Florida Driver Quits Uber, Now Earns More Working Fewer Hours

The screen of a smartphone is something that gig workers see all the time. For Sherry, a 58 year woman who drives for ride hailing companies in Florida the screen means she can make money and it also means she is tired. She gets up before the sun is up. She opens the Uber and Lyft apps on her phone. She does this to try to get as many fares as she can so she can make enough money to get by. It is hard for her because there are a lot of people doing the same job and they all want to make money too. The system is tough. It does not give people many breaks. Sherry uses the Uber and Lyft apps to find people who need a ride.

What started out as a good way for Sherry to make some extra money on her own terms slowly turned into a job that took over her whole life. She was driving for up to 75 hours every week which is a lot of hours. Sherry often found herself driving for so long that she got really tired just so she could make around $200 each day. When Sherry first started doing gig work she thought it would give her the freedom to do what she wanted. That did not happen. Instead the company’s computer system decided when she worked, how much money she made and what her life was like. The gig work was no longer flexible, for Sherry.

1. The Promise That Drew Her In

The promise that really caught her attention was the promise that drew her in the promise that made her feel like something was going to happen. She thought about the promise all the time wondering what the promise would bring.The gig economy was supposed to be a thing. It was all about being in charge of your life. 

In 2017 Sherry left her job at the pharmacy. She did this because she wanted to have time for herself and feel less tired all the time. It was not about the money. It was about how she felt. Sherry wanted to be able to spend time with her seven children and go on trips when she could. By 2019 Sherry was driving all the time. She felt happy because she thought she was finally able to do what she wanted, which was Sherry being in control of her life and having the freedom to make her own choices like driving.

2. Early Success and a Sense of Freedom

The first years that Sherry spent driving a truck really made her feel like she had made the choice. She was working a normal schedule of 30 to 40 hours a week mostly on weekdays and she was making enough money to live a comfortable life. The thing that really stood out to Sherry was the flexibility of her job. It was really flexible. She felt like she had a good balance between her work life and her personal life, which was something she had not felt in a long time. Sherry’s decision to become a truck driver was really working out for her. She was happy, with the way things were going.

The pandemic was a tough time for a lot of people. For Sherry her job became even more important. The companies she worked with started giving her money because she was driving healthcare workers and other people who had to keep working. Even though everything else seemed to be slowing down Sherry was still making money. When she thinks about it now Sherry says that this was the time for her as a ride-hailing driver. She felt like the system was fair and good, for everyone involved in the ride-hailing experience. The ride-hailing experience was really working well for Sherry then.

3. A Shifting Landscape After Reopening

When the rules were finally lifted and people started going about their lives again the whole ride-hailing thing changed a lot. Lots of drivers started using the platforms and they all wanted to pick up the same riders. Sherry saw that she was not making as much money from each ride and it was getting harder to get people to request rides from her. The system that used to seem like it was helping her now seemed like it did not care and it was actually making things tough, for Sherry and the ride-hailing platforms.

Signs of a System Under Strain

• Rapid increase in drivers
• Reduced fare payouts
• Longer wait times
• Increased unpaid downtime
• Higher daily driving hours

Sherry has to drive for a long time now. She drives 12 to 14 hours every day. One day she even drove for 18 hours. That was really tough. She used to like that she could drive whenever she wanted. That is not true anymore. Now she has to keep driving all the time because of the app. The app is in charge of her life now not the way around. Sherrys life is, about the app. She has to do what it says.

4. When Flexibility Becomes an Illusion

When being flexible is not really an option anymore flexibility becomes something that’s just not true, it is like an illusion of Flexibility. Sherry’s situation was really strange. She started driving for ride hailing services because she wanted to be free. But the more she drove for these services the more trapped she felt. The ride hailing system was supposed to give her freedom. It did not.

The Cost of Constant Driving

• Loss of personal time
• Physical exhaustion
• Emotional burnout
• Strained family connections
• Vanishing work-life balance

Sherry said that she does not even have freedom anymore. The numbers show that she is right. She is driving more than she used to. Her life is not getting any better. Driving used to make her feel good now it feels like people are taking advantage of her. This made her face the truth that the gig economy’s not good, for her anymore. The gig economy is really not working in her favour.

5. The Numbers That Really Said What Was Going On

Sherry’s earnings reports showed what was really going on with all the hours she worked. One year Sherry made $98,000 from Uber after she completed 4,000 trips with Uber. It looked really good on paper. The truth is, when you think about all the money Sherry had to pay for fees to Uber fuel for her car maintenance for her car and taxes, her actual pay, from Uber was a lot lower.

Where the Money Really Went

• Platform commission fees
• Fuel expenses
• Vehicle maintenance
• Insurance costs
• Tax obligations

Her net income for that year was $55,000. The next year was even tougher. She made $28,500 in ten months for almost 2,000 trips. She was putting in a lot of work for income that was roughly half of what she made before. The difference between how she worked and her net income became really hard to accept. Her net income was not matching her effort.

6. The Airport That No Longer Paid

Airports used to be where Sherry made the money. Things changed. Airports are now reminders that there are many people doing the same thing. At Airports Sherry used to wait with a few other drivers. Now when she goes to Airports she sees than 40 cars waiting for people to pick up at Airports.

One day was really bad. She counted two hundred and twenty cars waiting for forty flights that were coming in. It was normal to wait two hours for a ride that paid seven dollars. The money she was making did not make sense anymore. She was getting really frustrated with every message on her screen that said she would not get paid a lot. The economics of being a driver no longer worked for her and the frustration with the paying jobs was mounting.

7. Rising Costs and Physical Toll

As her earnings went down the costs of running her business went up. She had to drive all the time for her job, which meant her car was getting worn out. This made fixing her car very expensive. For example a new set of tires used to cost $400. Now they cost $850. Every time she had to fix something on her car it took away from the money she was making from her earnings. She was making money and spending more on her car, which was a big problem, for her.

Hidden Costs of Driving Full-Time

• Expensive vehicle repairs
• Rising fuel prices
• Depreciation of the car
• Increased insurance costs
• Out-of-pocket maintenance

The physical toll was really bad. Sitting for hours made her muscles weak. She gained weight. “Your body takes a toll ” she said. The job required her to move around all the time but it was not the kind of movement that made her feel like she was getting any exercise so she felt exhausted and really uncomfortable, in her own body.

8. Reaching the Breaking Point

Sherry was really struggling because her income and well-being were getting worse. She talked to drivers and they told her that they were having a tough time too. Many of the drivers felt very unhappy and angry. They wanted to get out of a system that did not reward the Uber drivers for their hard work or the time they spent driving for Uber. The Uber system was not helping the Uber drivers like it used to so the Uber drivers were looking for a way, out.

Growing Driver Frustrations

• Declining earnings
• Lack of transparency
• Oversaturated markets
• Physical burnout
• Desire for alternatives

If you make all the drivers angry you will not have any drivers left she said. When Sherry talked to drivers it became very clear that a lot of drivers were looking for jobs on their own. Sherry knew that if she wanted things to be different she would have to do something, about it herself.

9. An Idea Sparked on a Cruise

Something big happened to Sherry when she was on a cruise. She heard people talking about how expensive and bad the transportation was when they got to a port. Sherry realised that these people needed something. The ride-hailing apps were not doing a job for people who were travelling like this and it was making travellers very frustrated. People were complaining about the cost of transportation, at ports and Sherry knew that ride-hailing apps were not helping the travellers.

She had done airport trips on her own before. This was not a completely new thing for her. This time around she wanted to make it more official. She knew that some companies that let people book rides were charging as much as $90 for a one way trip so she decided to charge a simple $50 fee.

10. Building a Business Without an App

Sherry made a business card and started telling people about her shuttle service on Facebook groups in her area. The rules for advertising were different everywhere. She found ways to talk to people who really needed rides. When someone booked a ride with her it felt like Sherry was taking charge of her work again. Sherry liked that she was getting to be her boss, with her shuttle service.

A fifty dollar trip meant she had fifty dollars in her pocket, which’s more money than the thirty dollars she would get from Uber. The money she made every week went up fast to fifteen hundred dollars to seventeen hundred dollars. There were some days when she made five hundred dollars. Driving tourists was also good because they gave her tips and they were really nice to her so this job was good for her because it made her happy and she made a lot of money from driving tourists.

11. Reclaiming Life Beyond the Algorithm

The biggest change for Sherry was not about money. It was about her life. Sherry finally got the freedom she wanted. Now Sherry works the way she wants to. She takes three or four days off every week. Gets to spend more time with her family. This is what Sherry really wanted when she started working for herself. Now she has it. Sherry is happy that she can work on her terms.

Sherry’s story reflects a broader shift within the gig economy. As platforms grow more crowded, workers are seeking independence through entrepreneurship. Her journey shows that identifying a niche and delivering real value can restore both dignity and stability. As she says, her life is finally getting better now that she’s stepping away from Uber.