[...] There are three important categories of Uber drivers: hobbyists, part-timers, and full-timers. Hobbyists are drivers who, quite simply, don't need hte oney. Part-timers need the money but don't or can't work full time for a variety of reasons. Finally, full-timers are just that: people whose primary income is driving for Uber, some of whom put in significantly long hours. Most drivers work part time, but a minority are pulling long hours as full-time drivers [...]

[...] Lyft's 2018 report also fofers a city-by-city breakdown of driver statistics, and itstates that in New York City, 91 pecent of drivers work fewer than twenty hours per week - but that may simply reflect the fact tat drivers who work full time are giving someoftheir hours to local competitors, like Uber, Juno, or Via. [...]

Raj has been driving professionally in Toronto for nine years ,first as a taxi driver, then as the owner of a for-hire vehicle business, and now for uberSelect, a higher-end service. He admires UBer's technology, but he sees the influx of nonoccupational drivers as a threat to his livelihood: "Competition is always good for everyone; but again, it should be reasonable not that you just flood the market." With the advent of Uber, he's become anxious about the stability of his income as a professional driver and is looking to change careeers. He keeps textbooks under the front passenger seat so that in between rides he can study to become a mortgage broker. In essence, Uber's model opens up employment opportunities for anyone who wants a job, but the conditions UBer sets for this workundermine driving as a viable occuption.

Raul, a New York Uber and LYft driver and a former Yellow Cab driver, was working eight to nine hours aday before rate cuts; now he works twelve to fourteen hours. He still values the flexibility [...] But having the autonomy to choose which fourteen of the twenty-four hours in a day to work doesn't create teh sense of freedom implied by the "flexibility" rhetoric/

Mehmet used to drive a Toyota CAmry foruberX, which he rented for its TLC plates for ten months at $1,600 a month. Later, he upgraded his vehicle, investing $55,000 ina used luxury vehicle, so he could be eligible forthe higher uberBlack and uberSUV pay rates. His expenses for work amount to about $2,000 a month. He says that even drivers who bought that type ofcar new for $60,000 to $70,000 (the rangedepends on whether the driver has good orbad credit, according to another interviewee) used to make money, before rate cuts that Uber implemeted in January 2017.

[...] The range of driver motivations within Uber's labor pool supports the company's business model of employing part-timers as the majority of its drivers and full-timers as the minority of its drivers: part-timers can inadvertently undermine the leverage that full-timers ned to advocate better working conditions. Though their motivations can overlap happy and unhappy drivers are products of a business model that opens up part-time opportunities for many at the expense of a dedicated few.