Hi All, so in one of my previous posts I mentioned that one of the applications that can be used to make some money on the side is the Lvl5 Payver app. I have now been using it for the past month and can say that this is one of the easiest ways to make some extra cash while driving. The whole process is a little addictive and can be seamlessly incorporated into your daily driving routine.
I was a bit skeptical at first because the majority of applications (related and unrelated to driving) are based on a rewards system that you can "cash out on" once you've accrued enough points. With the Lvl5 Payver app, the same concept applies, but the rewards system is very straight forward and pays out in cash or amazon gift cards; the amount of points to amazon gift cards is equal to that of points to cash which is a plus!
Here's how the app works: it takes a video of the road while you drive. As you meander through the streets of your town/city, you accrue points (more points are awarded during the day and for city driving than during night and on highways). Essentially, the goal of the company is to gather enough footage to run self driving car programing through, so it can identify signs and dangerous objects that might cause a car to stop or swerve. The app does not record any sound, so don't worry about big brother eaves dropping.
One of the other cool features is if you touch the screen, it records your previous 30 seconds of driving and the next 30 seconds. This feature is meant for recording incidents that you would like to have a copy of; for instance, a driver cutting you off or someone drunk driving. While this won't record an unruly passenger in the back, it is a great feature to have just in case.
At the end of the day, you hook your phone up to your wifi and upload all of your driving records to their servers. Once their servers have processed your drives, your profile is awarded points (from my experience, the time between points being awarded and time the drive is uploaded is within a couple of minutes). This process can be set to automatically take place at night while you are not using your phone, but it must be plugged in and connected to wifi.
To date, I have accrued over 55,000 points and haven't been driving for Uber that much, just been using it during my morning commute. These 55,000 points are good for $50 bucks, so enough to make it worth while. If I was using this while driving full time, I could easily have racked up over 110,000 points within a month, which is good for $100; if done every month, $1,200.
I have the new iPhone 8 coming soon and will be using my iPhone 6 full time as a Payver app. I could trade it in for $160, but given I could make $100 within a month if I start driving more frequently, I think it is a no-brainer to keep it.
Let me know what you think! Always appreciate your feedback
A few things to note:
While using the app, it must be the primary app being used (ie you cannot use it for Uber or Lyft easily). After contacting support, they informed me that you can use a secondary phone without a cellular plan. The phone should be a minimum of an iPhone 5c or 5s. If you buy one on eBay (currently going for $75), you could easily recoup your investment within a few weeks if you are driving full time.
The app is only available for iOS, meaning iPhones
You should have at least 10GB of free space available on your phone if you are logging a lot of drives. One 20 mile drive over the course of a half hour consumes 1.4GB for myself
You need to have a phone mount that is sturdy and can hold your phone horizontally, not vertically
If you have a very slow internet connection, the upload process could take a while
Your phone might over heat if you have it in the sun for a while, make sure to have your A/C on for your front windshield, that way you don't get too cold but your phone won't turn off
You must have your phone plugged in to a power source. I prefer a portable charging bank because my car's usb port isn't as effective at charging my phone, but that could be because my phone's battery is borderline useless
You should turn off "Trip previews" because they take up unnecessary space on your phone (unless you want to marvel at all of your driving later)
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