I think as a traveler, I spend most of my time thinking about how I can make my next trip abroad become a reality. In order to make any trip happen, I need both the time to make the trip happen and and the money to pay for it all. So how do I make a living wage that lets me take time off whenever I want without any questions asked? Well, until something better comes along, here’s why travelers should drive for Uber or multiple gig jobs.
Save for Travel on Your Own Schedule
If you already work a job but want to make some extra money in your spare time to save for a trip, Uber is a great way to make that happen. There are no requirements on how many rides you have to give in a single week so you could just chose to give a couple rides here and there and after a few months you could have quite a bit of money saved up. If you already have a day job, you can still make money on a daily basis without going out of your way by giving rides on your existing commute with Uber’s Driver Destinations.
Get Paid to Drive Where You’re Already Going
About a year or so ago, Uber launched Driver Destinations. This is a feature is for driver’s who want a give a ride but they don’t want to get taken further away from their destination. the purpose of this was to target commuters who only give rides when they aren’t working their day job. This means that if you already have a day job, you can give rides on your way to work. Not only does this help you make extra money for driving to a destination that you are already going to but this also helps to reduce traffic in your city and also offsets the carbon footprint of daily driving.
Get Paid to Travel Your Own Locale
A common mistake that I often make is thinking that I have to leave the country to find new and exciting travel experiences but that couldn’t be further from the truth. As an Uber driver, I find all sorts of new bars, restaurants, events, parks and other little hidden gems within my own locale on a weekly basis. If it wasn’t for Uber, I wouldn’t know about a number of sweet spots all across the Denver Metro Area.
Work 2 Jobs or 1
One of the most commonly toted perks of being an Uber driver is that you can set your own hours and work it as a part time job or even just a couple hours each week. But what is often less looked at is that you can work Uber up to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, which is 112 Hours in one week. Now, I know that most people have absolutely no desire to work that many hours in a week but I personally know people who work 40 hours at their current job and wish that they could pick up extra hours but can’t because there just aren’t enough hours to go around. I have also heard some friends of mine express concern with hours being cut at their jobs. With Uber there isn’t really a shortage of hours that you can work (unless you consider 112 a shortage) so if you are saving for a trip and want to work up to 112 hours in a single week, Uber and Lyft are both there to meet your needs.
Uber Drivers Get Paid Up to 5 Times a Day
I wrote a more in depth article on how often Uber drivers get paid but if you want to make some extra money for a weekend trip or maybe just want some extra cash to go out to the bars, Uber has you covered. With Uber’s Instant Pay feature, you can paid up to 5 times a day. This means that if you wanted some gas money to go camping, you could give rides in the day and get paid for those rides as soon as you are done. This has some pretty crazy implications for all of us travelers.
Never Request Time Off to Travel
This is probably the single most important element of driving for Uber and why my blog exists. In order to travel you need the most precious commodity known to man – time. Without the time to do the things that you love, you simply cannot do them. At one of my past jobs, I often asked for time off to go travel. The first time was fine. The second time I asked (like 2 months later), I got a little friction. The third time I asked (again, like 2 months later) I was denied time off. This really put a damper on being able to travel and so I began looking for ways to make extra money that aren’t based on fixed schedules.
If any of these reasons listed above intrigue you even a little bit, you should maybe consider becoming an Uber of Lyft driver. You can save fro travel on your own time, get paid to go where you’re already going, learn your own locale like a pro, work up to 112 hours a week, get paid up to five times a day and never request time off to travel. So, what’s holding you back?
