By the Sevetu team
On this page
Short answer
If you want a fixed income, regular hours and no car costs, a family driver job is the safer choice. If you own a car or can rent one cheaply and want to choose your hours, a cab app can earn more on good days and less on bad ones. If you don't have a car and want flexible work, an acting driver app fits. The fair comparison is money left after costs, per hour worked.
Family driver: salary, the family's car
On Sevetu's published national ranges, a full-time family driver earns ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month and a live-in driver ₹20,000 to ₹32,0001. Sevetu's Bengaluru guide puts the city at ₹20,000 to ₹35,000 full-time2. You don't pay for fuel, the car, insurance or repairs.
Good: the same money every month, one weekly off, usually home at night. Hard: one family decides your day, and late office nights can stretch it. Get hours, the weekly off and the late-night rule in writing.
Cab app driver: your car, your hours
Uber, Ola and Rapido now charge drivers a subscription instead of a commission on each ride. Reports put Ola's cab plan at ₹67 a day for 30 days and Rapido's at ₹9 to ₹29 a day3. Uber was reported to have moved to daily and monthly plans, where it used to take 15 to 20% of a fare4.
What comes out of your fares: the subscription, fuel or CNG, the car's EMI or daily rent, insurance, servicing, tyres, tolls and parking. A good day pays well. A slow day, a breakdown or a hospital visit pays nothing.
We don't publish a monthly figure for cab earnings, because it changes so much by city, car and hours that any single number would mislead you.
Acting driver: customers' cars, per booking
Acting driver apps such as DriveU send you to drive a customer's car for a few hours. Customers pay from about ₹129 an hour on DriveU's pages5, and the app keeps a share. You need a good licence, a clean record and to be near where bookings come from.
How to compare honestly
Work out three numbers for each option, for one month:
- Money in: salary, or total fares and bookings.
- Money out: fuel, EMI or rent, subscription, insurance, repairs, phone data.
- Hours: every hour you were working or waiting.
Then (money in minus money out) divided by hours. That's your real hourly pay. A family job at ₹20,000 for 240 hours a month is about ₹83 an hour, with no costs to subtract.
Our take: the salary looks smaller until you subtract the car. Many drivers do both for a while: a family job in the day, cab rides on the weekly off. If you do, tell the family, and never use their car for it.
Whichever you choose
- Keep your licence valid, and the class right for the car. Which licence you need →
- Never pay to get a job. Fake job offers →
- With a family, get pay, hours, weekly off, outstation allowance and notice in writing.
More for drivers: acting driver job: what a trip pays → · which licence you need →
Read next: monthly driver or Ola and Uber, the cost
Questions people ask
It depends on your costs. A family driver gets a salary and pays nothing for the car. A cab driver keeps more of each fare now that apps charge subscriptions, but pays for fuel, the car, insurance and repairs. Compare money left after costs, per hour.
On Sevetu's published national ranges, ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month full-time and ₹20,000 to ₹32,000 live-in. Bengaluru runs higher.
A subscription instead of a commission. Reports put Ola's cab plan at ₹67 a day for 30 days and Rapido's at ₹9 to ₹29 a day. Check the current plan in your driver app.
Many drivers do, for example on their weekly off. Tell the family, keep to the agreed hours, and never use their car for app rides.
A driver who drives a customer's own car for a few hours or a trip, booked through an app or agency. You don't need your own car.
Sources
- Sevetu, Hire a driver, cost section, read 12 November 2026: full-time ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month, one weekly off; live-in ₹20,000 to ₹32,000. sevetu.com/hire-a-driver/
- Sevetu, Bangalore pay guide, driver section, read 12 November 2026: full-time driver ₹20,000 to ₹35,000 a month. sevetu.com/bangalore/cost/
- Outlook Business, Ola extends zero commission model to cab drivers after autos, read 12 November 2026: "Rapido's subscription fee ranges from ₹9 to ₹29 per day"; "Ola now offers a 30-day subscription at ₹67 per day". outlookbusiness.com
- Angel One, Uber joins Ola, Rapido with subscription model, updated 13 October 2025, read 12 November 2026: daily or monthly subscription; previously "Uber deducted 15-20% of a driver's fare". angelone.in
- DriveU, Car drivers for hire, Saket, Delhi, read 12 November 2026: "rates starting from just Rs.129/hour". driveu.in
Add Sevetu as a preferred source on Google → Our guides then show up more often in your Top Stories and AI answers.
Written by the Sevetu teamSevetu is a hiring marketplace for household work in India, operated by Fiel Private Limited. These guides come from the questions families and workers ask us. Nothing here is sponsored, and where a number has no defensible source we say so instead of inventing one. About Sevetu
