{"id":621915,"date":"2025-12-08T16:06:50","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=621915"},"modified":"2025-12-09T09:38:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:38:21","slug":"how-much-uber-drivers-pay-to-rent-a-car-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/621915-how-much-uber-drivers-pay-to-rent-a-car-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"How much Uber drivers pay to rent a car in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Uber offers drivers on its ride-hailing service cars to rent from R2,300 per week in South Africa, or rent vehicles for “free” with a fixed salary or proportional earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many e-hailing drivers in South Africa cannot afford to buy their own vehicles that are considered acceptable for use on these services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regular car rental services are too expensive for Uber’s earnings model, due to both their daily fixed charges and the extra costs charged per kilometre over the daily allowance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uber<\/span> has its own vehicle marketplace where it lists cars available for rent \u2014 either directly or through third-party renting individuals or businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three categories of cars available to Uber drivers without their own vehicles: rentals, fixed earnings, and earnings share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With rentals, drivers pay a fixed weekly or monthly fee for a car and keep the full share of their Uber earnings for themselves, minus Uber’s commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the fixed earnings model, drivers receive a set salary per hour, week, or month, with certain prescribed targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earnings share option requires only a refundable deposit, with drivers paying a certain percentage of their earnings to the vehicle provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vehicle renters may offer a range of benefits with the car, including covering maintenance, fuel, vehicle insurance, and unlimited usage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband has often found that Bolt and Uber drivers complain about the high prices of some of these rentals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We analysed offers available on Uber’s vehicle marketplace to get a better understanding of the choices available to drivers who earn their living on the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most affordable vehicles to rent on Uber’s marketplace for ride-hailing purposes were the Hyundai Grand i10, Nissan Almera, Renault Kwid, Renault Sandero, and Suzuki S-Presso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All these cars were available from R2,000 per week from various third parties. Uber’s own cheapest option is the Toyota Agya, for which it charges R2,300 per week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It only offers two other models \u2014 the Kia Picanto and Volkswagen Polo \u2014 for R2,500 and R3,000 per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than 200km to break even \u2014 in some cases<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult to estimate roughly how many rides a driver would need to complete to cover the cost of their rental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uber’s fares can vary significantly depending on distance, areas, demand, and ride type. Drivers can also get tips, but must pay a commission on a part of their earnings. They also typically pay for fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband found a 5km trip on UberX during the middle of the day in Pretoria cost R75 on Uber Go and R89 on UberX, working out to an effective cost-per-km of R15 and R17.80, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uber recently told MyBroadband it takes a 25% commission on drivers’ earnings. That reduces the earnings on our example trip to R11.25 and R13.35 per kilometre on Uber Go and UberX, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the current inland price of unleaded 93 petrol, covering one kilometre in the S-Presso would cost about R1.02, reducing the Uber Go earnings to R10.23 and UberX earnings to R12.33.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once fuel costs are deducted from their earnings, an S-Presso would make R51.15 on a 5km Uber Go trip or R61.65 on UberX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To cover the R2,000 minimum cost of the car’s weekly rental, they would need to cover 196km on Uber Go or at the rate for our trip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they only made 5km trips, they would need to complete about 39 Uber Go trips to cover the rental cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below summarises the most affordable weekly rental prices of various cars available on Uber’s vehicle marketplace, as well as the best fixed and proportional earnings rates for those vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vehicle<\/th>Cheapest weekly rental<\/th>Highest fixed earnings
(monthly unless indicated otherwise)<\/th>		Highest earnings share<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Hyundai Grand i10<\/td>R2,000<\/td>R8,000<\/td>50%<\/td><\/tr>
Suzuki S-Presso<\/td>R2,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Nissan Almera<\/td>R2,000<\/td>R10,000 <\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Renault Kwid<\/td>R2,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Renault Sandero<\/td>R2,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Toyota Corolla<\/td>R2,100<\/td>R12,000 per week<\/td>6%<\/td><\/tr>
Suzuki Dzire<\/td>R2,200<\/td>R9,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Ford Figo<\/td>R2,300<\/td>\u2014<\/td>98%<\/td><\/tr>
Suzuki Swift<\/td>R2,300<\/td>R1,500 per week<\/td>70%<\/td><\/tr>
Toyota Agya<\/td>R2,300<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Kia Picanto<\/td>R2,400<\/td>R8,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Toyota Etios<\/td>R2,400<\/td>R8,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Toyota Vitz<\/td>R2,400<\/td>R2,300 per week<\/td>30%<\/td><\/tr>
Volkswagen Polo<\/td>R2,400<\/td>R10,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Ford Fiesta<\/td>R2,500<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Honda Amaze<\/td>R2,500<\/td>\u2014<\/td>50%<\/td><\/tr>
Kia Rio<\/td>R2,500<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Kia Soluto<\/td>R2,500<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Hyundai Atos<\/td>R2,500<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Suzuki Celerio<\/td>R2,500<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Suzuki Ciaz<\/td>R2,500<\/td>R10,000<\/td>40%<\/td><\/tr>
Toyota Rumion<\/td>R2,500<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Proton Saga<\/td>R2,650<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Renault Triber RXE<\/td>R2,650<\/td>R10,000<\/td>30%<\/td><\/tr>
Honda Ballade<\/td>R2,750<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Suzuki Baleno<\/td>R2,800<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Suzuki Ertiga<\/td>R2,800<\/td>R3,000<\/td>70%<\/td><\/tr>
Fiat Tipo<\/td>R2,950<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Datsun Go<\/td>R3,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Audi A4<\/td>R5,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>30%<\/td><\/tr>
Audi A4 Avant<\/td>R5,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
BMW 3-series <\/td>R5,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Hyundai H1<\/td>R5,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Mercedes-Benz C-Class<\/td>R5,500<\/td>R1,500 per week<\/td>50%<\/td><\/tr>
Mahindra Pik-Up<\/td>R6,000<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Mercedes-Benz C-Class convertible<\/td>R6,500<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many e-hailing drivers in South Africa cannot afford to buy their own vehicles or vehicles that are considered acceptable for use on these services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":611072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[98635,71718,63267,49389,20853,52837],"class_list":["post-621915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-car-rentals","tag-e-hailing-apps","tag-ride-hailing-apps","tag-ride-hailing-services","tag-uber","tag-uberx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621915"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622420,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621915\/revisions\/622420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}