284: Build a Side Income Using Uber and Lyft with the Rideshare Guy Harry Campbell

Robert Plank 0:00 Robert plank, Show episode 284, build a side income using Uber and Lyft with the rideshare guy, Harry Campbell, Hey everyone, and welcome back to the show. Our guest today is Harry Campbell, and Harry is a former Boeing aerospace engineer, and he's the founder of the rideshare guy, calm, which is a blog, a podcast, and he has a YouTube channel for Uber and Lyft drivers, and Harry has quickly established himself as one of the top rideshare industry experts with appearances in hundreds of top media publications, and his site is traffic by hundreds of 1000s of visitors every single month. So Harry, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 0:38 Thanks for having me on, Robert. I'm excited to be here.

Robert Plank 0:40 Awesome. I'm excited to hear about this money making technique called ride sharing. So can you kind of catch us up and let us know what the heck this ride sharing thing is? Anyway?

Speaker 1 0:50 Yeah, for sure. So I'd say right off the bat, the name ride share is a little misleading. It sort of leads you to think about carpooling or actually sharing rides, and really what ride share is, though, there are services like Uber and Lyft, which most people may have heard about by now, but what they allow you to do is call a ride from your smartphone and pay by credit card rate your driver. And then the cool part on the driver's side is that you actually it doesn't necessarily need to be a professional licensed taxi driver or anything like that. It can just be sort of everyday people, people like you, people like me, your parents, you know, your brothers, your sisters, and so you really have a wide variety of people working on the driver's side of the app. And then, of course, taking it as a consumer

Robert Plank 1:36 awesome, and this whole like Uber and Lyft thing, it's a really, really needed service in some areas, because, like, I'm in, I'm in sort of a college town. It's about 70,000 people, and up until a few years ago, the only sort of taxi service was, like, there was like a yellow cab sort of thing. And it was like one person in the whole town. It took about an hour to get picked up. And then for a while, I think there was maybe, like one Uber driver and one Lyft driver, and it's sort of picking up more and more and and so it's cool that you, that you have like this blog, in this podcast, because, like, to be honest, like, it took me probably maybe a year or longer to kind of summon up the courage to even like use Uber as a passenger. Like I was sort of thinking about like Uber as, like, as a driver, but even just to, like, use your phone and click a button and someone shows up and you hop in, I was like, this is, like, the weirdest thing. And I had wished that I had found some kind of a resource like yours to kind of at least, like, walk me through the process and like, know, kind of what I'm getting myself into,

Speaker 1 2:37 yeah, and I mean, honestly, there's a lot of apprehension on the passenger and especially the driver's side. I mean, five years ago, it's pretty weird to think of calling for a ride on your phone and then some stranger coming and picking you up and taking you to the airport without getting murdered right right now, it's completely normal, and you know, the obviously, we still see some apprehension on the driver's side, but I think for the most part, more and more passengers are signing up with a service. And frankly, more and more drivers are signing up with a service. These services, you know, Uber just announced the other day that they actually had their highest week of revenue ever in just the past week alone. So they're growing more than ever. Still

Robert Plank 3:15 awesome. And even that, despite like it's, it seems like every couple of months, like Uber's, Uber's messed up again in the in the

Speaker 1 3:22 they definitely have had probably a pretty bad last couple months of PR, but that's sort of the crazy thing, that despite all that bad PR, I mean, consumers still love the product. Because they get into the car, they connect with the driver. They're not necessarily connecting with the company itself, because every interaction, or almost every interaction, is with a driver. It'd be like, getting into my car. Obviously, I am an Uber and Lyft driver, and so, you know, it's that interaction, and the product itself is so good, and so it works so well. A lot of consumers, I guess, are willing to overlook that bad PR and take Uber. Anyways,

Robert Plank 3:54 yeah. I mean, I sure am, like, I mean, who cares about the, like, the company itself if, like, the whole point was, okay, I need to get from point A to point B. Nothing, too much wrong with that. And so you mentioned that you're a, you're an Uber driver and a Lyft driver. And so, like, is there a certain, like, kind of, like, a, like, a starting path someone should follow lecture. Someone say, like, my goal is to become an Uber driver, and let me back up and let me, like, take a first Uber ride to get the fuel, or, like, what should like a total newbie do to kind of get into this world you have?

Speaker 1 4:25 Yeah, so honestly, Robert, you already, already on to my number one tip. My number one tip for new drivers is actually to take a ride as a passenger. And I think that's our most popular video on YouTube, with a couple 100,000 views. So maybe you can be a ride share blogger too one day.

Robert Plank 4:40 Oh, man, I don't know, maybe for fun and so and so. So you actually have a YouTube video of, like, just walking through the whole process, like, even

Speaker 1 4:47 less. So we have YouTube videos sort of more to tour tutorials that will walk you through what it's like to call a ride as a passenger, what it's like to actually do a ride as a driver. And really, though, what. What I kind of tell people is that, you know, the nice thing about getting signed up with Uber or Lyft is that it is a low barrier to entry. So, I mean, you can take a ride as a passenger very easily, and then you can actually sign up. So I mean, what I generally recommend is that drivers either pick Uber or Lyft. You know, the service itself is very similar. I think Uber, you know, Lyft tends to have a little bit more driver friendly culture. They have some features within the app, like in app tipping and some other features called power driver bonus that sort of get you commissioned back the more rides you do. So they have some features that are a little more driver friendly. I think that a lot of drivers are a little better off suited starting with Lyft, but honestly, start with either one after a few months, after you get the hang of it, you'll probably end up doing both, because it allows you to get more requests. But it's sort of a, I guess, the best way to describe it is you can ease into it as an Uber and Lyft driver. You don't have to start and go crazy and go do 100 rides in your first week. You can do one or two rides and sort of ease into things

Robert Plank 5:54 awesome and just sort of dabble there. So, yeah, so, so someone should decide Uber or Lyft and start out by taking their first ride. And so when someone takes the first ride, I mean, which kind of thing should they be be noticing or be aware of?

Speaker 1 6:08 Well, I mean, I think that really what you want to be looking for when you take that ride as a passenger is just kind of see what the driver is doing, right when they pull up, are they saying hi, you know, how friendly are they, you know, and you obviously, the nice thing about taking a ride as a passenger is you get to see your driver's rating. So you'll see that, hey, this driver, it's on a scale of one to five stars. The average rating is actually 4.8 so it's pretty high average rating. And you can see, if this driver is 4.9 they're probably doing something right a lot of the time, right? So see, what do they do when you get into the car? If they're a 4.7 they're probably doing something wrong a lot of the time. And so see, you know, when they get when you get in, do they bombard you with a bunch of questions? Do they keep trying to talk to you when you're on your phone, you know, sort of simple stuff like that. Are they a safe driver? Are they following the navigation? Well, I mean, honestly, following navigation and the GPS route is probably one of the biggest complaints that passengers have about drivers. So it's even just seeing how they interact with the app. And you know, you can take that and basically apply it, or even ask them questions and apply it to your own driving once you get started.

Robert Plank 7:09 Awesome. And so you mentioned that there's this driver rating, and then you mentioned a little bit earlier that sort of like a little bit of a process for drivers to go through, so that way that, you know, you don't, you don't have some like, wacko picking you up and so, yeah, I mean, so first of all, like, if, let's say that if a driver, like, passes the things that there are to be passed and becomes a driver, if they suddenly just start driving like crap, and that rating falls low enough, can they get kicked off the platform?

Speaker 1 7:34 Yeah. So it's actually pretty strict, and for a lot of new drivers, it's sort of a pain point, because you have to maintain a 4.6 rating or higher in order to stay active. And obviously, most people are used to other rating systems, right, like on TripAdvisor or Yelp, where you know you might eat at a four star restaurant, but a four star Uber driver will actually be fired. So there's definitely some challenges there for new drivers. They give you a little bit more flexibility with your rating when you first start. So they don't hold you to that 4.6 until after 50 or 100 rides. But it's definitely important to kind of just understand that, hey, you need to, first and foremost, get people safely from point A to B, be able to follow navigation. A lot of the other stuff matters, but it isn't nearly as important as just kind of providing that safe and efficient

Robert Plank 8:20 ride. Awesome and then, so what do people have to go through in order to become a driver? Because I joined a couple of Facebook groups just out of curiosity, and I saw things like, there's like, a background check, or, like, a thing, or they, they, like, test your car. So like, what sort of steps are there to get on that?

Speaker 1 8:38 So the nice thing about signing up for Uber and Lyft is that the barrier to entry is very low. And so really, all you need is a relatively new vehicle. So in most places, it's 2001 or newer. In some cities, it's a little higher 2005 or newer. But obviously, you know that still might be a 10 year old car. So you don't need the newest car, but you just need, you know, a decent car. And then you also need a smartphone, which most people have, and then you need to be able to pass a background check. So those are really the only three things you need to get signed up in a lot of places. Once you actually get approved, they'll ask you to go to one of Uber's. They call them green light centers, where you actually get your vehicle inspected, or you can take it to a mechanic, and they just do sort of a basic safety check, make sure the brakes and lights are working and all that. And then, you know, they'll send you a couple four minute YouTube videos and you'll be ready to go and ready to drive,

Robert Plank 9:31 awesome. So with all those, those things like the background check and the green light center and all that, I mean, what sort of time frame are we talking like? Can this be done, like, in a day or a few days,

Speaker 1 9:41 yeah. So I would say best case scenario, sort of three to five days. I mean, you apply, and obviously the background checks in some places are almost instantaneous, you know, since it's all done online, and then maybe a day or two to go get the inspection, and then if they approve you quickly, you know, it could be in that three to five day range. So I would say the. Average is probably on, you know, five to seven days, or maybe even less, if you're sort of staying on top of it and keep following up with Uber along the way, so you can get signed up pretty quick. And that's a nice thing for a lot of drivers.

Robert Plank 10:13 Awesome. So that's good to know. And then so you mentioned that, um, it's good to have, like, a relatively new vehicle. And one thing I noticed is like, well, like, when I'm in town here in Turlock, California, like there's kind of a mix between different kinds of cars. When I go into a big city like San Francisco or San Diego, it seems to be like, all the Ubers are Priuses. Like, is there a reason for that? Is, like, a gas mileage thing, or what's up with that?

Speaker 1 10:35 Well, Prius, or Prius are definitely the most popular rideshare vehicle, because, to be honest, like you know, it might not be a surprise, but as a ride share driver, you put a lot of miles on your car. A full time driver might easily do 1000 miles a week on their car, and obviously that costs some in depreciation and maintenance, but sort of your biggest upfront expense is obviously gas. So the difference between a 25 mile per hour or 25 mile per gallon vehicle and a 55 or 60, which is what a Prius, generally, is, is a huge difference, right? I mean, you might cut your gas bill in half. So that's typically why, you see, especially in the big cities where drivers are doing this a lot, and in bigger cities where drivers, there's more full time drivers you might have, you know, it makes a lot of sense to get basically the most efficient mile per gallon car you can get, and Priuses are right up there,

Robert Plank 11:22 awesome. And so, so, so, sort of, speaking of, like, you know, get it, getting the best bang for your buck and stuff like that, I've, I've sort of noticed that, like, as far as the, like, the Uber rides and stuff like that, sometimes I'll take a trip and it'll be like, across town, and it'll only be like, you know, $4 or $5 something. And sometimes I'm thinking, like, how can they even kind of be making money that way? So I mean, is it if someone's just getting started, and if they're just getting those quick like, four or $5 jobs, like, Is that worth it? Or should people be, like, commuting to a big city, or is it better to, like, drive certain days or hours? Or, like, what are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 1 11:58 Yeah, definitely. So to be honest, on a lot of those short trips, drivers don't make much money or and on the really short trips, they may even be losing money, because you're actually only paid when you have a passenger in your car, right? So you could imagine that if you're driving in some city where there you know aren't a lot of drivers, aren't a lot of passengers. When you do get a request, they might be 10 to 15 minutes away, so you have to drive 10 to 15 minutes to pick them up. That's all unpaid time, and you're putting miles on your car, which obviously are sort of costing you too, and gas and depreciation. So that's definitely something to consider. And I mean, frankly, in a lot of the bigger cities, like the LA San Francisco, where there's so many passengers and so many drivers, the density is a lot higher and it's typically a lot more profitable, maybe not a lot more profitable, but more profitable in the biggest cities, just because you won't have to drive as far, you'll stay busy. And then even if you do get the occasional short trip, it isn't really, you know, it doesn't really hurt you too much. But then once you start adding on the longer, the 10, the 1520, minute trips, you definitely make more money, I would say probably the 20 to 30 minute type, or 20 to 30 mile trips, or in that 15 to 20 mile range, are the most profitable for drivers, because they still spend a little time coming to you, picking you up, but most of the time they spend with you is going to be driving. And when you're driving with a passenger in the car, that's where you make the most amount

Speaker 2 13:18 of

Robert Plank 13:18 money. Awesome, good to know. And so, so speaking of that whole thing of, you know, like fizzle, 1520, miles is a good, optimal sort of range. And I've definitely had been as a as a passenger, had that situation where I needed an Uber, and no one in town was there, and someone had to come from the next town over. And I imagine that, you know, as as a driver, I imagine that you might have sort of like an alert comes up, you get a new passenger. You go to pick that passenger up, and as you're getting close, they cancel. Has that sort of thing happened a lot, or has that happened to

Speaker 1 13:49 you? Yeah, definitely. So I mean, that happens from time to time, and you know, if they cancel after five minutes, you'll actually get a cancelation fee, a $4 cancelation fee. But for the most part, you know, if they you might already be on your way, and if they cancel, there's certain situations where you will get a fee and where you won't, and that's sort of where it really behooves a driver to kind of get into this and understand how the system works. And this is a lot of the stuff, you know, the strategies that we sort of talk about on the blog. To give you a good example, when you arrive to pick up a passenger, they have actually five minutes to come outside right. And after that five minute period, you can cancel on them and charge them a $5 cancelation fee. And after Uber's, you know, 20% cut, you get $4 but for a lot of drivers, if they're not tracking the five minutes, as soon as they get there, there's no countdown timer or anything like that on Uber. So it's really on the driver to track that. And so you could imagine that a lot of drivers, if they're not doing, you know, if they're not that savvy, or if they're not doing that good of a job tracking that, they say, Wait, how long has it been? Has it been two minutes? Has it been four? Has it been five? And they don't know when they should cancel. So those are the types of strategies, you know, small stuff like that. But over time, a lot. That can really add up and basically help you make more money.

Robert Plank 15:03 And so, sort of along those lines, do you have on your on your blog and all that is there some sort of, like a cheat sheet to get all these, like little finer points kind of in one place, like little things like that five minute rule,

Speaker 1 15:14 yeah, definitely. So we have a really good and extensive Uber guide that we give away. It's a PDF, and it's completely free. And we also have a lift guide that we give away. And we also have a guide just for ride share drivers in general. So I can definitely send you that and link that up in the show notes. And we actually so that's sort of, you know, 99% of our content is free. But then we also have, like, a paid video training course for drivers that sort of want that crash course into becoming a ride share driver, and everything in one place, really nicely, well organized, but for the most part, yeah, we definitely have a lot of the resources already available for those drivers.

Robert Plank 15:48 Okay, cool. So I'm looking at the ride share guide.com right now, and so I guess that Resources tab is what you're talking about. I see like a Uber training guide and a lift guide, and then the video, course, that's more of like the paid like, all in one type of stuff, is that, right?

Speaker 1 16:03 Yep, exactly.

Robert Plank 16:05 Awesome. And so, so and then. So, you know, there are some of these, these writers who, like, you know, maybe they, maybe they cancel because, you know, or maybe they hail a cab and they don't come outside. Like, is it possible on this platform for a writer, a user of Uber or Lyft to be so bad and the rating to get so low that even the riders will get kicked off the platform.

Speaker 1 16:26 So it's definitely riders aren't held to the same standard as drivers. So, you know, you you probably won't be kicked off just for being a bad passenger, but if you do anything kind of like verbally abusive to the driver, or, you know, let's say you attack the driver something you know, a little bit more egregious. You can definitely, you know, those drivers can definitely report you as a passenger, and if you break some of Uber's Terms of Service, then you can definitely be kicked off as a passenger. It's, you know, not quite the same. Because obviously, I'm sure that if you're really devious, you could probably figure out a way to get a new account as a passenger, but so it's not this quite the same standards as a driver, but there's definitely, you know, some accountability there on the passenger side. But that sort of goes to another strategy we use as drivers that we talk about on the blog, is when it's busy out there and you're getting lots of requests, you can actually see the rating of the passenger when you when you get a notification from Uber that you have a ride request, you have about 10 seconds to accept it or ignore it, and you can actually see the rating of the passenger. So when it's super busy out, I'll actually ignore any passengers that are below a 4.7 or so, and that way, because you know, if it's busy out, I know I'll get another request within 20 to 30 seconds. So when it's busy, I actually don't accept passengers who are rated below 4.7 because there's probably a reason why. I mean, they may make drivers wait for a bunch of time once you get there, or they may just be not very nice, or there's kind of a whole host of reasons, but for some reason, they're probably rated

Robert Plank 17:55 low, awesome. Well, good strategy, and sort of along those lines of, when it's busy, you you take a certain course of action. I've heard of some of these people who are Uber and Lyft drivers. Like, they'll, they'll only drive in major cities, or the only drive like, near the bar area of town, or only drive like, you know, Friday night, Saturday night, stuff like that. So is that the kind of thing you do? Like, do you sometimes just drive during the day or whenever? Or is there like, a method to the madness along the lines of, like, days and hours that you're working? Yeah,

Speaker 1 18:24 definitely. So the nice thing about driving for Uber to if you don't want to think, if you don't want to do you don't have to worry about much. You can just flip the app on whenever you want and go out and drive and probably make money if you want. Are really looking to maximize your profit so and you sort of care about, kind of like that efficiency, right? Trying to make as much money in as little time as possible, which I care about a lot. And I'm sure that a lot of your audiences, they're sort of, you know, in the space of being entrepreneurs and, you know, kind of marketers, right? I'm sure that they kind of care about that too. There's definitely times and places and strategies you can use. So, I mean, Friday, Saturday night, we actually call those the party hours, right? Everyone's out, everyone's having a good time, they're drinking, and that's typically when demand is at its highest on the passenger side, and so on the driver's side, that's when it's usually the busiest. That's when you might see surge pricing, which basically charges the rider a multiple depending on demand, right? So if there's a low supply of drivers and a high demand from riders, Uber actually increases their prices. And so now drivers get more of that fare, or, you know, they get, might get double or triple the fare, even though they're doing the same amount of work. So that, you can imagine, that's obviously very lucrative for drivers. Passengers aren't huge fans of it, but they at least, you know, it incentivizes drivers to come out on the road. And so there is that Friday, Saturday night times where it makes a lot of sense to drive, but, you know, because you can increase your earnings during that time. So that's, you know, that's one area where drivers might see increased profits,

Robert Plank 19:51 awesome. And then along the lines of, sort of getting the maximum amount of profits is there, like, in general, like, like, a maximum. Sort of income, or does it sort of like maxed out at a certain point, when you say, you know, I can only ride certain number of hours, and I'm only getting a certain number of passengers I'm willing and a certain amount of money. Like, I mean, is there anyone out there making like, you know, five or 10 grand on Uber? Or is it more like, you know, 1000 bucks or 2000 bucks a month?

Speaker 1 20:17 Yeah. So, I mean, the thing with Uber, it definitely varies. But I mean, for me, I'm here in Los Angeles, and I usually go out and make about 15 to 20 bucks an hour before my expenses. So that's driving, you know, maybe like Tuesday nights, Wednesday, Thursday, sometimes Friday nights, on Saturday nights, or when it's a holiday or when it's really busy, that's when you can typically see increased earnings. So I mean, I just did about 20 hours last week driving, and on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I only made about 15 to 20 bucks an hour, which isn't a ton of money, but it's definitely not bad. And then on Saturday night, though, my income jumped up to like 30 to $40 an hour, and there was a lot more surge, and there are a lot more longer rides, right? And so that was a time where, you know, it was really busy, so I was making a lot of money. So there's definitely that variability. And I guess what I would say is the first thing that matters is sort of where you're driving. If you're in a big city like LA or San Francisco, you're going to be able to make a little bit more money. That's why you see a lot of drivers driving in from an hour away from Sacramento, from East Bay in California, for example, they're all driving into San Francisco because they know they can make more money. They're driving for a full day or a full weekend or something like that. And then, you know, you kind of go from there. What fits in with your schedule? When do you want to drive to prefer driving days or nights, and how does it work with your schedule?

Robert Plank 21:36 And so and so are speaking about that, about, you know, like, there's people who go into, like, the bigger cities and stuff like that, let's say someone is in just like, a really remote city, like, not even where, like, I'm in, but maybe they're in like, like a town or something, and like, it's, it's so remote that maybe there are no other Uber drivers out there. Is that? Is that kind of economically feasible to be, like, the only game in town?

Speaker 1 21:58 I mean, you know, it's a little tough, because I would say that in those smaller cities, you're going to have longer distances that you need to travel. So you can imagine that if you have to go 15 minutes to pick someone up, and then they only want to go five minute for a five minute ride, that's probably not very profitable for you. But there are certain, you know. So the strategies are a little bit different in smaller markets, but you can do things like finding passengers who you know, let's say, in a smaller city, you it's very likely that you could see the same passenger over and over, and you could develop a rapport with some passengers. Here in LA, I've never gotten the same passenger twice, because there's millions of people, right? But in a small city, you know, it might make sense for drivers to pass out business cards. So then, then the next time that person needs a ride to the airport in a bigger town, or, let's say they need to take their family, you know, to the next big city over and that's an hour a drive. That ride might be a lot more profitable for that driver. And then you can go to the passenger, you know, have them request you on Uber once you get there, and sort of do the rides that way. So it's sort of like building your own little mini network of passengers. So there's small things that you can do like that in a small city where you could take advantage of that too

Robert Plank 23:03 awesome, and thinking back, like, if I've been, like, at a conference or something, and I've Ubered, I've had that happen where, like, the Uber driver gave me his card and said, If you want, you know, if you want to get picked up fast, shoot me a text. I'll turn on the app you can request, and then I'll see it, and I'll, I'll accept it. And so is it? Is it like a violation of the terms for someone to, like, hand you a card and say, I'll just pick you up. Normal, like, is it? Is that like a big no no?

Speaker 1 23:28 So if you were so technically, if you were to hand someone a card and then you were to just arrange a ride off of, completely off of the app, you know, later down the road, that's sort of illegal because you don't have commercial insurance and you don't have a license, but it does? It happen? Yes, it happens. But what you know, what we tell drivers, and sort of the recommended route, is to you know, you are an independent contractor for Uber, so that's why you can drive for multiple services, and Uber can't deactivate you for handing out a business card, because you are an independent contractor. So that's why it's nice, because let's say you do develop that rapport, just like in the situation you described, then you can arrange for a ride often, you know, later on down the road, and then, just like you said, right? So you'll come and pick up the passenger, and then you just request you right on Uber. So now you're covered by Uber's insurance, and now you're operating under Uber, so it's completely legal. You know, it's sort of a gray area. Uber isn't in love with drivers who do that. But at the same time, you know, if you're out there kind of hustling, yeah, as a driver, you know, especially in a smaller city, you're in it to kind of, you know, do you know, maximize your income, and so sometimes other things you have to do, I would say,

Robert Plank 24:33 awesome. Well, good, good to know, a nice little tip there. And then. So something that I just hear every now and then about about Uber is, like, you know, such and such, airport banned Uber or such and such, city banned Uber and so, like, does do your guides on your blog? Like, sort of break it down, like someone can look up, like, in their state or their city, or is it really, like, a lot too worried about in that area?

Speaker 1 24:55 I would say that in the past few years, there were sort of a lot more issues now. We're starting to see that Uber is there's almost every city in the US Uber is operating. There are a couple where there's still some issues, like Austin, Texas right now, but for the most part, you can operate as an Uber driver in almost any city. Some cities have like local regulations where they might require you to get a business license, or might require you to file an extra form or something like that, but it's very rare that they would prevent you from driving at all. There are some specific rules, though, that sort of, you know, we'll go into in, you know, in our guides on our site, and that's sort of where, you know, some drivers run into some trouble, because a lot of people, frankly, are looking to get into this really casually, right, to make a few 100 bucks. They start doing it, and it's a little more complex than it seems, right? There's a lot of stuff on the back end that you have to work to worry about, whether it's insurance or whether it's taxes, or some of these airport restrictions. You know, for example, here at LAX, you can pick up and drop off riders, but you need to make sure that you have a special decal on your window that Uber sends you right. So there's little things like that that you kind of have to understand. There's some airports here in California, where you actually can't pick up riders at the airport. So like the smaller airports, like, I live here in Long Beach, and can't actually pick up riders at the airport. They have to walk across the street and cross the street, and then you can pick them up there. So there's little stuff like that where it really makes sense for drivers, you know, as they get going to research these rules.

Robert Plank 26:19 Awesome. So, so good. Good to know, like going in what, what are their quirks of my city or my airport, as opposed to just kind of going in blind

Speaker 2 26:27 there?

Speaker 1 26:27 Yeah, exactly.

Robert Plank 26:28 And so you mentioned insurance is there, and I've heard about, like, there's a, there's some of those services where, like, it'll somehow hook up to your odometer and it'll pay per mile. So is there like a best practices, or is there like a best way that you have for Uber and Lyft drivers to handle the insurance aspect of things.

Speaker 1 26:44 Yeah, so the insurance aspect is another one of those kind of little gotchas, because you can actually sign up as an Uber or Lyft driver with just a regular personal insurance policy, and you're covered by Uber and Lyft while you're on a trip or while you're in route to a passenger. But there's sort of this gray area where you have the app on, but you don't have a request yet, and at that point, Uber and Lyft cover you at much lower liability limits and no collision coverage, and a lot of personal insurers won't cover you during that period. So that's sort of where there's a little bit of a risk for drivers. Fortunately, most carriers in most states, we actually have a marketplace on our site. We call it the rideshare insurance marketplace. And basically these are cover or carriers that will cover you for that period. And basically they say, Hey, if you're an Uber or Lyft driver, great, we're going to charge you a little bit more, but we'll now cover you during that period. We're okay with you driving for Uber and Lyft because it is such a new thing, right? Insurance companies are sort of big and old and slow. You can imagine when Uber and Lyft first came out. They're like, Oh, wait, what is this thing? And now, as you know, as it's kind of matured, we're starting to see, you know, in California, for example, there's like, seven companies that offer rideshare insurance, and, you know, so you can get a policy with State Farm farmers, whoever, and now be covered. But it's definitely something to look into, that rideshare insurance aspect to make sure you're fully covered,

Robert Plank 28:00 awesome. So it definitely sounds like things have evolved. It's not like years and years ago when it when I saw some of these Uber drivers on the group saying, like, oh, well, well, I just don't even bother with insurance. I just kind of hide it, like, so it sounds like, and this thing, you

Speaker 3 28:14 can

Speaker 1 28:15 definitely, yeah, there's definitely some drivers that still hide it because, you know, I mean, it is, you know, let's say you get into an accident, you could always tell your personal insurer that you're not driving for Uber and Lyft. I mean, that's lying to them. That's basically committing a felony. So it's not something I recommend do. Drivers still do it, of course, but at the same time, you know, there's so many options now for rideshare insurance that I think it's sort of a no brainer to do it. You know, if you're going to do this, you kind of need to make sure that you're prepared, because that's another thing that, you know, we try to help. We try to help a lot of drivers with that they may not realize, is that as an Uber or Lyft driver, you're 1099 contractor, which means you're a business owner, right? So even though you might only be making a few 100 bucks a week, you still have the same reporting requirements, the same insurance and risk items, you know, the liability aspects that you need to think of. And that's one of the reasons why I think driving for Uber and Lyft is Lyft is so great for a lot of kind of people that have side gigs or businesses or entrepreneurs, is because it helps you practice basically all the stuff that you would need as like a real business owner, right? You really need to think about all these different areas of operating and running a business, so it's definitely good practice, I would

Robert Plank 29:20 say, awesome. Well, good to know. And so I want to squish gears a little bit and talk about your blog, the rideshare guy calm, because we're sort of starting to run out of time here. But I noticed that you talk about not just Uber and Lyft, but all kinds of cool stuff, like Turo to like to, like rent a car, or Postmates to deliver package or Uber Eats. So I mean, what sort of excites you these days about some of just these new new services, or new ride share kind of things coming out?

Speaker 1 29:47 Yeah, definitely. I mean, so there's, obviously, you know, Uber is the biggest company. Almost everyone's heard of Uber, and a majority of drivers are doing Uber. Sort of in second place is Lyft. But you know what we've seen over the past year is, sort of these deliveries. Services have just exploded. So Postmates and DoorDash are two of the biggest which basically allow customers to order food from local restaurants through an app, and then someone like me will go pick it up and deliver it for them. So there's a whole host of companies that are now doing this. There's drivers that are actually delivering packages for Amazon. So there's really kind of like limitless, I guess I would say opportunities in the delivery space. What I'm really excited for are a lot of the startups that are now sort of coming in and focusing on drivers. So for example, there's a cool app that I've been testing lately called maestro, and what it actually does is automates your Uber and Lyft driving. So you log into the maestro app, and it logs you into both Uber and Lyft automatically. So you don't even need you only need to press one button. As soon as, let's say, you get an Uber request, it accepts it for you, and then logs you off of Lyft. You go do that Uber request, and then once you slide to end the trip, it logs you back on to Uber and Lyft. And so it's cool stuff like that that you could imagine is, like, really beneficial to a driver, because now they're able to drive for Uber and Lyft, basically hassle free. And they can increase, you know, when it's slow out, they can increase their chances of getting a request. So

Robert Plank 31:08 genius. I mean, that's

Speaker 1 31:10 cool stuff, huh? Yeah,

Robert Plank 31:12 because I've definitely seen, I've definitely picked up by some of those Uber drivers where they'll have like, both stickers, they'll have like, the the you and they'll have the pink mustache, and they'll have, like, two different phones, one free app. So that sounds like, like a way better way of going about things. And so, you know, as we're kind of starting to wind down here, like, kind of looking back at, you know, your your Uber and Lyft driving, and looking at, you know, other people who are doing that, do you see, like, our number one universal mistake, or do you wish you could, like, go back in time, and when you first got started, like, tell yourself, like, don't make this mistake.

Speaker 1 31:47 You know, I guess what I would say, as far as not making a mistake, is sort of just giving it a shot. I mean, I think for me, for a long time, I sort of I knew about Uber and Lyft, I knew about driving, but I was kind of just like, I don't know that. I want to try it. And I think for a lot of people, there is that apprehension that we talked about earlier, whether it is on the consumer or the driver's side. And I think that the nice thing about these services that make it so easy to try, right? If you are, I mean, if you have to go buy a new car, maybe don't try driving for Uber. But if you already own a car, you, let's say you have a family member who has a car that you can use and try this service out. You know, I think a lot of people would be surprised at the benefits. I mean, it's beyond monetary. I mean, I just interviewed a guy the other day who's looking to start a business, and he started targeting, sort of the wealthier neighborhoods, and started driving lawyers, or driving like business owners. And he was basically just getting free advice from all these people. You know, he was asking this lawyer all these questions, and he got 30 minutes of free law advice, basically, right, which is pretty valuable. So I think that that's sort of the cool thing, that if you can kind of get over that initial fear apprehension and just go out and try these things, you never really know what will happen.

Robert Plank 32:53 Man, that is genius. Just drive around, you know, Beverly Hills or whatever, and get all the Get, get all the advice from the top money makers. And so out of curiosity, you said that you kind of, you know, you kind of waited around for a while until you tried Uber, like, what? What kind of gave you that push to do it?

Speaker 1 33:09 So to be honest, what gave me that push to do it was when Lyft, I was living in Orange County at the time, and Lyft had just launched in Orange County, and one of the drives I've been taking Lyft and Uber as a passenger for like, a year or two before I even signed up, and one of the drivers told me that, hey, Lyft just launched, and they're actually paying me right now 25 bucks an hour just to sit on the couch. Right? They just need drivers available while they try to grow, try and grow their passenger base. And when he told me that I was sold, I was like, wait, I can just sit on my couch and make 25 bucks an hour by the time I actually got signed up, though, and approved to drive with Lyft. That promotion was sort of over, because, obviously it was a temporary one when they first launched. But it was just funny that that was kind of the incentive I needed to get signed up,

Robert Plank 33:50 awesome and a pretty good lesson in general. Like, you know, why wait? Just jump on it. You could have collected, who knows how many hours, 25 bucks a pop. Now,

Speaker 1 33:57 if I would have signed up even sooner, I might have made a few 100 bucks just watching TV. So, yeah,

Robert Plank 34:02 sure, it would have, could have, but a good lesson. So if you know, whenever Uber Eats comes to whatever people's towns or whatever Amazon delivery services, people should just sign up and take advantage of whatever promotion there is.

Speaker 1 34:14 Yeah, and I mean, frankly, when these services launch in new cities, right? Or even Uber Eats or Amazon, or any of these services first launch, they need a lot of drivers, right? They need a lot of passengers, and so that's typically when they offer the best promotions, the best bonuses. And that's a big thing we've seen with Uber. Now, Uber is obviously in most markets by now, so the bonuses aren't as high as maybe they used to be. But you know, when they these services are launching now, they might pay you a couple 100 bucks, or they might guarantee you 2025, bucks an hour and earnings, and you might have to do pretty relatively little amount of work. So definitely, there's an advantage for those sort of first movers, for those people who are willing to kind of be guinea pigs,

Robert Plank 34:52 awesome. And then one sort of final question came to mind, if I can kind of squeeze it, even though we're way over time, I. A maybe a year or so ago, I heard about something called, like, arcade city, where it was, like a peer to peer, but like, not really, like, without, like, the centralized part of it, like, without the boss. Have you used arcade city at all?

Speaker 1 35:14 Yeah, so arcade city, I've actually used it as a passenger. And really, what it is, though is, you know, when, actually Austin, in Austin, when Uber and Lyft pulled out of Austin over some regulation issues, arcade city and a few other companies popped up. But really, what it was, was just a Facebook group where people would go in and post that, hey, I need a ride from point A to point B, and a driver would come in and say, Hey, here's my Uber, my old Uber and Lyft profile, I can give you a ride. And you can imagine that it sort of worked. You know, the group grew pretty big, but there's a lot of risk, because you don't really know who's picking you up. And obviously all these rides are technically illegal because there's no commercial insurance or anything like that. So, I mean, it was sort of an interesting idea, but it never really took off in a kind of legitimate way.

Robert Plank 35:59 And I imagine with, with that sort of thing, like, there, there would be no way to take payments, like the passengers would have to pay cash, right? Yeah,

Speaker 1 36:05 it was all cash. So it was pretty rudimentary, and it was basically, kind of like, you know, old school, just kind of, you know, everyone posting on Craigslist, but through a Facebook group. And, you know, I tried it as a passenger while I was in Austin, and, I mean, it worked, but there's definitely, you know, I'd say, probably a lot of risk on the driver's side and even some on the passenger side, because you don't know who's picking you up. It could just be some random guy who screen shot at, you know, someone else's profile and put their picture on it, and is now picking you up.

Robert Plank 36:32 Oh, wow. Well, good to know. But, I mean, the good news is that, you know, with things like that popping up, it just seems like there's enough competition, or there's enough, you know, new ride sharing services out there where they're all going to try to be attractive to the drivers and to the riders. So, I mean, even though there might be some sort of lesser sketchy services, I mean, the good news is that there's lots of shoes from it sounds like,

Speaker 1 36:55 definitely lots of options,

Robert Plank 36:56 cool and so, so the website that you have is the ride share guy, calm, and is that the place people should go to after listening to our conversation today?

Speaker 1 37:04 Yeah, definitely, that is a great place to start. We also have a podcast that you could find the rideshare guy, and we're also on YouTube, too.

Robert Plank 37:11 Awesome. So, so everyone should go right there the rideshare guy, calm, and click around and see what you can find there. There's the podcast, there's guest blog posts, there's YouTube videos, there's those resources we talked about. There's those video courses, if you want to get the real stuff. So the ride share guy.com is the place to go. So everybody go there right now. And thanks so much, Harry for sort of sharing with us. All these do's and don'ts of ride sharing, and some of your stories and stories you've heard this sounds like a really fun and easy way for people to make that extra side income and mix things up and and just by driving people around. I mean, the weirdest thing, but what a time to be alive, right? Yeah,

Speaker 1 37:51 definitely. Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Robert Plank 37:54 No problem. So everyone go to the rideshare guy calm, and we'll talk to everyone very soon. This is Robert plank, and would you like to be a guest on the program? Do you have an idea for a future episode, or do you just want to tell us how we're doing? Get in touch with us right now at Robert plank.com/ask, to let us know you.