How to tell if a TVDE trip is worth it
The apps show you the fare, but hide what actually matters: how much you'll earn per kilometre and per hour once pickup time is counted. A €6.50 fare can look decent until you realize it takes 6 minutes to reach the passenger plus 14 minutes for the ride itself — suddenly that's 20 minutes for €6.50, under €20/hour before any costs.
The number that matters: € per km
€/km is the fastest way to judge a trip. Set your minimum (many drivers in Portugal use between €0.60 and €0.80/km) and the calculator gives you an instant verdict: green to accept, yellow to think twice, red to decline. €/hour completes the picture, since a short, well-paid trip can beat a long one at a low rate.
Why pickup time is a trap
Count pickup and trip time together, and a fare that looks good on distance can fail on time. A €12 fare over 10 km with a 20-minute pickup and a 40-minute trip passes on €/km at €1.20, but the hour of real work pays just €12.00. A €9 fare over 12 km with a 5-minute pickup and a 15-minute trip also passes, at €0.75 per km — and pays €27.00 an hour. Same verdict, very different hours. That split is what pickup time does: it adds minutes without adding a single paid kilometre.
Three trips, three verdicts
The calculator judges a trip on two numbers: € per km, which is fare divided by km, and € per hour, which is fare divided by total minutes (pickup plus trip) converted to hours. Your minimum € per km, 0.70 by default, sets three bands: ACCEPT at or above the minimum, MAYBE between 80% of the minimum and the minimum, DECLINE below that. Worked through, the bands look like this.
| Trip | €/km | Time | €/hour | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €14 fare, 12 km, 6 min pickup + 18 min trip | €1.17 | 24 min | €35.00 | ACCEPT |
| €7 fare, 12 km, 8 min pickup + 15 min trip | €0.58 | 23 min | €18.26 | MAYBE |
| €5 fare, 12 km, 10 min pickup + 20 min trip | €0.42 | 30 min | €10.00 | DECLINE |
The first trip is straightforward: €14 ÷ 12 = €1.17 per km, well above the €0.70 minimum, and €14 over 24 minutes is €35.00 per hour. The second is the interesting one: €7 ÷ 12 = €0.58 per km, below the minimum but above 80% of it (0.80 × €0.70 = €0.56), so it lands in MAYBE — close to the line, and the page tells you to check € per hour before deciding, which at €18.26 is respectable. The third fails both tests: €5 ÷ 12 = €0.42 per km, below the €0.56 MAYBE floor, and €10.00 per hour over 30 minutes of real work. Declining it is not leaving money behind; it is refusing to spend half an hour earning less than the trips that will come next.
When €/km passes and €/hour fails
The two numbers can disagree, and the disagreement is where drivers lose money quietly. Take a €12 fare over 10 km with a 20-minute pickup and a 40-minute trip: €12 ÷ 10 = €1.20 per km, a clear ACCEPT on rate alone. But the trip consumes 60 minutes of real work, so the hourly figure is €12.00 — an hour spent for twelve euros. Compare a €9 fare over 12 km with a 5-minute pickup and a 15-minute trip: €9 ÷ 12 = €0.75 per km, also an ACCEPT, but over 20 minutes it pays €27.00 per hour. Same verdict, wildly different hours. The lesson is to read both numbers every time: € per km protects you against cheap distance, € per hour protects you against slow time, and pickup time is usually the silent killer, because a long pickup adds minutes without adding a single paid kilometre. That is also why the page insists on counting empty kilometres: a €/km figure computed only on paid-trip kilometres flatters every trip, since the unpaid leg to the passenger costs fuel and time but never appears in the fare.
Setting your own minimum
The default minimum of €0.70 per km is a starting point, not a law. The page notes many drivers decline below €0.60–€0.70 per km, and the right figure depends on your costs: fuel or energy, commission, wear, and the city you drive in. A driver with low energy costs can profitably accept trips another driver must decline, and a driver in a city with long pickup distances needs a higher minimum to cover the empty kilometres. The discipline is to set the number from your own costs, enter it, and let the verdicts be boringly consistent — accepting above it, questioning near it, declining below it — rather than renegotiating every ride in the moment. Over a month, those consistent decisions are what the Monthly Income page measures: average fare quality, not trip count, is what lifts net income.
Frequently asked questions
How many km a day is worth doing TVDE for?
There's no magic number — what matters is the mix of short and long trips, and how much idle time sits between them. That said, many full-time drivers land around 150 to 250 km a day. Below that, fixed costs (insurance, car payment) weigh proportionally more on what you earn; above that, wear on the car and fatigue start eating into the extra profit.
What's the most profitable time to drive TVDE in Lisbon and Porto?
The most consistent peaks are weekday early evenings (commute home, roughly 5pm–8pm) and Friday and Saturday nights. In Lisbon, the airport helps fill weaker morning hours. Weekday mornings outside the entry rush tend to be the weakest hours in both cities.
How do I calculate my real earnings per km?
Add up everything you received over a period (net of platform commission) and divide by total km driven — including the "empty" km on the way to the passenger, not just the paid trip km. That number, not any single ride's fare, shows whether you're actually turning a profit.
What's a good €/km in Portugal?
It depends on city and costs, but many drivers decline below €0.60–0.70/km. Adjust your minimum to your own reality (fuel or energy, commission, wear).
Does the calculator store my data?
No. Everything is calculated on your phone and nothing is sent or stored. History disappears when you close the page.
Should I ever accept below my minimum?
Sometimes, and the calculator has a band for exactly that: MAYBE covers trips between 80% of your minimum and the minimum itself. The page tells you to check € per hour before deciding in that band, because a trip slightly below your €/km line can still be worth it if it is fast — a short pickup and a quick trip can pay well per hour even at a modest per-km rate. Below 80% of the minimum, though, the answer is no: the trip fails both the distance test and, almost always, the time test, and accepting it costs you the better trip that would have come in the same time.