[dougabug]

There are other costs besides gas, there's wear and tear on your car, maintenance, interest (if you financed your vehicle, say through one of Uber's subprime lenders), insurance (does your insurance company know that you are using your car for commercial transport?). Do you spend time washing/cleaning the outside and interior of the car? I would at least double the gas cost, so say $300/wk. Do you pay self employment tax? It seems like you are at closer to maybe ~$13/hr or so, with no benefits. A regular (non-exempt) employee would also get overtime if they worked 50hrs.

San Francisco also might have more competition from other drivers.

[burger_moon]

This is a common mistake people make in hot shot driving also. (People who use 1 ton trucks to haul cars/equipment around). They think great, I'm getting $1.50/mi and fuel is only costing me $0.75/mi, I'm making money. Then you factor in truck/trailer payment, insurance, business related fees(you need that DOT sticker), wear and tear, and cash to buy a new truck every 3-4 years and suddenly you're in the hole big time and all you're doing it racking up milage on your new Dodge.

[nawitus]

Should insurance be higher or lower for commercial transport, and if so, why?

[uptown]

Arguably yes. The vehicle is in-use for a greater percentage of the average day increasing the likelihood of being involved in an accident. Also, the vehicle is expected to be carrying more than the owner leading to additional injury claims in court.

[DanBC]

Using a non-commercial insurance policy for a commercial-use vehicle is fraud and routinely leads to declined claims.

The vehicle driver might be aware of that and take the risk anyway, but passengers are usually not aware of this and need some protections.

[nawitus]

I'm not interested in that, I'm interested in whether or not commercial transport increases insurance costs on average.

Although this question is slightly less interesting because of typical insurance policies being neutral on the number of kilometers driven.