Private-Hire Driver Allegedly Earned Nearly $10K in August 2020 After Deducting All Fees

Lest you’re not aware, the ride-hailing industry doesn’t just comprise Grab and Go-Jek.

While a number of new ride-hailing firms had come and gone after Uber left Singapore, a few smaller ones are still giving the two giants a run for their money.

The two more popular ones?

Ryde, which has just 10% commission compared to Grab and Go-Jek that take 20% commission.

And Tada, which takes absolutely no commission.

Recently, all eyes are on Ryde.

Private-Hire Driver Allegedly Earned Nearly $10K in August 2020 After Deducting All Fees

How much a private-hire driver can earn a month depends a lot on his or her attitude.

But with COVID-19, we can be sure that one’s earning has definitely dropped. According to LTA, demand for private-hire cars and taxis has dropped about 30%, and trips have become shorter. LTA also projects that the ridership is “unlikely to return to pre-COVID levels in the near term,” which is why they’ve extended their financial support for drivers until March 2021.

One Ryde driver probably won’t need it because he or she allegedly earned a whopping $9,882.70.

And that’s after the service fee and platform fee.

Here’s Ryde posting a screenshot of the earnings on their own Facebook Page:

Even after deducting vehicle rental and petrol, that would still be a respectable $6,000 to $7,000 of net income.

But it might not be for everyone.

According to Asiaone, the driver works every single day for the month of August, and started work at around 6:45am daily.

With 723 pickups, that means he gets an average of 23 passengers daily.

If he works 12 hours a day, he’d have to fetch 2 passengers an hour.

It’s unknown if all his earning comes from driving people around, though—he could’ve been delivering your online shopping huals instead.

The guy is also on track to get a $2,500 bonus ($1,000 for normal drivers with many trips and $1,500 for the top driver in Ryde) if he continues his streak—as the challenge for the bonus has started from 18 September and will end on 31 December 2020.

But of course, as with anything on the Internet, people are sceptical about this.

Heck, one would be sceptical if it’s posted by a driver—you can bet it’d be worse if it’s posted by the company itself.

One pointed out some inconsistency in the image…

…while some think it’s humanly impossible:

Nevertheless, Ryde has responded to one of the comments about this issue:

If you’re thinking of becoming a private-hire car driver, you might also want to watch this video (and please subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative videos!):