When will I receive my 2015 Tax Information from Uber, Lyft?

Tax season is here for Uber and Lyft drivers. For many drivers this will be their first year filing taxes as an independent contractor. We are here to make it easier for you. This is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as actual tax advice.

When does Uber send me my 2015 Tax Information?

It became available online on your partner dashboard on January 29th – so you can view it now! You can find this information on your partner dashboard under “Tax information”.

What’s included? You’ll see 3 actual forms on your dashboard, your 1099-K, 1099-Misc, and Other Potential Deductions. This should be all you need to file with your Uber info, however if you tracked other mileage (non-passenger mileage) or driving expenses, you should also gather these.

“What do you think of Uber basically becoming a minimum wage job?” and other trending posts on chat

Yesterday, a driver posted on SherpaShare chat, “What do you think of Uber basically becoming a minumum wage job? Do you think professional drivers are entitled to more?” What do you think? There have been over 100 replies to this thread….you can chime in on the Pulse app (iOS only) or the Driver app.

A few of the driver responses include:

“Considering most of my clientele on Uber are wealthy and could afford to pay their drivers much more, yes I think we are entitled to higher than minimum wage-but if that doesn’t suite your fancy you could consider these points too…” + 10 more points

“But what Uber and Lyft fail to realize is that their product is already priced beliw what the consumer is willing to pay and that consumers have little price sensitivity to the product.”

“Drivers also seems to purchase newer, more expensive vehicles, which to me does not make sense. I purchased a $7,000 Prius specifically for UberX and Lyft that averages 48mpg. This car costs pennies per mile to operate.” + 100 more replies

Some of the other recently featured posts in our community include:

New Pulse app featured in Fast Company

Today our new SherpaShare Pulse app (iOS) was featured in Fast Company. Below is an excerpt from the full article. Read the full article here.

Drivers for on-demand services like Uber and Lyft have no easy way to find their coworkers, but a new app called Pulse aims to change that.

 

The app is a forum for on-demand drivers who want to talk with other nearby on-demand drivers. Some drivers on the app have used it to talk shop: “Anyone else noticed the surge is not going above 2.9 in Charlotte,” asked one driver. Others have asked for advice: “So I have a question as a new driver on the road,” one driver wrote. “How can I use Google maps while hearing the navigation voice?” Or warned other drivers about traffic: “Be advised,” reads one post, “Fire department activity on West 47th street.”

Uber and Lyft drivers aren’t staff employees, so training their drivers or providing them with too much guidance about how to do their jobs could suggest the companies have misclassified them as independent contractors. The companies also don’t include features that allow drivers to communicate with each other, so there’s not an easy way for them to learn from their peers. Pulse bridges both gaps.

“In a traditional office you would have shared office space, you can have lunch together, you can meet by the watercooler,” says Ryder Pearce, the cofounder of the company that created the app, called SherpaShare. “Driving is very fragmented. It’s very tough to find the existing driver.”

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Do you have rideshare insurance? (Poll)

February 9th Update: Thanks to the 1K+ who took the survey! It’s now closed!

We’ve teamed up with NerdWallet to launch a survey about rideshare insurance. Do you have it, if so which, and if not, why? Couldn’t be simpler and takes a minute.

We’ve posted the survey on our driver chat, which is available on both our SherpaShare Driver App (on Android) and our new SherpaShare Pulse App (on iOS). And to make things easy, we’ve pasted it below.

Viewing your favorite drivers on SherpaShare Pulse

Last week we announced our new SherpaShare Pulse app to our driver community. The app, which is only iOS at the moment, expands are ever-popular driver chat feature. We’re thrilled to see the huge interest after just a few days.

We imagine that very soon your entire driving community – in whatever city or town you’re in around the world – will be connected via SherpaShare Pulse. To get there, we wanted to take a minute to share with you some tips on the new Pulse.

Pulse = Find the information you want

No matter what information you’d like to post or share, Pulse is your place for it. Questions, stories, and more, we want you to be able to easily sort posts, and find your favorite posters.

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Viewing Top Posts: There are hundreds of posts each day on SherpaShare Pulse, which will also show up on the chat within the Driver App too. Click Top to see the recent top posts, which is based on comments and replies.

Announcing SherpaShare Pulse

We’re thrilled to announce SherpaShare Pulse, our latest app to help drivers connect with each other and share their voice. We’ve built the largest on-demand driver network in the world and now we’re taking another big step forward by giving drivers a dedicated place to ask questions, tell stories, and share information in real-time. SherpaShare Pulse is available today on iOS in the App Store.

SherpaShare Pulse gives on-demand drivers a way to share their voice

SherpaShare is the largest driver community in the world, built by drivers, for drivers. SherpaShare Pulse gives that community a new way to share stories, ask questions, and get the information and insights you want in real-time. 

Vote for SherpaShare Pulse on Product Hunt

The new iPhone app will allow drivers to collaborate in real-time. Have a question about Uber’s new airport policy or looking for real-time driving tips in your city? Want to rant about traffic or tell a story about a memorable passenger?

In strategic move, Sidecar acquired by General Motors

Last month, Sidecar announced that is was shutting down rideshare and delivery operations. Today, it was announced that it was in fact acquired by General Motors. According to Venture Beat, “In addition to incorporating Sidecar’s technology, the car manufacturer will bring about 20 employees over to bolster its own efforts in the space.”

Image credit: General Motors

According to Bloomberg, the exact figures of the deal weren’t disclosed, but it is suggested that it was likely less than the $39M Sidecar raised when it was operating.

General Motors will bring on around 20 employees, in addition to acquiring the technology, including Jahan Khanna, the co-founder and CTO of Sidecar. Sunil Paul, Sidecar’s chief executive and co-founder will not be joining GM.

According to a person familiar with the acquisition, Sidecar has seen this as a “strategic opportunity” to join GM as they move quickly to innovate. Sidecar has been planning this move for months, was gross margin positive, and in need of a big player partnership to compete with Uber funding.

GM has been on the move in the space. Two weeks ago, GM announced a $500M investment in Lyft.

Final rideshare word on NPR’s All Things Tech

Today, NPR’s All Things Tech – part of All Things Considered – aired their latest segment on ridesharing, titled “In the Battle Between Lyft and Uber, The Focus is On Drivers”.

The segment highlights the high-stakes game of recruiting and retaining drivers between these two companies, interviews drivers and Lyft’s CMO. In addition, the segment closes by giving the SherpaShare perspective, as shared by co-founder Ryder Pearce. Here’s the excerpt, and link to the audio segment, which aired nationally.

Excerpt from NPR’s All Things Tech:

Competition Is Good

Ryder Pearce, co-founder of Sherpashare, a site that tracks wages and expenses for on-demand drivers, says competition is an “enormous benefit” for workers. When Uber or Lyft announces a new perk, the other follows, thereby pushing up the floor.

For example, both companies recently announced short-term car rentals for drivers who don’t have their own wheels or insurance.

“Uber and Lyft both recognize that if they don’t keep rates competitive, and add more driver perks — and both have very large teams working on this — they will lose out on drivers,” Pearce says.

Sherpashare data indicate many drivers work for more than one service. Pearce says they don’t have a strong incentive to be loyal because the differences between companies are not that stark. Drivers’ bottom-line concern: “They just want to log in and have passengers to pick up,” he says.

If one company won and got all the business, he says, drivers would lose out.

Click to Play Segment

The rideshare driver’s checklist for handling accidents

We welcome Bryant Greening as guest contributor for this article. Bryant is a lawyer in Chicago, who’s been closely following the rideshare space for a while and has started the organization, Legal-Chicago.com. The article includes a checklist of what to do when you get in an accident and what to do after the accident.

Brake lights on. Brake lights off. You’ve been sitting in standstill traffic for what seems like forever. Your passengers are getting irritated. What do you want me to do, you think to yourself. You’re following the app’s directions; there’s no shortcut. So you wait.

“Just turn off here,” the loudest pax yells from the back. Okay, you nod. You start to turn. And then…BAM! The car jolts forward and jumps up onto the curb.  

The car goes silent but your head starts screaming. What was that? Am I bleeding? Are my passengers okay? I had the right-of-way! There goes my 4.9 rating. You take a deep breath, look in the rearview mirror and confirm, yes, you’ve been in a wreck.  

 

Rideshare Driving Risk

Let’s face it, the more time drivers spend on the road, the more likely they are to be in an accident. You simply can’t avoid every iPhone-using, makeup-applying, burrito-eating driver. Accidents happen and they are bound to happen to rideshare drivers.

For that reason, it’s vital that you understand how to protect your interests at the scene of a crash, where your actions and words can make or break a lawsuit down the road. Before we go over the checklist of what to do when you get in an accident, let’s quickly discuss some basics of traffic and injury law.

The List of Rate Changes: Lyft’s Price Cuts in 33 Cities

Today Lyft announced that they were reducing fares in 33 cities, a week after Uber announced they were reducing fares in 100 US cities.  The reason for both companies: To combat the slower winter months by encouraging more passengers to ride.

According to a Lyft spokeperson, “We know that in January many people make resolutions to save money. So starting today, we are lowering prices in 33 markets to get people back on the road at a lower cost and help ensure our drivers are in high demand.”

As we saw last week we’ve already seen the early driver backlash and frustration on the SherpaShare Driver app. “Welp, Lyft just cut rates,” was posted upon first learning the news several hours ago.

Lyft says the cities that will see lower fares include DC, Denver, Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco, San Jose, and San Diego. New York and Chicago are not included on the list.

Want some more of the reasoning behind why these rates are being lowered? Well according to Uber support the reason is this: