Responding to growing calls to regulate the delivery industry and address concerns about e-bike safety, Mayor Eric Adams announced on July 7 the formation of the Department of Sustainable Delivery (DSD). Adams vowed that the new agency would protect both delivery workers and pedestrians by holding delivery companies accountable for street safety.
However, delivery worker advocates beg to differ, saying that the mayor’s DSD agency will instead increase the criminalization of delivery workers, the vast majority of whom are immigrants.
Housed within the Department of Transportation, the DSD will conduct enforcement against illegal moped, e-bike, and e-scooter riding as well as hold delivery apps accountable by ensuring that commercial cyclists are using safe and legal equipment and that delivery companies face repercussions for unsafe behavior, according to the press release issued by the mayor’s office.
“Delivery workers keep our city moving and support their families every day, but too often, delivery apps place unrealistic expectations on them that put their safety and the safety of others at risk,” said Sophia Askari, press assistant at the mayor’s office.
The proposed new agency will empower the city to revoke the licenses of delivery apps such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub if they require workers to meet unreasonably fast delivery times. Once established, the DSD will also mandate safe delivery times that will be enforced by the agency, as well as require that workers be provided with safety equipment, such as helmets, and attend mandatory safety training.
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Last year, 10 delivery workers were killed on the streets of New York City due to traffic accidents. Many of the deaths were attributed to unrealistic delivery timeframes, which caused delivery workers to take unsafe traffic risks like running red lights or traveling at unsafe speeds, all to avoid being deactivated.
If the DSD finds that companies fail to provide safety equipment or training for their workers, they will be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $500 for a first violation, and $1,000 for any subsequent violation within a 2-year period. Continued violations could lead to a suspension or revocation of a license. Latest estimates show DoorDash has a net worth of $99.59 billion and Uber Eats is valued at $20 billion.
Despite the new agency’s proposals to hold app companies accountable, delivery worker advocates are taking issue with some of the legislative language for the proposed DSD, as well as the new regulations that will be required of delivery workers.
“While we are encouraged to see that the Mayor’s proposed Department of Sustainable Delivery will hold app companies accountable for contributing to street safety in our city, we are deeply concerned about the administration’s continued focus on targeting individual workers,” said Ligia Guallpa, executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project and Los Deliveristas Unidos in a statement to Documented.
DSD’s requirement of delivery worker identification cards is similar to proposed legislation put forth by City Council member Robert Holden, which would require delivery workers to register their e-bikes with the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) and be issued license plates. If Holden’s law passes, delivery workers may be required to hold two forms of identification.
The new agency would also issue $25 to $50 fines to delivery workers who fail to wear safety equipment. Delivery workers are already subject to traffic violation fines via the NYPD. As per a new directive beginning in April, the NYPD has been issuing criminal summons to e-bike riders for certain traffic violations, such as running a red light or ignoring a stop sign. Delivery workers who don’t appear in court can be issued a warrant for their arrest and face possible jail time.
To Guallpa, the DSD is a redundant agency that would not address the root causes of unsafe streets. To them, meaningful reform must include deactivation protections and infrastructure improvements like bike lanes, charging hubs, and weather shelters, all of which would make safer traffic behavior possible.
你知道吗？非公民办理驾照时的这个错误可能会导致选民欺诈
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They also point to recent legislation by the New York City Council that increased tip transparency, increased protections for 60,000 delivery workers, and expanded minimum wage to 20,000 grocery delivery workers as a step in the right direction.
“The Mayor’s proposal to add an additional layer of deliverista enforcement on top of the NYPD is very troubling,” said Guallpa. “It will only intensify an already discriminatory and punitive response to an essentially structural problem, distracting us from real solutions and offering punishment of vulnerable workers in place of meaningful reform.”
