How Much Do Uber Drivers Actually Make in Australia?
Ask what Uber drivers make in Australia and you get a number between $25 and $45 an hour. Both figures are usually true and both are usually gross, which makes them close to useless for deciding whether to drive.
The question that matters is what reaches your account. That number has six things standing between it and the fare.
The stack between the fare and your pocket
- The platform's service fee. Taken before the money reaches you.
- GST. One eleventh of the fare, and rideshare drivers are registered from the first dollar. Some of it comes back as credits on your costs, but the fare side is owed regardless.
- Fuel. The most visible cost and rarely the largest.
- Running costs. Tyres, servicing, brakes, and the depreciation you cannot see happening. This is the one drivers underestimate most.
- Fixed costs. Insurance, registration, CTP, and any finance or rental payment. These run whether the car moves or not.
- Income tax. Nothing is withheld, so the whole amount is still owed at the end of the year.
Ignore the last three and driving looks great. Include them and the picture is more ordinary, though still worth doing if the hours suit you.
A worked example
These are illustrative numbers, not a survey. Change them to yours and the shape stays the same.
Say a ten-hour Friday night produces $420 in fares after the platform's fee, across 260 km.
- GST on the fare side, roughly 9% of the gross, is about $42.
- Fuel at 9 L/100 km and $1.85 a litre across 260 km is about $43.
- Running costs at a conservative 12c per kilometre for tyres, servicing and wear is about $31.
- Fixed costs apportioned to one shift, say $180 a week of insurance, registration and finance spread across four shifts, is $45.
That leaves about $259 before income tax, or roughly $26 an hour, on a night that looked like $42 an hour.
Income tax then depends on your total income for the year, including any other job. For many part-time drivers it is a further 16% to 30% of the profit.
Why the difference is so large
Two of those costs are invisible while you are driving.
Depreciation is the quiet one. Every kilometre driven for fares is value coming off the car, and it does not appear until you sell it. A cent-per-kilometre allowance for wear is the only honest way to keep it in view.
Dead running is the other. The kilometres between fares carry all the fuel and all the wear and none of the income. A driver doing 260 km for 180 km of paid distance is spending a third of the fuel on nothing.
What actually moves the number
In rough order of size:
- The car. A 5 L/100 km hybrid against an 11 L/100 km SUV is a difference of thousands of dollars a year at the same kilometres. It is the single largest lever most drivers have.
- Dead running. Fewer empty kilometres beats more hours, every time.
- Which hours you work. A well-chosen six hours can beat a badly chosen ten. See the best times to drive in Sydney and Melbourne.
- Whether you claim properly. The car claim is the largest deduction most drivers have, and choosing the wrong method can cost hundreds. Our cents per km or logbook calculator compares the two.
Note that hourly rate alone can mislead. An hour with three short trips and a lot of repositioning can lose to an hour with one long airport fare, even though both show the same gross.
Run it on your own numbers
Nothing above substitutes for your own figures, because fuel consumption, insurance and finance vary more between drivers than fares do. The real earnings calculator takes your fares, hours, kilometres and costs and returns what the shift actually kept, with GST and tax separated out.
The useful version of the question is not "what do Uber drivers make in Australia". It is "what did my last four weeks pay me per hour after everything". That number you can act on.