Drivers for ride-share companies Uber and Lyft are feeling road rage over skyrocketing gas prices, and many feel their struggles are going unnoticed.
The national average price for a gallon of gasoline on Friday sat at $4.33, according to AAA. That is not only the highest price that the United States has ever experienced, but it’s also a whopping 85-cent increase from just a month ago and more than $1.50 from where gas prices were this time last year.
Oscar is an Uber driver based out of the Washington, D.C., area who immigrated to the U.S. about a decade ago and has been working as a ride-share driver for years. During a ride with the Washington Examiner, he said the higher prices at the pump are cutting deeply into his profit margin.
Uber drivers are upset and have asked the company for help, perhaps to increase fares for those hailing a ride, but “there has not been anything, no price adjustment,” he said.
“It’s a big, big difference, very big difference, because we run on gas all the time and we’re picking [up] the same amount of people, but the prices of gas have increased,” he said. “So I think there should be some increase in the [Uber] prices, at least to take care of the increase in the gas.”
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Oscar said that if gas prices keep spiraling upward and Uber doesn’t increase fares for passengers, he will have to look for a new job, a sobering prospect considering he has been a loyal driver for the company for the past seven years.
Much of the increase in gas prices has come in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began late last month. Because of the war, crippling sanctions have been levied against Moscow, including the U.S. decision to ban imports of Russian oil. Russian oil makes up about 8% of total U.S. oil imports, with the country importing about 672,000 barrels per day of oil and refined products from Russia last year.
The war has caused a global shock to energy prices that is being translated into the rising price of gasoline. The U.S. oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude futures, was pushing $107, a big increase from the $90 it was at before the war broke out.
Because of how fluid the situation is, it is unclear how long the war will last, how high energy prices will go, and when they will begin to abate — all uncertainties that make it hard for Uber and Lyft to plan for the future and give drivers like Oscar any indication of what his paychecks will look like even just a week from now.
Another Uber driver, Mory, described the situation for himself and his fellow ride-share drivers as “very terrible” during an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Mory said he and other ride-share drivers think their industry is feeling the pain of higher gas prices more than others. Despite stories about high gas prices being splashed across the news and much lamented by consumers, riders never ask him about how the increases are affecting him and are not tipping any more than usual to compensate for the increases, he said.
Mory said he has had to change his driving habits “a lot” because of the higher prices. He added that he had to switch from driving full time to driving part time and get another side job in order to make ends meet.
“They’re the ones who not only have to drive to get to work but drive for their work,” Adam Shah, the director of national policy at Jobs With Justice, recently told Newsweek about the situation playing out for drivers.
Ride-share drivers don’t just shoulder the burden of filling up their tanks, but they also have to pay out of pocket for their vehicle’s upkeep, Mory pointed out, noting that the cost of maintenance like oil and tire changes adds up.
For ride-share drivers, the rapidly rising gas prices are a one-two punch when combined with inflation.
Inflation has been steadily increasing over the past year or so, and consumer prices just touched 7.9% for the 12 months ending in February, the fastest pace of inflation since 1982. While some of that headline inflation is being driven by energy price increases, essential products including food are also much more expensive now than a year ago.
The food at home index rose 8.6% over the last year, the biggest 12-month increase since April 1981. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased 13%, with beef prices now costing over 16% more than this time last year.
Because of the higher gas prices, ride-share drivers are bringing in less income, and because of the higher price of consumer goods, that diminishing income doesn’t go as far as it used to, making the ability to provide for themselves and their families more challenging.
While Uber and Lyft have not boosted fares directly in response to the rising gas prices, a spokeswoman for Uber told the Washington Examiner that last year the company launched a feature that can help get drivers up to 25 cents per gallon in cash back through a partnership with GetUpside.
“Our platform only works if it works for drivers, so we’ll continue to monitor gas prices and listen to drivers over the coming weeks,” she said.
Still, 25 cents per gallon in cash back is only about half of how much gas prices have increased just in the past week. A week ago, a gallon of gas was averaging about $3.84.
Similar to Uber, Lyft has also partnered with GetUpside to provide its drivers with some relief from the high gas prices. The company also offers Lyft Direct, a debit card designed for drivers that also provides 1% cash back on gas and grocery purchases and 4% cash back on dining.
“We care deeply about the driver experience and we’ve taken concrete steps to help given rising gas prices. Programs like our GetUpside partnership and the Lyft Direct cashback debit card are designed to directly save drivers money at the pump, and we’ll continue to invest in additional ways to help the driver community,” the company said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
Lyft also claimed that even with gas prices eating heavily into net earnings, drivers nationally are still earning more per hour on average than they were a year ago because of the pandemic waning and the demand for rides and travel rising.
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As for when gas prices will come down, no one is certain. For example, if Russia decided to stop shipping oil to Europe in retaliation for its sanctions, there would likely be an even more massive global energy shock that would send prices skyrocketing. On the other hand, if Russia and Ukraine end up signing a ceasefire and sanctions are loosened, prices could tumble back down.
