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How Much Did I Make Driving for Uber and Lyft on the 4th of July?

On July 4, RSG senior contributor Will Preston had his best night driving with Uber ever.  And while not every holiday will be as lucrative, today Will shares his strategies for maximizing your time on the road, taking advantage of holidays, plus how much he made.

I grossed $355 ($326 from Uber and $29 from Lyft) driving the afternoon and evening of July 4th, which is now the most amount of money I believe I’ve made per hour ($35) since I started driving about two years ago. While San Diego is a busy town with mid-range Uber rates, it has minimal surge, so for drivers in my town, this is a lot of money!

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In this article, I’ll share the strategies I used to maximize my earnings during the July 4th holiday, plus the mistakes I made that kept me from making more.

On July 4, RSG senior contributor Will Preston had his best night driving with Uber ever.  And while not every holiday will be as lucrative, today Will shares his strategies for maximizing your time on the road, taking advantage of holidays, plus how much he made.

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My Driving Strategy for Beating Uber’s New Flat Rate Surge

Recently, Uber and Lyft made changes in some cities to how surge is calculated and paid out. Many of you emailed RSG, wondering if these new changes were good for drivers or not. Senior RSG contributor Will Preston investigated the new surge rates and compared them to old surge – here’s what he found.

Once again Uber and Lyft changed the way we drivers get paid – this time with the new ‘flat rate surge’. As usual, many drivers feel it is just another attempt by these companies to increase how much they make versus how much we make. I thought I would take a look at what my surge rides look like to see if this was the case for me. Here’s what I found about the new changes to surge, and how you can use these changes to your benefit.

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Should You Rent a Car with HyreCar to Drive for Uber?

Don’t have a car but want to drive for Uber and Lyft? Hyrecar wants to help you out. We sent senior RSG contributor Will Preston out to sign up, try out and report on what it’s like to rent a car as a rideshare driver through Hyrecar.

Interested in signing up with Hyrecar? You can sign up with HyreCar here using our affiliate link, and for a full list of vehicle options, head to our Vehicle Marketplace here.

After Paula described her experience renting out a vehicle via HyreCar, RSG decided to look at the experience from a different angle – what it’s like to use the service as a driver. I can say the overall experience was a positive one, but it started out very negative. More on that later.

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Driving For Uber in Los Angeles – Tips & Tricks I Learned

How hard could driving in a new city be if you’re a veteran rideshare driver? Senior RSG contributor Will Preston asked that question, and learned the hard way, when he drove for a weekend in Los Angeles.

This site has more than one article that talks about how driving rideshare is so much more than just turning on the app and going where it tells you to go. I’ve always known that, but it wasn’t until a few weekends ago that this fact was driven home. I live in San Diego but recently I found myself in the suburbs of Los Angeles on a Friday evening and decided to give it a whirl. I’ve got several thousand Uber and Lyft rides under my belt – and even a few dozen Bounce rides – so I know what I’m doing. Turn on the app and just go where it tells me to go; how hard can it be?

It turns out, it’s pretty hard. I underestimated the degree to which my familiarity with San Diego’s layout affected my ability to be an effective rideshare driver. I only drove for a few hours, but it didn’t take long for me to realize I just needed to set a destination filter for San Diego and head home.

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Bounce Driver Review – Top Tips To Know Before Joining Bounce

Recently, we covered a new rideshare company called Bounce, and many of you had questions about how busy Bounce rideshare is and how much drivers with Bounce can make. Today, senior RSG contributor Will Preston covers that, plus an interesting conversation he had with one Bounce rider.

Imagine trying to compete with one of the biggest companies in the world, and you’ll have some idea of what life must be like for the founders of Bounce. With all of Uber’s challenges – not the least of which is turning a profit at some point – it has been successful enough to be synonymous with rideshare. Uber has joined Xerox, Frisbee, and Kleenex as a company whose name means the thing it does. Many of my Lyft passengers say “I’m in an Uber” when they’re on the phone with a friend.

However, the founder of Bounce seems to have seized upon a few things about Uber and Lyft that might allow Bounce to attract both passengers and drivers. Bounce tells passengers that everyone pays the same fare; there’s no pricing based on where you live, where you’re going, or how busy it is. Bounce tells drivers they get a piece of the company and residual revenue based on helping the company grow.

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