New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced new incentives on Wednesday, April 24, to help reduce truck deliveries during the busiest hours of the day to improve traffic safety, protect the environment, and combat daytime congestion and double-parking.

DOT officials, who had gathered in Brooklyn for the announcement, said the City agency will allocate $6 million to incentivize businesses receiving deliveries overnight. They said DOT’s existing off-hour delivery program (OHD) will provide new financial incentives for businesses to shift deliveries to off-peak hours, between 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. They said excessive truck traffic during peak daytime hours contributes to congestion, increased carbon emissions, and greater safety risks to pedestrians, cyclists, and others when the streets are busier.

They said funding for the new incentives, allocated through the U.S. DOT’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Program, is part of the agency’s larger effort to rethink how the city manages deliveries and better meet the demands of e-commerce. Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi welcomed the initiative, saying, “90% of everything in our city, our food and drink, our clothing and paper towels, comes in by truck. To decrease congestion on the roads, we have to get a handle on our deliveries.”

Joshi added, “While we work to route deliveries into lower-emissions vehicles, we can make immediate inroads by spreading them out across the day, ifwe can encourage businesses to be open to pick them up. This program will go a long way towards helping businesses help our city, decreasing emissions, improving our air quality, and keeping our thoroughfares moving. This is a real win for New York.”

For his part, NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, said, “New Yorkers are receiving more deliveries than ever before, and we are making them cleaner, safer, and more efficient. This incentive program will support local businesses and benefit all New Yorkers by reducing the number of delivery trucks on our roads during busy daytime hours.”

The new off-hour deliveries incentives will fund tools and strategies to make overnight deliveries feasible for businesses, DOT officials said. They added that this includes the installation of low-noise equipment for delivery vehicles, such as newer hand-pallet trucks and back-up alarms, building security retrofits to enable unattended deliveries, and safety equipment such as security cameras. Participating businesses will receive one-time payments, they said.

DOT officials added that the new incentives specifically aim to help smaller businesses that face financial barriers to transitioning to off-hour deliveries, though the program is open to businesses of all sizes. DOT officials said the agency will also encourage participants to consider sustainable, “last-mile,” delivery options, such as electric vehicles and cargo bikes. They said the new incentives program will be managed by Arcadis, which will develop, administer, and monitor its implementation.

According to DOT, roughly 90% of goods are moved through New York City by truck, and businesses often receive their deliveries during the middle of the day when streets are congested and demand for space at the curb is at its highest. DOT officials said shifting commercial deliveries to the evening and overnight hours can help reduce traffic while also cutting costs for shippers.

They said DOT made the off-hour deliveries pilot program permanent in 2010 and has used it to provide technical assistance to freight receivers and shippers to help them shift deliveries to off-peak hours. To date, they said the agency has enrolled 27 businesses with close to 1,120 locations receiving off-hour deliveries.

They said that as outlined in the agency’s “Delivering Green” plan, DOT aims to reach 5,000 OHD locations by 2040, shifting an estimated 62,000 trucks away from peak hours. They said DOT aims to achieve this goal through the new $6 million incentives program announced on Wednesday, and an additional $5 million committed to the OHD program through the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP).

They said the OHD program includes businesses that receive large amounts of goods into the five boroughs, like Just Salad, ABI (Anheuser Busch-Inbev), Wegmans, Odeko, and Whole Foods Market.

DOT officials went on to say that increasing freight efficiency with an expanded OHD program promotes sustainable business practices with multiple benefits, from the reduction of daytime roadway congestion and double parking in active bus lanes to advancing the City’s Vision Zero goals with fewer truck-pedestrian conflicts.

BUSINESS OUTREACH AND DELIVERY MANAGEMENT

DOT officials went on to say that the agency will host two information sessions with businesses to help tailor the incentives program to businesses’ needs. Webinars will be held virtually on June 3 and June 10. Interested businesses can fill out the form on the Get Started page.

They said the off-hour deliveries incentive program is part of DOT’s efforts to reimagine freight delivery in New York City, restructure freight distribution, and create a sustainable, last-mile, delivery system for getting goods where they need to go safely and efficiently. Earlier this month, they said DOT launched LockerNYC to combat package theft and reduce the negative environmental and safety impacts of truck deliveries.

DOT offcials went on to say that in March, the agency authorized the use of e-cargo bikes on city streets to make deliveries safer and more sustainable. They said the agency is also working to install delivery “microhubs,” where trucks can safely offload to smaller, greener delivery modes like cargo bikes, handcarts, and electric vans. Additionally, they said that through the “Blue Highways” program, in coordination with EDC, the city is working to reactivate marine infrastructure helping to shift deliveries from larger trucks to our waterways.

News of the new incentives program was also welcomed by the Bronx Chamber of Commerce. “The Off-Hour Delivery program offers a win-win for businesses and the city,” said Lisa Sorin, president of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce. “By providing financial incentives, we can encourage businesses to adopt efficient delivery practices that reduce congestion, ultimately saving them time and money.”

Norwood News asked DOT if the new plan is also a way of addressing the proliferation of large articulated trucks parked overnight on the City’s streets which residents have long complained about from a traffic safety perspective, among others. Though there appears to be less trucks seen than during the pandemic, large trucks are still sometimes seen on the Grand Concourse among other locations.

As reported, to help City officials address the issue of overnight parked trucks in Bronx Community District 7 and in other districts, residents were invited in January 2023 to complete a survey on the issue.