How This Lyft Driver Earned $100K Last Year

Would you believe us if we told you a Lyft driver made $100,000 in 2020? It sounds improbable, but it’s true – and we have proof!

Aaron P. from Arizona made an unheard of $4,000 in a week, and we covered his story about that here. However, after criticism in the comments section of our article, he decided to see what he could do to prove his 12-hour days were sustainable…and profitable.

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Phoenix Driver Earns Over $100,000 With Lyft

Aaron took it upon himself to continue working 12-hour days and ended up with something to show for it. He earned over $100,000 with Lyft in 2020.

A copy of Aaron’s 2020 earnings summary for Lyft

He drives in the East Valley area of the Phoenix market.

Why did he take it upon himself to push so hard for this? It turns out criticism does some push some people to work harder and prove the ‘haters’ wrong! Due to the reactions his $4,000 a week story received the first time around, he said, “It stayed busier than normal almost the rest of the year. I was motivated to just continue on with my 12-hour shifts when they were saying that it wasn’t sustainable.”

Aaron continued, “Everybody was saying it wasn’t possible to keep doing that, so I wanted to just…I knew I could prove it with my summaries. So I continued to just not take any days off and work the 12-hour shifts.”

Aaron also has goals in mind to make earning more worth his while. He said, “I have around 2.5 years until my house is paid off, and then I just don’t want to work the whole summer every year. It will be achievable if I keep busting my a** up until that time comes.”

Aaron continued, “That’s my motivation. They call it being a snowbird. I’m going to go to Oregon. My mom lives up on the border of Oregon and Washington. I’ll get out of here for the hot summer and come back when the weather is nicer. That’s my plan.

Because of doing rideshare, that’s possible because there’s no schedule and you can take whatever time off you want. Normally, it’s slow here in the summer anyway. There’s not as many tourists and college kids.”

How Aaron Earned Over $100k with Lyft

One thing that helps Aaron earn more than the average driver? He drives with Lux and Lux Black. He said, “It was abnormally busy running the premium levels on Lux and Lux Black with Lyft.” Having more requests than normal with Lux and Lux Black contributed to his higher earnings in 2020.

Aaron cited the shortage of drivers (mainly due to the pandemic) as a large factor in him being able to earn consistently on his Lux and Lux Black levels for Lyft.

If he ever got burned out driving at night, he would switch things up and drive days instead. Aaron said, “The majority of the whole 2020 was nighttime. I was doing 5 pm to 5 am.”

But he never felt his 12-hour days were unsustainable. When you’re doing Lux and Lux Black rides only, Aaron says you get what he calls “natural breaks.”

“You could get gaps sometimes,” Aaron explained. “30 minutes, you could sit for a whole hour sometimes. I just go home and wait at my house. My house is surrounded by little dive bars to continue to get orders. I’m right in a good spot. My house is a great spot for me to sit and wait for rides to come through. It’s very convenient for me and part of my success, I’m sure.”

Always Have a Plan B, Even If You Don’t Want to Use It

Aaron is focusing on Lyft at the moment and hopes it doesn’t disappear before he’s ready to retire in about 12 years, but if it does, he has a trade to fall back on.

“I’m hoping it continues to exist, but I’m worried about that,” said Aaron. “Uber is like just screwing up in this market. They eliminated Select. They penalize you for driving in the East Valley, the area I like to drive in; they pay you 10% less. I’m kind of worried it’ll go away somehow.”

Aaron prefers to drive for Lyft because of this, but he still worries that Lyft may change things as Uber has. In that case, Aaron does have a trade skill to fall back on – but he’d prefer to keep driving for now.

Aaron’s Advice to Other Drivers Hoping to Earn More

Want to join the $100k club? Aaron has some advice:

“Be willing to put the time in. The more you work, the more you’re going to make. Also, having a second car. If you’re a full-time driver, having a second car helps a lot. If one of them is in the shop, you don’t miss a day’s work or a night’s work. That’s helped me a lot.”

“The whole secret to my success was all the hours I put into it. Which is no secret,” he added.
“I don’t think anyone is as crazy as me with the number of hours they’ll drive. But I have that goal of taking summers off.”

Aaron also talks about his earnings and how he got there on his YouTube channel. Check out the video here: Making six figures driving Lyft.

Drivers, what questions do you have for Aaron? Are you a nighttime or day time driver?

-Paula @ RSG