Try Auth::user()['id'] or Auth::user()['user_id']

Just get rid of those brackets. id or location are properties that you can return, not some methods.

$userId = Auth::user()->id;

$userLocation = Auth::user()->location;

Althought I'd suggest you to always use helper function if there is one available. In this case you can use **auth()**function like this:

$userId = auth()->user()->id;

$userLocation = auth()->user()->location;

And how do I receive userId in the controller?

# requires login
Route::group(['middleware' => 'auth'], function(){

	# create customer
	Route::post('/createcustomer', [
		'uses' => 'ChannelCustomer@createCustomer',
		'as' => 'createCustomer',
		'userId' => Auth::user()->id
	]);
});