Calculator6 min

What rideshare actually pays: the true hourly formula

The math the apps do not show you — net of fuel, depreciation, maintenance, dead miles, and self-employment tax.

The number in the app is gross revenue for time online. It is not a wage, and treating it like one is how drivers end up working sixty-hour weeks for less than they made at a job they quit.

Real hourly is gross earnings minus fuel, minus per-mile depreciation on your vehicle, minus a maintenance reserve, minus the tax you will owe as a contractor, divided by every hour you were unavailable for anything else — including waiting and repositioning.

Use a conservative per-mile vehicle cost. The federal mileage rate exists as a deduction, but your actual cost on a paid-off economy car is lower and on a financed SUV is higher. Know which one you are driving.

Once you run this for a month, the pattern usually shows up immediately: two or three time blocks carry the whole week and the rest are close to break-even. That is the decision the math is for.

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