This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sergio Avedian, a 58-year-old ride-hailing driver for Uber and Lyft in Southern California. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I was born in Istanbul, Turkey, to Armenian parents. I went to high school in Germany and later came to the US for college.
I was always interested in finance, so I ended up becoming a trader at a boutique Wall Street firm. I saw the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s. After I retired from my day job in 2005, I was looking for things to keep myself occupied. Algorithms fascinated me because I had seen widespread automation in the world of finance.
In 2016, I was getting lunch with a friend who was telling me about this app called Uber. My friend said, “I think they use algorithms.” Curiosity got the better of me, and I started reading about it and meeting drivers to learn more. Eventually, I signed up as a driver myself in the Los Angeles area.
Back then, Uber was offering $1,000 bonuses to sign up as a driver. I also earned up to $80 an hour.
But what really intrigued me were the parallels with trading. On Wall Street, we used to say that “a trend is your friend” because you could make money if you caught one early enough.
Picking ride-share trips was like that. You had to know when and where trip prices would surge. That meant, for example, I had to position myself in Santa Monica between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., because prices would usually be higher there at that time.
I’ve also spent the last several years writing articles for and making videos with Harry Campbell, who has a YouTube channel called The Rideshare Guy. I’ve been working with Harry since about 2018, with a break during COVID when demand for rides went down.
I think Uber, Lyft, and the other gig work apps are wonderful. They’ve created massive opportunities for people. But I also don’t want the people who make these services work each day to get left behind. The people who do this work need to start saving for their future.
That’s why my latest project is a personal finance website and YouTube channel. It’s not just for gig workers, but they’re a big part of the audience. They don’t have access to the same benefits that employees do, such as retirement benefits.
Ride-hailing drivers need to invest in the future
One piece of advice I’ve been giving drivers: At the end of your shift, do one extra trip, then put the money from that trip in an account and don’t touch it. You can even put it in an index fund or another investment that will appreciate over time.
Drivers need to think about investing more than ever, given how self-driving cars are expanding.
I’m exploring the creation of an investment trust to own some of these cars — similar to a REIT that owns malls — that drivers can also invest in. I want them to have skin in the game and earn some passive income.
I also put together a petition asking Uber and Lyft to pay their drivers a one-time “Thank you” bonus.
Both companies have made lots of money, especially over the last few years. Uber became profitable thanks to efforts such as upfront pricing, and Lyft has made a turnaround. Uber announced a $20 billion stock buyback program this year. Why can’t we make drivers’ lives better and create a sense of loyalty with a one-time payment like this?
I’ve spoken to the CEOs of these companies because of my work for The Rideshare Guy, so I know they’ll listen. Will they actually do it?
One thing I’ve learned in my time in the rideshare community is that the companies can do the right thing. In 2023, I worked with Pablo Gomez, another driver in Los Angeles, to get California’s treasurer to update some of the reimbursement rates under Prop 22 — the state’s pay law for gig workers — which led Uber to pay millions of dollars to drivers.
If Pablo hadn’t mentioned that issue to me, I’d have had no clue about it, and we might have never gotten it fixed.
I want to open the door for some different ideas about how we can benefit drivers.
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