Wanna Be a Uber Driver in Portland? (Review and $250 Bonus!)

Wanna Be a Uber Driver in Portland?  (Review and $250 Bonus!)

So Over the last few weeks I thought I would try out the Uber service by becoming a driver.  I don’t know why I wanted to try, but I read a little bit online and thought why not.  As many of you know, I am ALWAYS driving around trying out deals at different stores.  I make 2-5 trips each day on average.  I thought Hey!, why not try to make a little money since I’m out anyways.  All I needed was a smart phone!(and I have one of those)  Plus in the Portland Oregon Area, you get a Bonus $250 just for completing 20 50(its 50 rides now)rides.  So if anything I would just try it for the $250 bucks!

The first thing I did was find a referral link.  I just found a random one online.  Someone is thanking me somewhere. 🙂   You can click here for my Portland Uber referral link. By clicking through my, or anyone elses link, gives you the start you need to get the $250 bonus after your first 20 rides. This needs to be a new account for you to get the Bonus! (also there is currently no time limit on how quickly you need to do those 20 rides)

Once you click on the link, you will need to setup your account.  You need to give permission for them to do a Full background check on you.  This is 100% Free.  For obvious reasons this is something required to be a driver.  This takes about 3-4 days to come back.  In the Portland Area, you need to scan your drivers license, your current insurance and a Portland Business License(FREE to sign up and get).  Once you get those things scanned in, you need to take your car to one of two places in Portland for a FREE car inspection.  The easiest place for me was Lloyd center.  The other place is in Gresham.  It takes about an hour, and they make sure your car is safe. They do like a 20 point inspection.  Once done, they give you a little kit that contains a mini fire extinguisher, a first aid kit, a Uber Car sticker and a phone car mount.  You need all of these things to drive in the Portland Oregon Area. They charge you $5 for all 3 items off your first “paycheck”.  Then it takes a few days to finalize everything and you will be good to go!

They send you a special link that gives you access to download a special Driver app for your smart phone.  I downloaded the app, and all I have to do is ‘Connect Online” and i’m ready for a passenger.  You just wait until someone needs a ride and they choose you! I live around Intel land and apartment land, so My first ride was quick.  They wanted to be taken to work that was like 2 miles away.  The person got in my backseat, I clicked the “Start trip” button in the Uber app, and drove them to work.  It was about 8 minutes away through a few lights and traffic. I dropped them off, clicked the “Complete trip” button and I was done!  The total bill was around $7.50!!!   Uber keeps 20% of everything.  They pay you PER week.  You link your bank account with them, and they deposit your weekly earnings amount directly to your Bank Account.  I have done 3 trips in one hour a few times very easily.  The average trip cost was $11.  $11 x 3 =$33 -20%=$26.40/per hour.  Of course this does not count gas or wear/tear on car, but since I was driving around anyways, I EASILY came out a head.  I had the opportunity to take a few people to PDX Airport from Hillsboro, and the trip cost was $75!  So $60 to me for about 2 hours of time, 1 hour there and 1 hour back.  So there is potential of a fairly steady stream of that per hour amount.

Since I just did it here and there randomly over the last 3 weeks(probably 10 hours total), it took 3 weeks to get my 20(it was 20 when I did this) trips for the Bonus $250.(and probably made $275 just from driving!) I just did trips in the morning when people were going to work, or in the late afternoon when “kids” were coming home from work.  It really wasn’t that hard.  Again its not for everyone.  They call Uber, your own Private Driver.  You get to be that driver.  You get funny people, you get quiet people, you get busy people on the go.  95% of the 20 people I drove around were from Intel or people under 25, who just don’t drive.

If you ever wanted to take uber, you have to give them a Credit Card and some personal Info.  So every person you drive around, is not a “stranger” or a “nobody.”  So there is some built in safety. You need to do 1 trip per month to stay “active”, so who knows about many trips Ill do now since I have earned that bonus, but if I ever need a quick $20, its super easy. 🙂

There is alot of details and other useful info on their webpage, www.uber.com!  Just for the record again, no one paid me anything or even asked me to do this, I just wanted to try it out! 🙂  But I get to offer my Portland Uber referral link that gets you the $250 bonus after your first 20 rides! 🙂