How to earn more while driving Uber Flex in Singapore!

The title says it all. Several readers have emailed or Facebook messaged me asking for tips to maximize earnings, and I think that it is probably the most useful topic for readers. I could just say "Work smart and hard because there is no free lunch in this world and especially in Singapore," but I will go further and share some tips on how to accomplish both.

So without further ado, here are my tips:

1. Preparation. This goes all the way to planning when to drive, how long to drive, when to take breaks, when to refuel, and of course where to drive. You should also prepare all your requisite tools, be familiar with the current Uber incentives, and ensure that you are well-rested and hydrated.

2. Think like a passenger. This concept was mentioned in my post regarding where to drive, but I want to reiterate it here. Ultimately, fetching passengers is going to be your main source of income and your main job. All the incentives and preparations are only there to help enhance your earnings. Therefore, as in any business, it pays to understand the customers. Some brief pointers I use to guide my thinking:

1. Why would passengers want to take Uber?
2. Where might these passengers be?
3. When would they want to take Uber?
4. How many of such passengers are there?

One example of such an analysis: passengers are in an ulu location and want to rush home from work or to town to meet friends. Thus they are more likely to be in industrial areas or CBD, and they would want to take Uber during the evening peak period.

We can then target this profile and aim to go to the nearest industrial or commercial area, such as Tampines, Changi Business Park, Ubi, Tai Seng, Tuas, Ayer Rajah, etc. It's best to know the nearest "hot" area so we don't waste too much time after a drop-off to find the next booking. It's also a good idea to plan ahead and try to plan toilet breaks/refueling to avoid taking breaks when we're near a surge zone or during peak hours since we'd be missing out on better fares.

Another profile which I've noticed is inconvenient areas like Punggol or Yishun, or private housing estates. The demand here is more random, but stronger on weekends, and probably weaker during evening peak period since people would tend to be rushing home rather than out of home.

Lastly, take note of lull periods like school holidays, when people may be traveling or not needing to go to school/send kids to school, and hence fewer people to take Uber. As part-timers, we can consider not driving during such periods, especially during weekdays.

With this framework in mind, it is easier to learn quickly from experience, and you will soon have fewer worries about getting bookings.

3. Go for boost/surge. While this is not always possible, and surge often disappears as soon as you enter the zone, boost and surge do help earnings somewhat, and more importantly indicate areas with higher demand. Use the "Think like a passenger" framework to analyze if the surge is indeed linked to higher demand.

4. Drive only as long as required to reach your desired incentives tier. This is related to planning and helps to boost your hourly earnings. When planning your schedule for the week, think about how many hours and/or nights you are able to drive. Then look at the incentives table to decide which tier of incentives you wish to hit, and divide the number of trips required by 2 (the average number of trips per hour you can make) to get the number of hours you need to drive. If you overshot the number of trips to hit your desired tier but not enough to hit the next tier, you still earn the fares of course, but without the additional help from Cash King, your hourly earnings will likely be hit. The pointers above are all examples of working smart.

5. Take all jobs. Some drivers think that Uberpool is a pointless job, since Uber takes higher cuts out of lower fares. They also think it is a waste of their time to detour and pick up another passenger.

Here's my analysis, assuming the 2 trips are roughly the same distance. Also, Uberpool fares are usually about 25% lower. 

	UberX	Uberpool (matched)	Uberpool (unmatched)
Uber fee	20%	30%	10%
Passenger’s discount	0	25%	25%
Number of trips	1	2	1
Final percentage of base fare	80%	105%	67.5%

We see that Uberpool with no matches gives drivers the worst earnings, even when Uber fee is only 10%.

Therefore, if we already have 1 Uberpool ride, it's best to pick up any additional Uberpool matches. 

Should we reject/ignore Uberpool bookings, then? Short answer, NO. I think the advantage of Uberpool is that it helps to maximise fuel and time, especially if the trip is long. This is especially helpful for smove part-timers, since the mileage charges are high and time is limited to hit Cash King incentives. It doesn't waste drivers' time to pick up another passenger, since you would have to spend time to pick up the next passenger if you have 2 UberX bookings anyway. 

This is a great example of working hard when working smart is not possible.

Don't know what I'm talking about? You would once you've signed up and booked a car to start earning money part-time from UberFlex Club!