As I mentioned before, I have begun to drive for Uber, sort of as an experiment in sociology and economics. I'm not sure how long this research project will last, but I'm willing to give it a few weeks or months of very part-time attention.

I turned on the driver app for the first time yesterday and accepted a request. When I arrived at the pick-up point, the kids said they had cancelled the Uber, but I said go ahead and get in since I was just learning the ropes. Uber charges people $5 for a cancellation, and the driver collects $3.84? of that (will have to check the exact number).

Today I turned on the app and accepted a request, which again got cancelled just as I arrived (and a cab pulled up) -- another $3.84. The next request I accepted, I messed up starting the journey on the app at the pick-up point, and totally botched that trip which resulted in *no* money, but it was a short jaunt and a small price to pay for figuring out how to operate the app in real time.

The third request I accepted, I worked the app correctly, and took some kids from the airport to a rental car office. The details from that trip are in the screenshot below ... it looks like you get around $1 a mile, which ain't great, certainly less than I expected ... I will have to collect a larger data sample before I can conclude that it doesn't make economic sense to drive for Uber.