$1,700 a week on Uber

Stuff reports:

Uber is a practical pre-pension income source for 62-year-old Lindsay Ferguson.

The Lower Hutt man has spent the past eight years working as a consultant, and before that worked in senior management positions in the public sector.

But a few months ago he turned to Uber as an income source in his lead-up to becoming eligible for the pension when he turns 65.

Ferguson said he enjoyed driving and was attracted to Uber because he liked being his own boss, the flexibility the job provided and the safety of being able to view passengers’ rating and not carrying cash.

“I thought it was a brilliant application of new technology to an old industry.”

He was clocking up about 35 hours per week, taking home an average income of about $1200 and sometimes up to $1700 if he worked more hours.

That’s not bad money, and you can earn that without needing to buy your way into a company or co-op.

But Uber’s future in New Zealand largely hangs on the Ministry of Transport’s Small Passenger Services Vehicles review, expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Uber made a submission on the review in April asking for a more flexible, faster and cheaper process for the licence required to operate a small passenger service vehicle.

“Much of how this business will grow depends on the outcome of the review,” Peppitt said.

The 28-year-old who introduced Uber to New Zealand said under the current regime it could take up to three months and cost drivers more than $2000 to get registered.

He said he would like a 24 hour registration turn around which cost less than $100, something which had been achieved in other markets around the world.

“That is not impossible in New Zealand, it just requires a bit of work to get there.”

Reducing barriers would make Uber an attractive way for anyone with a car to earn extra income by sharing their vehicle casually, he said.

Reducing barriers would be a great thing. I hope the Government does.