When Simon Waite began working as a private hire driver in 2017, it gave him the flexibility and income to spend time with his children, then aged five, 12 and 18. “One of the reasons I loved Uber was because I could now go to the school plays, my son’s football, I could earn my money around life,” he says.
But over the past few years, Waite, a 41-year-old in Hertfordshire, says he has to spend dramatically more time on the road to earn a living. To make £1,000 a week a couple of years ago it took about 50 hours, he says, whereas now it’s about 70 hours – with most drivers needing to pay insurance, tax, vehicle fees and upkeep, fuel, licenses, rent, bills and living costs.
