Why there's a good chance your Uber driver is new
In 2015, Uber doubled the number of active drivers on its platform in the U.S. as it's grown.
Last month, the ride-hailing company had 327,000 active drivers on the road in the U.S., more than doubling the 160,000 that gave rides in December 2014. Uber defines "active" as a driver that does at least four rides a month, so these aren't just people who have downloaded the app and walked away from it.
The numbers match up to a survey released today from SherpaShare, an app the ride-hailing drivers use to track their expenses.
In the pool of 963 U.S. workers, 18 percent had been driving for less than two months, and two-thirds of drivers had been on the platforms for less than six.
SherpaShare points to these numbers as a "constantly refreshing" workforce, rather than just a growing one.
Both Uber and Lyft have touted the flexibility of drivers treating it like a summer job or a stop gap in a time of transition, so it's likely some drivers are intentionally not staying around for too long. Some might also be getting fired and not make it past the six-month mark.
This combination of fast growth and high turnover (intentional or not) means the majority of drivers are newbies.
"Each week, tens of thousands of drivers across the U.S. begin using the Uber app to make money on their own time, to reach their own goals," an Uber spokesperson said.