Can Uber Drivers Sell Products on the Side?

Yes, Uber allows drivers to sell products to passengers. Doing so doesn’t violate Uber’s terms of service in any way, although the company doesn’t explicitly encourage it, either.

As an Uber driver, you’re an independent contractor, not a traditional employee. This gives you the freedom to do a lot of things that you wouldn’t be allowed to do at a normal job.

In general, Uber only forbids you from doing things that would actually endanger your passengers or that would violate the law. Selling everyday products is perfectly safe, so as far as the company is concerned, it’s your business if you want to do it.

How Uber’s policy on selling has evolved over time

If you’ve read other articles about this, you may have encountered confusing or conflicting information. That’s because Uber’s stance on selling products has changed significantly in the past few years.

Uber used to actively encourage drivers to sell drinks and snacks. They partnered with another company called Cargo that provided these amenities. Drivers could pick up boxes of supplies from Uber’s support centers.

Unfortunately, Uber’s partnership with Cargo wasn’t financially successful. By 2020, most drivers reported that Uber had stopped supplying “Cargo boxes.” They’re no longer available in any market.

Uber now takes a hands-off approach to selling products. This means that if you want to do it, Uber won’t do anything to support you (e.g., by fronting you the money to buy your wares)—but on the other hand, you won’t have to share a cut of your profits with them, either.

Selling products on Uber has both advantages and disadvantages:

Breaking down the pros and cons

To examine this in more detail, the advantages of selling products as an Uber driver largely boil down to “you can make more money.”

That isn’t anything to sneeze at; ridesharing has more than a few overhead expenses, such as gas and vehicle maintenance, which can eat into your profits and leave you wondering whether driving for Uber is really worth it. If you can make a few extra bucks here and there while you’re driving, the answer to that question will be a much firmer “yes.”

That said, the disadvantages of selling products are considerable, too. The biggest con is that some passengers find it annoying, and they’re free to give you bad ratings for it (and if your rating slips too much, it will impact your ability to find work with Uber at all).

Also, if you sell snacks in your car, a certain percentage of your customers are going to leave you with a mess to clean up afterwards. That’s a less serious issue than a poor rating, but still a significant one—regardless of whether you clean your car yourself or hire a professional to do it, it will cost you time and money.

Is selling products as an Uber driver a good idea?

If you canvas a group of Uber drivers and ask them whether they recommend selling products, you’ll get a variety of answers. There’s no clear consensus about this—some drivers think it’s worth it, and others find it tacky and don’t believe it’s worth the hassle and the risk to your rating.

Ultimately, this is a decision you’ll have to make for yourself. The good news is that if you experiment with selling products and conclude that it’s more trouble than it’s worth, you can stop any time you want.

As with driving for Uber itself, you can give this miniature side hustle a try without committing to it.

Realistically, you can probably expect to earn a few extra dollars per day by selling products to your passengers. That’s a nice bonus that will offset the price of gas somewhat, but it isn’t anything life-changing. It’s possible you’ll earn more than that, but don’t count on it.

Factors that will affect your earnings

Your earnings will depend on several factors:

• What products you offer
• How much you pay to acquire your inventory
• What prices you set (i.e., what markup you sell your products at)
• What volume you’re able to sell

We’ll discuss how to set your prices further down in this article.

There are dozens of products you can stock your car with. Popular options include:

• Bottles of water
• Other drinks, such as soda and Gatorade
• Snacks (chips, candy, protein bars, etc.)
• Chewing gum and breath mints
• Tissues
• Chapstick
• Phone chargers (both bricks and cables)
• Small cosmetics (e.g., lip gloss)
• Lightweight umbrellas
• Hygienic and contraceptive devices (yes, many drivers swear by these)

This list isn’t all-inclusive, so spend some time thinking about when and where you drive and what products would be useful to your customers.

For instance, if you live near the coast and ferry a lot of passengers to the beach, sunglasses might be a worthwhile inclusion. If you drive in the evening and mainly take people to and from bars, consider selling hangover kits (you can buy premade and sealed kits online; they often feature antacids, single tablets of aspirin, etc.).

Advertising for another side hustle as an Uber driver

Rather than selling physical products, some Uber drivers choose to go a different route and pitch their passengers on another service they offer.

For instance, if you also offer private taxi services (meaning you schedule rides independently, without using the Uber app), you can let your customers know you’re available and hand them a business card.

Of course, you can advertise for non-driving services, too. If you have a photography side hustle, you sell crafts on Etsy, or you’re engaged in something else entirely, you can plug your other business and try to land customers.

If you’ve decided that you want to dip into selling merchandise, the next step is to actually do it. We’ve broken the process down into 5 simple steps:

1. Select and acquire your inventory

If you plan on selling products, it goes without saying that you’ll need to decide exactly what you want to offer. Browse the list above and decide what products you want to focus on, then acquire them.

When you buy them, make cost a major consideration. The less you spend on your wares, the higher your profit margins will be when you sell them. Buy in bulk if you can.

You can get large packs of snacks, drinks, and everyday goods very cheaply from warehouse retailers like Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s. Alternatively, you can look into online wholesale marketplaces, such as Faire.

2. Set your prices

As mentioned, you’ll need to decide how much you’re going to sell your products for.

Here again, there’s no one right answer to how much you should mark them up by; if you hike the prices by around 20%, you’ll earn a decent profit, although not a spectacular one. You can try raising your markup by more than that, although bear in mind that if your products are too expensive, you’ll have trouble moving any of them at all.

The sweet spot depends on exactly what you’re selling and who your most frequent customers are. Your best bet is to experiment and see what people are willing to pay.

3. Display your products

When you’re selling products, presentation matters. If they’re strewn everywhere haphazardly, it will probably make a bad impression on many of your customers and tank your rating. It may also lead people to think it’s OK to be similarly sloppy, which will add to your workload and cleaning bill—you don’t want to have to deal with stains and stray wrappers from people snacking carelessly.

Invest in a decent cooler, or—better yet—an insulated container that you can hang on the back of one of your car’s seats. AUTOARK’s travel organizer is a good (and cheap) option, although there are many other products like it, so feel free to shop around.

As mentioned, don’t forget to print out (and ideally laminate) a price list so that people don’t mistake your products for freebies. Also, invest in a small trash can, otherwise the mess in your car really will spiral out of control.

4. Decide on a payment method

Your easiest option when it comes to payment is to just accept cash. There’s nothing wrong with this, although it will require you to keep enough coins and small bills on hand to provide change when people need it.

Alternatively, you can also set up a PayPal or Venmo account and print out a QR code that your passengers can scan. Of course, these options aren’t mutually exclusive—you can do both.

5. Sell your products (without being pushy)

Once you’ve got everything set up, the only thing left to do is to actually try selling to your passengers.

When it comes to salesmanship, a little goes a long way. It’s fine to unobtrusively mention that you have snacks and drinks available, but don’t take it any further than that.

You may find that you don’t even need to do that much. Leaving your products on display next to a price list will be enough for most of your customers to get the idea. You might find that you actually make more sales if they perceive you as being less pushy, and it will protect you somewhat against poor ratings (although you may still encounter the occasional customer who objects to you offering anything for sale at all, even if you don’t pressure them to buy).

If you’ve decided that selling products (or advertising another side business) is too risky, you have other options for adding extra revenue streams to your side hustle.

For instance, if you’ve used Uber as a passenger as well as a driver, you might already be familiar with Play Octopus, a company that provides (free) tablets to Uber and Lyft drivers. Passengers can use these tablets to play games while they’re in your car. In the process, Play Octopus will show them ads, and they’ll transfer some of their earnings to you.

As with selling products, displaying ads in your vehicle won’t make you rich. It’s a way to make a little extra cash on the side, not a side hustle in and of itself. However, it has the advantage of being less in-your-face than a row of products for sale, and it’s less likely to damage your driver rating.