The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.

Driving For Uber: Is It Worth It?

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You may be considering driving for Uber—it’s ideal for anyone seeking flexible work, and can certainly be viable as either your primary income source or a nice earner on the side. Keep in mind that increased competition—both in the taxi app market and from an influx of new drivers on Uber— means the amount you earn on any given day can be volatile.

How Much Can You Earn Driving For Uber?

NimbleFins research indicates you can expect to earn between £9-£15 per hour driving for Uber—before taking into account the costs of driving. It may, in the right circumstances, be possible to up this into the £16-£18 per hour range, but most drivers only find rates like this on busy Friday or Saturday nights.

The way Uber calculates your earnings is fairly simple—you earn a fare for every completed trip, and Uber takes 25% of this (it's called the 25% Uber Service Fee). You’re guaranteed a minimum amount per trip, so even shorter journeys can be lucrative for drivers. Also, uniquely to Uber, you can also accept both Uber and UberEats trips/deliveries at the same time, reducing the chances of being sat around not earning.

Uber UK doesn’t publish drivers earnings/costs per mile, however its online price estimator can be a useful tool to see how much you might make for a typical journey—just remember to deduct Uber’s 25% fee.

UberEats used to publish their pay matrix. We don't see it on the site anymore, but this is what was previously listed. It might have changed, but can give you a rough idea at least:

UberEats Pay Matrix

LondonBirmingham/ManchesterRest of UK
Pick-up£1.40£1.40£1.90
Mileage (per mile)£1.50£1.50£1.50
Drop-off£1.10£1.10£0.65
Guaranteed Minimum Fee (before Uber Service Fee)£3.50£3.50£4.00

Uber Driver Reviews

Comments on driver’s earnings potential with Uber are mixed—many people successfully work using Uber as their primary income source, and once you’ve learned the "tricks of the trade" it's not difficult to optimise your earnings in a week.

“I [take] home £500 a week after taxes and all my expenses”

“Salary good and [always paid] in time”

Not everyone has a good experience financially while driving for Uber, though. Here are some comments from Indeed about people’s experience making money through Uber.

“I [worked] out my rate as £7.15 per hour last year… [working] 50 hours per week…”

”you will have to work 12 hours a day to pay your bills”

How Can You Make More Money Driving For Uber?

Simply put, to earn money with Uber you need to be out on the road, either taking customers from A to B or delivering food/groceries through UberEats. Uber has a system it calls “Surge” to let drivers know where their services are most in demand—here’s how it looks:

uber surge example

It’ll alert you to any areas where demand is high—meaning not only are you more likely to find something to do, but you’ll also earn more as a result of Surge’s pricing system. Surge customers more for their trip due to the lack of available drivers in the area. Surge is fairly unique to Uber—competitor Gett advertises consistent pricing that won't change due to demand. We compared the two apps to see which was best for customers.

Also, to figure out which times are most profitable in different cites, have a look at the bottom of this page.

When considering your potential earnings, it’s as important to take into account your costs as it is your income. Driving for Uber can be an expensive business, especially when you consider your Hire & Reward/Taxi Insurance, and Uber won’t pay for any petrol costs, so you’re expected to cover that too.

With that in mind, find a car with above-average miles per gallon that is popular with other drivers (drivers wouldn’t use that vehicle if it wasn’t economical, after all)—our guide to the best vehicles for drivers in the UK is a useful resource for car and motorbike owners.

The Cost Of Driving For Uber

There’s no doubt your earnings potential with Uber can be decent—and most drivers enjoy the nature of the work, picking their own hours and not having a manager giving them directions. That being said, there are a few costs you might not immediately consider before you sign up.

1. Vehicle Insurance

2. Fuel

3. Vehicle Depreciation

1. Vehicle Insurance

If you sign up for a Taxi insurance policy this should cover you for Hire & Reward—worth double checking with your insurer, though, to avoid confusion.

In order to ensure your vehicle is correctly insured (and avoid expensive fines, points on your license and potentially losing your license all together) it is important to have a valid form of Hire and Reward Insurance. This allows you to use your vehicle in return for payment and still be covered in the event of an accident.

Your regular Social, Domestic & Pleasure Insurance won’t be enough, so you’ll need to contact your insurer to inform them you’ll be using your vehicle for courier services. Some are happy to allow this, however others are not—here’s the full list of the UK’s top car insurers that will and won’t allow drivers to work as couriers.

Finding a policy can be tricky, and with so much insurance jargon in the market and online it can be difficult to get a straight answer. QuoteZone can help you find quotes quickly and easily—just fill out their quote form and they’ll connect you with some of the UK’s leading insurers for Uber drivers.

Find Uber Driver insurance today.
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Finally, our guide to insurance for Uber drivers covers off everything you’ll need to know about being protected on the road, discussing insurances to protect both you and your vehicle.

2. Fuel

You’re required to cover your own fuel costs while driving for Uber, so you’ll need to take these into account when considering your net earnings.

How many miles does an Uber driver drive in a day?

An average Uber driver will end up driving between 60-100 miles per day. Keep in mind that this can vary depending on the amount of time you work and the length of your journeys on any given day—some Uber drivers report putting over 5,000 miles on their vehicle in a single month.

Nimblefins research into the daily mileage and fuel costs for Amazon Flex drivers saw them spending nearly £15 per day on fuel for a 3-5 hour shift, so it’s possible that an especially long day driving could have you spending north of £20 just to fill up your tank.

“I live 50 miles from an airport… usually means at least 100 miles a day”

Miles drivenFuel cost per day
40£7.32
60£10.99
80£14.65
100£18.31
120£21.97
200£36.62

The data above assumes a petrol car delivering 36mpg and an average fuel price of 145p, per NimbleFins research.

3. Vehicle Depreciation/Deterioration

A typical vehicle in the UK averages under 20 miles a day, so considering you may be topping 100 while driving for Uber it’s easy to see how quickly your vehicle could deteriorate—losing its value quickly and even forcing you into some costly repairs.

Make sure to consider the long-term impact when you come to selling or trading in the vehicle you’ve used for Uber—it’ll likely have depreciated to a greater extent than the vehicles you’ve owned previously.

What Next?

One of the great things about the UK driving market is that there’s a wide variety of options—we compared your earnings potential on the UK’s 3 largest takeaway apps (Deliveroo vs JustEat vs UberEats) and have a separate piece on how much people earn driving for Amazonl—well worth a look if you’re considering your options.

We’ve got guides to insurance for anyone driving for these businesses too—take a look:

Find Courier insurance today.
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The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.