It's almost self evident. Does a car cost > 30k a year? Does gas? Just like software engineering, the biggest cost in the taxi game is labour.
Edit: Maybe I goofed, mattmcknight accurately points out that in many cities the taxi medallion is the most expensive part of the taxi equation. I'm not intimately familiar with Uber; do drivers still have to obtain medallions in their respective cities?
On the subject of medallions, last I heard that was a point of contention. Uber has been operating without them, and taxi companies don't like that. You play by the rules and pay a huge lump sum to be allowed to operate, and then some guy comes along and undercuts you because HE doesn't have to pay that lump sum? You wouldn't like that either.
Exactly. Uber is following the letter of the law, but the argument can be made (not unconvincingly I might add) that they really aren't following the spirit.
Note I am not criticizing Uber, as they clearly are obeying the law! But to some it looks like they are skirting it, benefiting from a loophole.
Many of the Uber cars are also luxury towncars, for which fuel, upkeep and maintenance can be a large cost. Especially if you consider how much they are driven in a given year.
Gas is ~3.50/gal. Assuming the vehicles get a horrendous 10 miles/gallon (for a fuel cost of $0.35/mile), and the drivers are paid minimum wage (7.25 + employer costs = ~8.00), the cars would have to be driven 22.8 miles in a hour before fuel costs exceed labor costs.
Of course, the vehicles are probably getting twice the MPG, and the drivers are getting paid more, so the number of miles is probably much higher.
No, it's just conjecture, assuming some things. Have you ever taken a road trip? Was the cost of gas between fill-ups more than you were paid per day for your first job?
Assuming you're not driving a Mercedes, is your monthly car payment + insurance more than your monthly income?
The reason I asked it because taxis have very different usage pattern than regular cars -- there might be extra operating costs (like extra gas, oil change, & service costs due to the extra range, and probably taxi operating license fee) that I'm not aware of which might weaken the analogy with the average car a bit.
Yeah, I'd not calculated fees or licensing. But other than that I'd still expect the costs of employment to be the highest, by a very large margin. Even if you replaced the entire car yearly, salary is still a higher cost.
Do you have any source on this?