Uber announce yearly turnover of £36.9m in London; but the figures don't add up

Uber announced that annual profit and turnover figures in London had significantly increased in the last financial year.

According to figures printed in the Evening  Standard, Uber's sales totalled £36.9 million and its profits rose to just over £3 million for 2016. 

However, the figures just don't seem to add up at first glance. Since losing its operators licence two weeks ago the American minicab firm has quoted incessantly that it has 40,000 drivers reliant on the platform staying. They also claim to have 3.5 million passengers using the app at least once every 90 days.

But let's do the maths now.

Based on turnover of £36.9m (20% uber fees) + 80% Uber drivers cut = £184.5m Divide Uber driver turnover by number of drivers (£147.6m / 40,000) = £3,690 per driver.

So are 40,000 drivers really reliant on less than £4,000 a year without taking into account any kind of costs?

Let's look at it even more closely.

For an Uber Driver to earn a poor £15,000 full time salary they would need to clear approximately £35,000 PA. Approximately £400 per week for car, fuel and other costs associated totals roughly £20,000 per year.  With that in mind and using the accounts made public, Uber's sales turnover equates to just 4,217 full time poorly paid £15,000 jobs.

So just how many drivers are actually reliant on Uber and how much goes through Uber BV?