Uber advertises that uberX drivers can make up to $28/hour in fares. (After 25% Uber commission, the hourly rate is $21/hour.) It sounds good. But how much do uber drivers really make in the San Francisco Bay Area?

I have been driving uberX full-time for almost two months, and I’ve put in a lot of hours and drove almost every single day. Some were really long days, like 14 hours, while a few were shorter as I got so exhausted and had to catch up on sleep.

On average, I was out working about 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Of course, I wasn’t driving all that 12 hours. In fact, for only about one third of the day I was actually driving. The rest of the time was spent on waiting for fares or driving back from drop-offs at a distant location. (It’s not always possible to get a fare back to my home base.)

The table below shows my actual take-home earnings for the past three weeks and the number of hours I was out “on the job.” These hours include my actual driving time, the time spent on waiting for fares, and the time required to drive back to home base. 70% of the earnings were made in the south bay while the remaining 30% in San Francisco.

You can see I spent 220 hours out on the job. Let’s subtract 20 hours for meals and breaks. Now I’m left with 200 hours that generated $3105.41 in earnings. My hourly rate? $15.30/hour.

Is this how much a driver can realistically expect to make for driving with Uber in Silicon Valley? I think so.

Uber drivers, how much do you make? Let’s hear from you by leaving a comment!