Uber is offering ride-hailing drivers something that many haven’t seen in years: Big bonuses.
The ride-hailing service is coaxing some drivers to take more rides, offering up to several hundred dollars in “incentive” pay if they complete a set number of rides within a set time period, according to several screenshots of the offers seen by Business Insider.
In one example, a driver was offered $525 if the driver completed 45 trips within a few days. Similar offers involved smaller payouts and fewer trips, but paid out proportional amounts of $10 to $12 per trip.
That’s a huge pay bump for many drivers, who make as little as a few dollars per trip, said Sergio Avedian, an Uber driver and senior contributor to the gig-driver-advocacy blog and YouTube channel The Rideshare Guy.
The bonuses might also be Uber’s attempt to get more drivers on the road to meet rider demand during busy periods like Halloween and the holiday travel season, Avedian said.
“This may tell the story that they need supply,” he said. “They’re saying that we need to get everybody out there.”
Some drivers have also gotten messages from Uber encouraging them to refer friends to sign up as drivers or get those who haven’t driven in a couple of years back on the app, according to screenshots seen by Business Insider. Payment for those referrals can reach up to $1,225.
The payments are a potential boon to Uber drivers, whose pay can vary significantly between cities.
Uber drivers have to cover their own costs, such as car maintenance, since they are independent contractors, not full-time employees. Rising gas prices have eaten into drivers’ pay after the US and Israel started a war with Iran earlier this year.
An Uber spokesperson did not provide details on why the company is offering the payments.
Uber has used targeted incentive payments before.
In 2021, demand for rides began to outpace the number of available drivers after many had stopped driving during the pandemic.
In response, the company decided “to invest fast and to invest aggressively in attracting drivers back to Uber” and increased the number of active drivers on the app by 65% between January and November that year, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on an earnings call at the time. Uber later pulled back on the extra pay.
“When we were coming out of the pandemic, they were short tons of drivers,” said Avedian, who was driving for Uber at the time. “It was crazy bonuses out there.”
More recently, riders have been paying more per mile and waiting longer for their rides to show up, according to a study published last month.
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