SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Uber Technologies, Inc., reported the unprecedented jobs impact of its platform: at its current rate, the Uber platform is generating 20,000 new driver jobs every month. These drivers are seizing the platform’s economic opportunity by building small businesses for community needs long forgotten by the taxi industry: high quality, safe, reliable and affordable transportation options.
Median uberX Small Business Income Per Year: $90,766 (NYC); $74,191 (SF)
UberX driver partners are small business entrepreneurs and are demonstrating across the country that being a driver is sustainable and profitable. For example, the median income on uberX is more than $90,000 per year per driver in New York and more than $74,000 per year per driver in San Francisco.
The Uber platform generates $2.8 billion1 per year for the U.S. economy and is growing.
“Just four years ago we set out to build a better option for people to move around cities – to make getting a ride safer, easier and affordable,” said Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. “But Uber’s positive impact goes further; hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs are using the platform to build their own small business, resulting in a huge job growth engine for cities resulting in billions of dollars being pumped into the U.S. economy.”
Uber is Available to 137,451,768 Americans with an Average Pickup Time of Less Than 10 Minutes –
That’s 43 Percent of the U.S. Population Covered in Just Four Years
With a powerful technology platform, Uber delivers turnkey entrepreneurship to drivers across the country and around the world. In contrast, the nation’s taxi drivers are often below the poverty line, required to spend $3,500 per month, over $40,000 per year just to lease their taxi, so that wealthy taxi company owners can reap the benefits of drivers having no other option to make a living.
Uber’s Presence in a City Reduces Impaired Driving
Uber’s presence also lowers incidents of impaired driving. The availability and affordability of rides on the Uber network provide the residents and visitors of Uber cities with an important alternative to drunk driving, marking a considerable contribution to the welfare of a community and reducing DUI arrests by tens of thousands across the nation. Uber’s recent econometric analysis shows that, for example, the entrance of the Uber platform in Seattle caused the number of arrests for DUI to decrease by more than 10 percent.
Drivers Reap Benefits of the Uber Platform: in their Own Words
The transparency and accountability of the Uber platform makes drivers feel safe: “I feel very safe [on the Uber platform], they have a record of everyone who gets in my car and everything that goes on.” [Washington Post, April 13, 2014]
Drivers no longer have to pay more than $700/week to rent a taxi: “[Michael] Belet said he grew tired of paying $105 a day to rent his Barwood taxi and jumped at the chance to use his own car.” [Washington Post, April 13, 2014]
Drivers have more flexibility and make more money on the Uber platform: “Jason Bow worked as a cab driver for two years before he turned to Uber X [sic] . . . as an Uber X [sic] driver, he makes more for less: a 40-hour workweek nets him about $1,500... ‘I get to create my own schedule, and that's what's most attractive to me,’ he says.” [Fortune, Jan. 15, 2014]
Taxi drivers feel “emancipated” with Uber: “Ali Vazir, a Denver UberX [sic] driver, quit being a cabbie after nearly six years plying streets in Denver for Yellow Cab and Metro. What drew him to UberX [sic] was the chance to drop the weekly cab lease payments he made to the cab company, which amounted to $22,000 to $32,000 annually. After other expenses, Vazir said, there were times it was a struggle to make the equivalent of minimum wage. . . ‘I feel emancipated. I’m so much happier, and my passengers are happier, too,’ Vazir said.” [Denver Business Journal, February 21, 2014]
About Uber
Uber is evolving the way the world moves. By seamlessly connecting riders to drivers through our platform, we make cities more accessible, opening up more possibilities for riders and more small business opportunities for drivers. From our founding in 2009 to our launches in over 120 cities in 36 countries today, Uber's rapidly expanding global presence continues to bring people and their cities closer. https://www.uber.com
1 ECONorthwest Analysis May 23, 2014 http://www.econw.com/
