BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 Terry Tanner has been driving for Uber and Lyft for more than a decade. He first started doing it on weekends for extra money before retiring. Now, he says the job helps him pay for things like his car payment and travel.<\/p>\n
But Tanner says the platforms are not paying like they used to.<\/p>\n
“When I started, it was 83 cents a mile we were getting paid. We’re lucky if we’re getting 30-something now,” Tanner said.<\/p>\n
In a previous story, an economist said higher gas prices could force some drivers to work more just to keep up with costs. Tanner says even with a hybrid vehicle, higher gas prices are changing which rides he is willing to take.<\/p>\n
“The other day I turned down a ride. They wanted to give me 83 dollars to go 120 miles to Pasadena? Not with these gas prices. $5.69 cash price, so you’re going to pay $5.79,” Tanner said.<\/p>\n
Before gas prices increased, Tanner says he would have taken longer rides like that. Now, even with a hybrid vehicle, he says higher prices at the pump are still cutting into his earnings. He believes other drivers with less fuel-efficient cars are feeling it even more.<\/p>\n
“If the gas prices were lower, yeah. I would make more money. Let’s put it that way. Gas prices are hurting my bottom line,” Tanner said.<\/p>\n
Tanner also says Uber and Lyft are not helping drivers by focusing on investments in companies like Waymo.<\/p>\n
“They’re pouring all their money into self-driving cars, instead of paying us right and trying to make us happy,” Tanner said.<\/p>\n
Tanner says for many rideshare drivers, the cost of staying on the road continues to rise.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n
Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 Terry Tanner has been driving for Uber and Lyft for more than a decade.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,155,153,152,162],"class_list":["post-321091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-downtown","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-kern-county-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}