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0 pointschristkv3y ago0 comments

In a recession they provide a luxury good that might be down prioritized by customers to save money.

0 comments

In a recession some people suddenly are eager for any job, no matter how bad, driving down Uber's "cost of goods sold" i.e. driver fees..

But in general economic downturns are tricky, as they affect different groups differently - are the people who would suffer in a recession the same people who are currently using Uber?

juve19963y ago

That's not true, really, in this case with inflation.

There will be no point in taking such low paying jobs. We're already seeing massive shortages at the low end of employment - working for that cheap simply doesn't make economic sense.

vkou3y ago

Driver fees are already so low that between depreciation, gas, and your time, you're barely making ends meet driving. They can't squeeze the drivers any further, unless they only want people to be driving 15-year-old beaters.

missedthecue3y ago

Boy, this is an evergreen narrative on HN, but I don't really think it's true. The total all-in cost of a Prius (depreciation, maintenance, gasoline, etc...) is about 30 cents per mile. Uber drivers make about $1-$2 per mile which is a pretty big margin.

Uber has been around for over 10 years now. Sure, not everyone is an accountant, but if Uber drained every driver's wallet, they'd have noticed by now. Interesting that it's usually only people who have never driven for Uber that claim it's completely unprofitable.

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KptMarchewa3y ago

Yeah - Uber both eats and taxi part was extremely cheap during any restrictions. Now it's easily 100-150% more expensive here.

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