NYC offers $5M to move deliveries away from peak hours

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Dive Brief:

• New York City's Department of Transportation looks to distribute $5 million to incentivize businesses to shift commercial delivery times away from peak daytime traffic hours, according to a Sept. 24 news release.
• The $5 million, funded via the city's congestion pricing program, will go toward tools and strategies to enable overnight deliveries between the "off-peak" period of 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., according to the release. This includes low-noise equipment for delivery vehicles, building security retrofits to enable unattended deliveries, and safety equipment like security cameras, per the release.
• "New Yorkers are receiving more deliveries than ever before, so we will be using tolling revenue to make deliveries cleaner, safer, and more efficient," New York City's DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said in the release. “This incentive program will support local businesses and reduce the number of delivery trucks on our roads during busy daytime hours."

Dive Insight:

The incentives are part of the New York City DOT's Off-Hour Deliveries program, which aims to reduce congestion, emissions and pedestrian safety risks. Program participants include Whole Foods Market, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Wegmans Food Markets. The city's goal is to shift 62,000 daily trucks to off-hour deliveries by 2040, per the release.

"Citywide, 27 known businesses currently conduct off-hour deliveries representing over 1,120 locations," the release said.

Up to 14 businesses will receive more than half a million dollars in the first phase of funding disbursement. The second phase will distribute the remaining funding to program participants, and the agency said applications are open for businesses to join that phase.

While the incentives are geared toward smaller businesses facing financial barriers to implementing off-hour deliveries, the program is open to businesses of all sizes. Incentive program participants commit to officially joining the off-hour delivery program, conducting off-hour deliveries for at least a year and sharing off-hour delivery data with the city's DOT. Participating shippers "report more certainty with truck arrival times, reduced delivery costs, and fewer disruptions during business hours," per the agency.

Applicants need to ensure they can collaborate with their transporting or receiving partners on shifting deliveries into an off-peak timeframe, according to the DOT. Because of this requirement, "businesses that only receive parcel deliveries from UPS, FedEx, Amazon, etc. are not eligible for this program," the agency said.

The incentives add to New York City's efforts to crack down on congestion and boost pedestrian safety. A proposed bill before the city council looks to improve traffic safety by requiring last-mile facility operators to directly employ core delivery and warehouse workers, which would challenge the delivery contractor models used by Amazon and FedEx.