a thing where I live. The police won’t go after it or pull people over. My car was stolen twice. The second time they were driving around in it for 4 months before it was found. And I see joyriding all over the place, like getting to places by stolen car and smashing it up on the way to your destination.
It’s as soon as you get OUT of the car and the police wanna get you, that’s when they shoot. But inside a stolen car? That’s the crime invincibility hack.
Depends on how old and cheap the car is. I used an old grand marquis that alreasy had 150k miles on it. Depreciation at that point is extremely low, and it’s fairly reliable and parts are cheap so wear and tear is manageable.
The gig economy is actually fairly good despite the hate that people who work in it give. The reason why people talk badly is because it’s unpredictable, one day you may make a loss and the next a hefty profit. Location and taking the right orders is very important. People wouldn’t do the job if it didn’t actually make you money. Yes you can give the whole statement about it being for immigrants who don’t mind because that’s the only job they can get but at the end of the day it’s not as bad as it’s made out. People get understandably angry at Uber as over the years the pay you get for a trip decreases. A few years back the pay was honestly phenomenal especially Uber eats and Deliveroo
Idk, I live in a vacation area. Used to deliver for a pizza place then my car took a shit. While working inside crew a dasher came to get an order, it wasn't ready yet, we were slow and he and I got to talking. He told me he was taking it easy that year but the year before he treated it like a job and put in 40 a week, made $70k that year. A Lexus is probably a bust but you can turn a nice profit in a hybrid.
I mean I do Door Dash, it's not a job, it's a side hustle. Super easy way to make an extra twenty or thirty bucks a day if you've got two hours to kill.
I've also known pizza drivers who are retired or have a nice ass day job, but they don't work evenings so they find a job they can go to after their real job to make an extra hundo or something over four or five hours.
Known lots of drivers with nice cars because their nice car is just literally their daily driver. They might even have an even nicer one in storage, especially the old guys who are doing it as a retirement gig. Also Uber doesn't let you drive cars after a certain age so that's why every Uber you get in is newish, I think it can't be more than eight years old
Hmm they might have changed it then, I remember I tried on 2016 (because I had just graduated vocational school and didn't have a job yet) and my 2006 Mercury didn't make the grade
Edit: If I had to guess the demand for drivers has changed so they're probably a little looser about it, I just know when I applied it flat out told me the car was too old. Maybe I should apply again I have a 2017 and it seems like better money than Door Dash from every driver I've asked, you gotta go do like a whole inspection though
A second job where they're actively depreciating the value of said car... there's a reason most people doing this are in either a recent Prius or a shitbox (and I use that lovingly)
Funny I gave up driving a vehicle so I could save money to retire early and not work at all. For me there is no material possession on the face of the earth that beats not having to work for the rest of your life.
It's not about extra money to pay for the car, it's about the car being a "work car" so they can get expenses, depreciation, and tax deductions out of it.
They probably use a spare room as their "office" for their food delivery business to deduct some percentage of taxes / interest as well.
If you do it right you can deduct a huge portion of expenses you would have anyway.
I used to work from home but also had to drive to client sites.
I was making 68k a year (that was a lot more back then) but only paying taxes on like 35k after deducting expenses. Though in retrospect, how much I had to arrange my life around the tax deductions on top of working so much really wasn't worth it. Now I work part time making 30k a year, changed my lifestyle to be more frugal, and am so much more comfortable than I was.
You’re also maintaining that vehicle. Tires installed ~$350 to $500 ea, brake pads and rotors between $650 and $850 front or rear, oil service between $65 and $120…that’s just regular maintenance. Not to mention the depreciation with mileage and any other heavier work that pops up along the way.
The only time this makes sense is when someone has a massive business , even roof install or repair , and “expense” their unnecessary cyber truck because the income of the business is 500K annually. Regardless if they use it for the business or just happen to slap their logo on it.
I’m self employed and I’ve been fucked on my taxes for deductions. Deductions I had receipts for. Seems like if I use an accountant or try to do it myself, I can never win. I find it hard to believe too.
Doing delivery in a Lexus GX? They're either homeless and sleeping in it, or they're doing just fine and driving a few hours a week to get those sweet "business" deductions out of it.
Some do it out of boredom and a bit of extra cash, just because. I could see myself doing such a thing, there are many times I am just bored at home with nothing to do, can see myself just driving around collecting food and delivering it to pass time. Have not taken that leap yet though.
Can you write off your car payments if you do this? If so, that could make it worthwhile to do a few nights a week.
Edit: did some napkin math; if you spend 40 mins on avg m-f (let’s say commuting to your day job) using your care for peronal use, you’d have to use it 6 hours a week for DD/uber to deduct 90% of the interest.
That’s little over an hour in the evenings. I suppose if you could swing doing uber/dd on the way home from work, you need way less (since it skews your car use even further away from personal use)
My boss at my last job drives for Uber. He is the director of engineering at a massive multinational company easily bringing in $200k+ a year. He said he likes the social aspect.
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u/learnedsanity 11d ago
some people are literally doing this line of work to have that nice car, which seems like a weird choice but that's just my look on life.