Do you want to be a Grab/Uber Driver? Read this first before you decide. After 1st July 2017 edition.

How i became a Grab/Uber driver?

I took a 2 year break from my work to spend time with my children. After 2 years, things start to get a bit boring as my child now goes to school and so i want to rejoin the workforce. I don't know about you guys but i find it difficult to get a job interview.

It happened one day my friend told me he was driving for Uber and asked if i was willing to give it a try. I have my own car and it was fully paid because the car was 9 years and 9 months old. I thought why not i give it a try while looking for "the next thing" and this is how I got started. By now, I have been driving for Uber and Grab for 3 months or so. 

What timing and how many hours should i drive for Grab/Uber?

TDLR; I drive daily from 10 am to 8 pm on weekdays and off on weekends.
Sounds like office job hours?

After i send my wife to work around 9 am, i will go take breakfast and by the time i turn on the driver app, it is 10 am in the morning. I will drive until 1 pm or so before i take my 1 hour lunch break and resume around 2 pm. Then i will carrying driving until 5 pm or so and take a short tea break before carrying on driving until 8 pm and knock off. 

Imho, i think there isn't a specific timing to drive. It all comes down to what timing is suitable for you and the timing you like. However, i would recommend to drive split slots from 6 am-11 am and 5 pm-10 pm. This way you can make full use of the peak hours and hopefully get the most out of the 10 hours of driving. 

Uber surge/boost

Of course, you can drive as many hours as you wish. I have seen people doing 15 hours per day and they make much more than i do. As a benchmark, one should be expecting around $25/hour gross of driving. Some make more, some make lesser.

For me personally, i like to work like office hours so i can go home and accompany my kids and wife.

How much can I make driving Uber/Grab?

I will use myself as a benchmark for you all. As said, i drive only on weekdays 10am to 8pm daily. Take note that this is 10 hours duration but actual driving online hours are about 8 hours.

I usually make around $200 gross per day.
Including incentives, i get about $1200-1300 per week.

That makes it $4800-5200 gross per month. 

Minus off the cost of driving, I take home nett about $3000-4000 per month. 

Earnings per week on Uber / Not including on Grab

I know some people drive way more hours than me and makes those $6000-$8000 figures.

So it is possible to have a decent income but do take care of your health!

The Cost Of Driving For Uber/Grab?

You need a car to start driving obviously right? You can choose from hourly rentals, monthly rentals, relief driver, own a car. You also need to consider the fuel consumption, road tax, parking, insurance, car maintenance. When you rent a car, you do not have to pay for road tax, insurance and car maintenance.

Hourly Rentals

Most common choices are from smove, tribecar, whizzcar. You do not have to commit to a rental contract of six months and do not have to pay for season parking. Just pay for the timing you want drive, go to the collection point to collect and return back when done. Each provider have different rules when it comes to collecting, returning and fuel usage. I have only tried Tribecar for Grab and i find their rates are quite reasonable. You have to put a $100 deposit with them and they will only refund you like 3 months later after you do not want to rent their cars anymore. Their cars are usually the older models and fuel economy isn't that great, about 10km/ltr. You just have make sure the tank isn't in reserve when you collect and return. You will lose out if you topup the fuel tank to full when you return!

Monthly Rentals

There is the well known LCR and third party rental companies you can find on Carousell etc. These companies usually have a six month contract and requires a upfront deposit of $500 to $2000. Daily rates starts from $39 to $80 depending on what car you choose. You have to buy season parking because you can drive the car home and use it for the entire duration. Some companies like LCR do not allow you to drive for Grab but they might offer a cheaper rental rate or incentives for the drivers. Renting from those third party rental companies can drive on both sides. You can send the car back to the rental company for car maintenance and repairs without paying for it.

Relief Driver

You can find someone who is renting or own their car to be a relief driver for them. Who can drive for 24 hours a day right? You can ask on some forums or chat groups and find people that wants to look for a relief driver to lessen the burden of renting/owning the car. The "owner" might be driving on morning shift and you can use the car on the midnight shift. If the "owner" rents from LCR that only allows the car to drive only for Uber, you cannot use the car to drive for Grab. 

Owning a car

Pretty straightforward, you buy a car. Pay for everything on your own. Season parking, fuel usage, insurance, road tax, car maintenance, repairs, and interest on loan if you took a loan. I took a commercial loan at 3.5% per annum and commercial insurance of $1400 per year after 20% NCD.

Fuel Consumption

I used to drive a Honda Stream before the COE expired and i am driving a Toyota Prius now. 

The fuel consumption for both cars are very different.

Honda Stream - 10km/litre

Toyota Prius Hybrid - 25km/litre

I clock about 300 km per day on average and that equates to 30 litres for my Honda Stream or 12 litres for my Prius. Convert this to dollar and cents on fuel cost per day on RON 95 from Shell before discounts:

Honda Stream - 30L X $2.13 = $63.90

Toyota Prius - 12L X $2.13 = $25.56

Fuel cost difference per day : $38.34

Fuel cost difference per month : $38.34 X 30 days = $1150.20

So should you get a fuel saving car at a higher rental cost or ownership? It really depends on how many hours are you putting on the road. If you are a part time driver that drives for little hours, clocking little mileage then the fuel savings might not be able to offset your higher cost of rental or ownership. Of course this amount of fuel cost can be further reduced with Petrol discount cards such as CitiBank Shell Card or DBS Esso Card etc.

For the case of my own Toyota Prius. I calculated it to be about $1200/month including depreciation, road tax, insurance, servicing, offsetting aside for occasional repairs etc. I do not drive on weekends so my petrol cost is about $500-600 per month after petrol discounts. As i mentioned earlier, i take home $3000-4000 per month with a ownership of a car for my family use.  

The Bad and the Ugly

"Your face" : Private Hire Car Decal

Since LTA enforced the private hire vehicle to stick a blue decal on the cars for private hire usage cars, many premium car owners (mercedes, bmw, audi) gave up using their cars for private hire usage. The owners of these premium cars may or may not be driving on their own for private hire but might be renting out their cars when they are not using it. With the decal rule in place, many owners gave up to use their cars for private hire usage because "no face". 

Private Hire Car Decal from LTA

I have seen a few cars on the road that made the decals of their car to be "removable" using scotch tape and even velcro tapes. They must be pretty ashamed of being a private hire car driver. Take note it is an offense to tamper with the decal and according to Uber website.

Decal Regulations From Uber Website : https://www.uber.com/en-SG/drive/resources/pdvl-decal/

If you are going be ashamed of making a living by doing honest work of being a private hire driver, maybe you should not consider of being as one because it is not worth it to risk tampering the decal from LTA. 

Income Tax

I have no experience with this yet but from what i gathered from other fellow drivers. Being a private hire driver is not able to deduct your car rental/ownership, fuel usage and other cost when you submit your income tax. Meaning you will be paying tax calculated from your gross income. If this is not true, please share with me how to deduct the cost from our gross income when we have to submit our income tax return!

MediSave

Being a private hire driver, the income is considered as trade and is defined as a self-employed person, you will have to contribute to your Medisave account if your yearly net trade income is more than $6000. Different age group will contribute different % . You can apply to pay by instalment instead of paying in a lump sum. For example, for my age group at 9% , if i make $48,000 that year, i have to contribute $4320 to my Medisave account!

MediSave Contribution Rates

https://www.cpf.gov.sg/Assets/members/Documents/MARates2016.pdf

CPF & Benefits

Unlike a regular job, you do not get CPF contributions from your employer being a private hire driver. CPF contributions from your employer is also income! Also, you do not have paid leave, medical leave and maternity leave (for women). You are also missing out on medical benefits as some companies will pay for their employees when they visits the doctor/dentist. 

Health

Many people say it is bad for health to be a driving for long hours. It could be because of those extreme long hours of driving, tahan your poop and pee, lack of exercise and movement, some even say about the air in the car is bad! etc. Even the PDVL course from STA wants to test you to about high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure! 

Safety

You will be spending hours and hours in the car, on the road driving. They say the road is like a tiger's mouth. 马路如虎口 Always open and ready to eat you! Driving for long hours will make you fatigue, ever see those people driving like a snake? A mistake like beating the traffic light will cost you demerit points and a hefty fine. An accident will make you lose thousands of $$$ or even cost your life and others. Rest well and drive safely. Be a responsible road user!

Career Prospect

There is no career prospect being a private hire driver or taxi driver. Let's face it, there isn't a senior private hire driver or private hire driver manager position that will increase your income. If you want more income, the best method is to drive more hours!

Lone Ranger

You do not have colleagues to talk to or work together on projects and events. You are the lone ranger in your car driving for your own pocket. It can get lonely at times when you want to speak to someone else about your emotions and feelings. 

Check out our Discord Chatroom for Uber/Grab Drivers! 

Click here to join our chat group : https://discord.gg/gGFEPZX 

Nasty Riders/Passengers

You will be fetching all sorts of people. Some are good, friendly, understanding while some are ummm... cheap and demanding, unreasonable, drunks, smelly, dirty, etc. Some riders bring their kids along and doesn't care if the kid jumps and kick or dirty your car. I ever fetch a lady that tried to eat a meal by trying to hide behind my seat! A bad rider can ruin the mood of a nice driver vice versa!

The Future of Ride Hailing App

Some say Uber/Grab is a fashion trend and will disappear like luohan fish and bubble tea. I don't know how true is it. There are many billionaires that have invested in both companies and LTA is also regulating this industry. Are they silly to invest time, money and resources to these companies? Did anyone expect the outcome of Nokia and Kodak back in the days? Nobody knows what is going to happen in the future. 

Thoughts?

After reading all these, do you still want to become a private hire driver? 

Did i miss out anything? Please let me know in the comments!

If you have questions , please feel free join our community on Discord App, PHV Singapore Discord Group at https://discord.gg/gGFEPZX (<---Click Here) , available for Android and IOS devices totally free and only requires an email to register. Drivers-to-be are welcome too! 

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