
Ask HN: How to make money while commuting to work? - bsvalley
I am wondering if there are ways of making money while commuting to work. The only idea I can think of is uber&#x2F;lyft on the way to work. Do you have any other ideas?<p>Edit: a commute of about 2 hours (roundtrip) per day, driving my car.
======
contingencies
A penny saved is a penny earned.

Cycling will save you more money because you don't need a gym subscription and
you don't have to pay car registration, parking, fuel, repairs, license fees,
accidents or mass transit tickets.

On top of that you can zone out which is healthy and gets you in the mode for
thinking (assuming you are programming at work), you don't need to sell your
bike when you move cities/continents (staying geographically flexible =
massive opportunity for profit), and you don't need an apartment or job with a
parking space.

~~~
dpcan
I think there's a difference between the drive to work and a commute. A
commute means that you're in your car maybe 45 minutes to 2+ hours each way
every day. So, biking probably isn't a viable option - especially in areas
where it's winter-like temperatures 6-8 months out of the year.

~~~
6DM
It can depend on your location too. If I commute by car, it can take 1 - 2
hours. By metro 1 hr but I've had a few times take up to 2 hours. When I go by
bike, it's a consistent 1 hr 15 min.

~~~
Cerium
I wish the California Bay Area was like that! Here it takes me 30 minutes to
drive with traffic, 15 without, 40 to ride bike, 1.5 to 2 hours by public
transit.

------
frogfuzion
This is pretty easy - work on your side project while driving:
[https://www.amazon.com/AutoExec-Wheelmate-Steering-
Attachabl...](https://www.amazon.com/AutoExec-Wheelmate-Steering-Attachable-
Surface/dp/B00E1D1GY6)

Edit: be sure to view Q&A and reviews at bottom before use - very helpful.

~~~
grzm
Please don't use URL shorteners as they obfuscate the destination URL.

------
phatboyslim
You could increase your personal value by listening to audiobooks or podcasts
to improve your education. There are actually several audio programs from
sites like The Great Courses which you can tune to your specific interests.

It's not a direct path to a financial gain, but it does improve your personal
value, which should in turn improve your income streams.

~~~
dbg31415
This is what I do. It's not so much "making money" but just making sure I am
utilizing my time correctly. If I'm just sitting in the car waiting to get to
work... that's a waste. If I'm listening to a book or podcast, that means I
have that time back at the end of the day for more sleep, or whatever.

I used to, in my late 20s, car pool with people to work. We'd flip on a
podcast -- every day it was someone's job to pick one out. Then talk about it
a bit... made the time go by quickly and we all ended up learning something.
Harder to do as careers became more serious... stopped being viable to
schedule my arrival and departure times around others.

If you have friends in the same time-zone you can schedule a commute call to
catch up and bitch about things. Some of my buddies and I used to have a
conference line open at a set hour, anyone who wanted to dial in on their
drive in could. Was nice, until everyone started having kids and it was viable
to talk openly in the car.

Lastly... just sort of thinking about your goals and things you want to
accomplish that day... I tend to do this quite a bit. Got in the habit of
using my first 30 minutes at work for day planning / preparation... but always
helps to have it all queued up in my head before I write it down in my
journal.

------
webrender
I negotiated with my company to count my commuting time as work time, since my
bus is not crowded and I can always get on my laptop and work with a hotspot.
So in a sense you could say I make money while commuting because it counts
towards my working hours. I also get part of my afternoon back :)

~~~
dantheman0207
Off topic, but how did you do that? Did you ask after having proven you got
work done? Or did you bring it up at the initial interview?

~~~
michaelgrafl
I'm not commuting anymore, but when I used to, I would try to get some work
done on the train, and if I did, go home earlier without feeling bad about it.
We didn't track time at that job.

At my current company I can clock in via VPN and book time on whatever I'd
work on, wherever I am. As long as I tell my superior that I won't be at the
office, and as long as I don't have any meetings during that time, he's fine
with it. I've committed to deadlines already, and if I don't meet them, he's
in trouble, but so am I, so he trusts me.

------
mrpoptart
The best answer to this is the same answer to the question "How can I make
money while I sleep?" Answer that and your commute becomes profitable by
default.

~~~
bsvalley
Unlike sleeping, I think you could leverage a vehicle that goes from point A
to point B on a daily basis.

------
krembo
Waze Carpool. I'm not sure if it's available worldwide, but in Israel it's
working pretty cool and allows you to collect up to 4 passengers on your way
to work and back. It also matches you only passengers +- on your route so you
don't become a taxi driver (they adapt to the local regulations around this
since Carpool is allowed in Israel, but Uber isn't..)

------
TamDenholm
You've not said what you do, how long your commute is, what mode of transport
you can take or anything, so its difficult to offer specific suggestions.

I'm assuming you're driving, but if you had the option of train you could have
that time to sit and work on freelance work on the laptop.

If you had to drive, one option is to indirectly make money by perhaps working
on your skills. If you're a coder, download some podcasts or audiobooks about
new languages or techniques. Perhaps even study a different subject like soft
skills or sales or something that could broaden your value in the marketplace?

------
dazc
Ask random people for money saying you don't have enough bus or train fare.
Loads of people in the UK are doing this now.

~~~
devoply
So pan handling more or less? Have any sources for this... seems strange that
loads of people in the UK have all of the sudden become pan handlers.

~~~
frogfuzion
Loads of people everywhere are pan handlers.

------
markhenderson
Record yourself talking to yourself in the car and make a podcast.

~~~
bdavisx
Assuming that he/she is driving, that could be a dangerous distraction (even
hands-free cell phone usage has been shown to be dangerous).

Besides, if it was me trying to do a podcast: "And that's why you should watch
out for that code smell... Oh, that f*cking idiot, use your turn signal
jacka$$!!!"

~~~
raverbashing
You're saying that like it won't make the podcast more interesting

------
artursapek
Read books, invest in yourself. It will pay off long term.

~~~
hoodwink
Definitely read. Use the commute to unplug from distractions.

------
brudgers
I've heard that the difference between an entrepreneur and a
consultant/freelancer/contractor is that an entrepreneur makes money while
they sleep and a consultant/freelancer/contractor only makes money while they
are working.

The premise of this question seems to be related to that. Not that I'm
pitching entrepreneurship so much as reframing the question. Maybe there is a
middle ground where the commute time is used for business...phone calls and so
forth. And maybe those phone calls are invested in looking for a better paying
job or freelance work or something that increases income.

------
seanlinehan
Taking calls while driving is pretty effective. If you have a side project you
could do sales calls while driving.

------
logicallee
Sure. The highest ROI you can possibly have is by spending the time thinking.
Make sure that you set aside money every month for a seed fund so that once
you get an idea, which you eventually will, you can hit the ground running on
it.

Once you have the idea for your business, which may take years, the ROI will
have been much higher than anything else you could have possibly spent the
same time doing. Think.

(If this gets downvoted too heavily, I'll delete it. But it's a genuine
comment.)

~~~
bsvalley
That's what I usually do. Though, I was looking for a quick and easy / short
term solution to generate some extra $$ while wasting 2 hours driving on the
road everyday.

~~~
logicallee
how about foreign language lessons, if your mobile phone data plan (for skype)
or call plan is good enough to make it worth it, and you have excellent
coverage along your whole route. That likely pays more than most other things
you could be doing, however it will require a lot of attention. Is your
driving pretty monotonous?

------
brango
Offer to polish peoples' shoes.

------
burkaman
Learn to knit and make stuff you can sell online.

Or take the long game and work on classes and skills that will get you a
higher paying job.

------
xhrpost
I've heard of people audio recording blog posts for transcription later on.
There's also a company whose name is failing me (Muse?) that often advertises
making money on your commute by doing consultancy phone calls in your
profession. Never tried it but you could also attempt to do your own
consulting on the phone.

------
technologyvault
One of the trends with vlogging is to record yourself in the car talking about
whatever subject you feel like your audience may want to hear about.

If you recorded your thoughts about politics, social issues, current events,
etc. on the way to work and published those videos on YouTube, over time (give
yourself likely 3-6 months to start making any significant income) you'll
develop a subscriber base, your view counts for each video will continue to
climb, and you'll be in a position to monetize your YouTube traffic.

You obviously should be very careful about doing any kind of video recording
or anything else that might distract you from driving. This may be a better
idea if you're taking public transit.

------
baccredited
I would listen to an audiobook - Your Money or Your Life
[https://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-
Relation...](https://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-
Relationship/dp/1591797306/ref=tmm_abk_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1494951853&sr=8-1)

And follow it up by reading something like: [https://www.amazon.com/Simple-
Path-Wealth-financial-independ...](https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Path-Wealth-
financial-independence/dp/1533667926)

------
rdiddly
You're looking for ways to make money while you waste it. Obviously the most
lucrative opportunity was further upstream -- one that you missed when you got
into an hour-long-automobile-commute, miserably-unsustainable type situation.

Move closer to work, and ideally walk there. Or bike or take transit. (If
transit, you can work while you ride.) If housing costs too much to do that,
move to a metro area where it's possible. Now you're what maybe $500/month
richer? Now sell the car - voila, making money!

------
mipmap04
I see you've already mentioned ridesharing, but my coworker Uber's on his way
to and from work and makes about $40 a day. He says it adds about 30 minutes
to a 30 minute commute.

------
tedsanders
My strategy is to take public transit and work for my employer on a laptop
with a mobile connection. If your time is valuable enough (>$50/hr?), it may
even be profitable to pay for a Lyft and work during the ride.

If you have to drive, another strategy is to think about work and plan out
your day while you drive, so you're more productive once you arrive at the
office.

You can also make hands-free phone calls from the car.

------
telebone_man
Forgive the slightly lazy response and lack of sources but - I remember there
was a crowd source delivery service in the UK. Whereby you could bid for the
opportunity to deliver something from one place to another.

------
kapauldo
I spent a few years freelancing on a bus with a hot spot to and from my day
job.

------
elorant
Use public transportation and code in the meantime.

~~~
accountyaccount
I can't imagine this being viable on most public transportation systems.

~~~
jetti
Light rail is the best for this. I have about an hour and 15 minute train ride
(on top of commute to the train) each way and it is perfect time for me to
work on side projects. That wouldn't work on a bus, especially if you have to
make many stops/transfers.

------
mrleinad
Get into finantial trading. You'd just need to check it once or twice if at
all, during those two hours.

The rest of the suggestions are fine, but I think you asked for ideas on how
to make money, not how to save money. And I don't know of any other way that
wouldn't require your full attention.

~~~
hiddencost
"how to lose money while commuting to work"

~~~
mrleinad
If you don't know what you're doing, yes

------
tacostakohashi
Why do you have a 2 hour car commute each day? Live closer to work, or work
closer to home.

This is just a dumb thing to do and the answer to to stop doing it, not
optimize it.

------
idlewords
Paper route

------
olivercreashe
sell drugs while commuting.

------
gremlinsinc
work from home, save 2+ hours per day, build a side project.

------
milquetoastaf
Start a consulting service, charge people by the hour

