Post by acnedriver on Dec 12, 2022 6:38:26 GMT
Omar had been driving for nearly 10-and-a-half hours when he spoke to the Manchester Evening News . As an Uber driver, that length of shift wasn’t unusual, he said.
What was unusual, he said, were his takings. “Today I started at 6am and 10-and-a-half hours later I’ve reached £71,” he explained. “That’s seven trips. I spent £40 on fuel, so I only have £31 left.”
It means that on this shift, Omar made £2.95 an hour doing his job. It’s one reason why he’s going on strike, with another 1,000 drivers, on December 16.
“It’s really affecting our lives and what we are doing at the moment,” he continued. “We are standing up for ourselves.”
His earnings were not just low on the day the MEN called him, he added: “Yesterday the customer paid £9.70 and I got £4.75 back (after Uber's commission and other fees). Driving to the customer took 10 minutes to drop them off at 25 minutes. That’s 35 minutes of my time for £4.75. How can I earn the living wage on that?”
Omar is not the only driver feeling the pinch at the moment. Another cabbie, from Stalybridge, has an accessible vehicle — so wheelchair users can get about.
However, despite being a taxi driver for years, and working for Uber since 2015, he’s decided to pack it in. He explained: “I’ve got a bus with access capability. I got an (Uber) access bonus of £150 per week if I do 40 jobs. Even with that it isn’t worth it.
“I’ve retrained as a tree surgeon so I can get out of this business. When I started seven years ago, it was £1.80 a mile, and £3 per mile for a minibus. Now, it’s 75p a mile for a car and £1.12 for a minibus.”
Meanwhile, Rizwan Ilyas, a married-father of four from Longsight, who has worked as a taxi driver for 22 years and the last seven of them for Uber, says he regularly turns down fares for shorter distances as 'they are just not worth it'
“I don't accept about 20 percent of the jobs that are being thrown at us," he said. "It's just not worth it. You might be travelling two-and-a-half or three miles and you are getting a fiver for it. With the cost of fuel, it's just a waste of time.
“If you were doing two miles, you are getting £3.80. That used to be £5. There's some anger, obviously, because they are trying to get us to work more and more for the same money.
“The newer drivers will be accepting these jobs but they don't know that's not proper money. There's a lot of talk about a protest. It's not fair.”
That talk of a protest has materialised, the MEN understands, in the form of a strike on December 16 — where drivers will refuse to log on to Uber, and instead ply their trade on rival taxi app Bolt instead
Src M.E.N.
What was unusual, he said, were his takings. “Today I started at 6am and 10-and-a-half hours later I’ve reached £71,” he explained. “That’s seven trips. I spent £40 on fuel, so I only have £31 left.”
It means that on this shift, Omar made £2.95 an hour doing his job. It’s one reason why he’s going on strike, with another 1,000 drivers, on December 16.
“It’s really affecting our lives and what we are doing at the moment,” he continued. “We are standing up for ourselves.”
His earnings were not just low on the day the MEN called him, he added: “Yesterday the customer paid £9.70 and I got £4.75 back (after Uber's commission and other fees). Driving to the customer took 10 minutes to drop them off at 25 minutes. That’s 35 minutes of my time for £4.75. How can I earn the living wage on that?”
Omar is not the only driver feeling the pinch at the moment. Another cabbie, from Stalybridge, has an accessible vehicle — so wheelchair users can get about.
However, despite being a taxi driver for years, and working for Uber since 2015, he’s decided to pack it in. He explained: “I’ve got a bus with access capability. I got an (Uber) access bonus of £150 per week if I do 40 jobs. Even with that it isn’t worth it.
“I’ve retrained as a tree surgeon so I can get out of this business. When I started seven years ago, it was £1.80 a mile, and £3 per mile for a minibus. Now, it’s 75p a mile for a car and £1.12 for a minibus.”
Meanwhile, Rizwan Ilyas, a married-father of four from Longsight, who has worked as a taxi driver for 22 years and the last seven of them for Uber, says he regularly turns down fares for shorter distances as 'they are just not worth it'
“I don't accept about 20 percent of the jobs that are being thrown at us," he said. "It's just not worth it. You might be travelling two-and-a-half or three miles and you are getting a fiver for it. With the cost of fuel, it's just a waste of time.
“If you were doing two miles, you are getting £3.80. That used to be £5. There's some anger, obviously, because they are trying to get us to work more and more for the same money.
“The newer drivers will be accepting these jobs but they don't know that's not proper money. There's a lot of talk about a protest. It's not fair.”
That talk of a protest has materialised, the MEN understands, in the form of a strike on December 16 — where drivers will refuse to log on to Uber, and instead ply their trade on rival taxi app Bolt instead
Src M.E.N.