How to survive in Uber Philippines without the incentives

Last night October 24, 2015 Saturday, Uber Philippines sent it's weekly announcement that made a commotion as majority of Manila Uber partners have said that there will be no incentives according to the news letter that Uber Philippines have sent to its partners.

This is possible as it happened to the pioneers in the business not so long ago, when Uber Philippines stopped their promotional incentives without prior notice for its partners because the supply is far more greater than the demand at that time, all of the pioneers have been in a roller coaster ride since day one and they are all expecting that Uber Philippines will remove the promotional incentives but they didn't expect it that soon.

If ever that this will happen again, you might want to think of something to save your credit line if you ever did get a car to invest in Uber Philippines. This article might not be an essential guide but an optional that will help you survive your credit limit and your brand new car.

What you could do to survive without Uber Philippines incentives?

There are many ways to make sure that you can save your credit standing despite of the decline in Uber Philippines' incentives. Let us point out on how you could do so.

Car rentals - you could diversify your business and can do a contractual car rental. Advertise your business as a rental car service. You can use your car as a for rent basis like for a wedding car, airport pick up and drop off, and etc.
Still do Uber once in a while - if you don't have a contractual rent for a day, it is better to drive with Uber Philippines, so that your account won't get idle as it may lead to deactivation if you don't accept a request within 45 days. Drive on surge areas, this will surely supplement your income when the incentives are gone, expect alot of surges when this happen since we assume that 40%-50% of partners will be gone and will be driving for GrabCar since the other company do still have an incentives.
Private tour vehicle - If you bought an AUV (Asian Utility Vehicle) such as innova, avanza or such, you could look for a travel and tours agency that may be needing a vehicle for a private tour vehicle. It could be a daily gig and you might earn more than what you can earn in Uber Philippines.
Sell your car as an assume balance - if all else fail, you can always post your car as for sale and declare it for assume balance. Not only that your credit standing will be saved, but you could also get back some of your investments for the down payment. It might not be the ROI you have imagined but at least you get a portion of your investment and your credit standing will be saved.

It is up to you if you ever want to follow this advice, but one thing for sure, just hang on, it's part of any business. Businesses have its up's and down's and mostly a roller coaster ride, and Uber Philippines is not excluded on those.

You should already know that Uber Philippines is doing what it can to increase the business and thus having a cash payment option would surely boost the income of its partners here in the Philippines. If you have read our article about What is the average income of an Uber Driver in Manila, well it will soon change after Uber Philippines rolls out its cash payment option, as you could double and or triple the trips and by that it can increase your average income per month.

This might not be promising for some because of the safety issue, but this is just normal for a business point of view. If it happen, the demand will then again rise, and of course if calculated right, Uber Philippines once again will provide a good incentives for its partners to accommodate the demand. If this happens hopefully that you guys could create a much more successful business plan to continue in Uber Philippines.

Things you should do that the majority didn't when starting in Uber Philippines.

These are the common pitfalls that even the pioneers had experienced and you could learn from it so that you could survive in Uber Philippines. This could also help new partners that just recently joined the business.

Prioritize the MA first - if you earn in Uber make sure to prioritize the monthly amortization and plan ahead. Example would be if you earn P25000 this month, and already paid your amortization let us say P15000, you'll still have P10,000, save it so that in next month, you just need P5,000 to cover the Monthly amortization. Do it till you have enough to pay for 2 monthly amortization in advance, beyond that, that's your real earnings.

Make sure to have an emergency fund - emergency fund is a must when starting a business. This will be used for the unexpected expenses such as maintenance, tires and etc. If you don't have an emergency funds, where will you get it? from your earnings? then what? Of course you'll be short for your Monthly Amortization, and it will cause some pretty bad headache for your part and you can't plan a better strategy to maximize your earnings in Uber Philippines.

Don't use your business earnings for your personal expenses - as we always say, don't rely on Uber as your primary source of income. You should have another source of income for your personal expense such as food for your family, bills, and etc. the only time you could get any money from your business earnings is when you can already pay 2 months advance for your Monthly Amortization.

Here's some good news

Even though there's a decline in the incentives, it is still bearable. You can still earn but not what the old partners have used to earn in the business. You can still cover the monthly amortization of your car if you bought a car with a P15,000 or below amortization. Plus the cash payment option that will surely boost the ridership of Uber Philippines, it could accommodate as a stable business with a proper business plan and strategies.

Remember that the market is currently for credit card users, but we are still earning, what more if those who doesn't have credit cards can now be a customer? It will surely raise the rider base or the demand and we are hoping that Uber Philippines will provide another competitive incentives for its partners. If ever and you are still int he business, we advise that you carefully avoid the pitfalls that we have listed above.

Admin

The Uber Driver had been around since the start of Uber Manila, we are drivers who drives for passion and we want to help those partners who needed our help. We drove Uber X and Uber Black.

4 comments

mikeoOctober 27, 2015 at 1:27 PM
This a very good article...nice one
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UnknownDecember 17, 2015 at 5:43 PM
Not a partner but was interested so did some analysis and here are my insights to date...

Base fare recovers cost (in most cases) of picking up rider...
Distance recovers cost of gasoline on the average if not stuck long in traffic and you are an efficient driver (good mileage)... Not much income from the distance component given how terrible traffic is in Manila.

Thus you are really earning mostly from the Time component, which is 2 pesos per minute or 120 pesos per hour or 30K @10 hrs x 25 days. That is if you manage to get riders for that entire period, it's more likely that you would be driving less than 250 hours.

Thus you really need the surge or Uber's promotion to make decent income (less cost of car and its maintenance). More so if you're sharing income with an assigned driver.

IMO, Uber should just decrease the share they take out so their partners can make decent income without relying on surge. Also minimizing the "average" cost for riders (less instance of surge) will encourage others to also try it. And with more passengers, drivers will have an easier time reaching or exceeding the 250 hours per month goal. Trying to squeeze too much income from smaller number of rides is just hurting their business. If Uber can afford to do promotions might just take less from the driver.
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