The city is dangling one-time cash payments to local businesses that shift their deliveries overnight in an effort to reduce daytime traffic.
The city's Department of Transportation announced Wednesday it will begin distributing $5 million in congestion pricing revenue to incentivize small businesses to change their delivery schedules.
The move is part of a larger goal to shift 62,000 daily truck trips to off-hour delivery — between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. — by 2040. Roughly 90% of goods and deliveries are moved through the city by trucks during the middle of the day, when the streets are most congested, according to the transportation department.
Congestion pricing launched nearly two years ago, charging vehicles $9 tolls to enter Manhattan below 60th Street during peak business hours. The goal of the tolls was to reduce congestion and traffic in the zone, raise money for transit infrastructure improvements and improve the city's air quality. The new initiative continues the effort to make the streets less clogged with larger delivery trucks during the day.
The transportation department urged participating businesses to spend the money on operations that will allow for overnight deliveries, including truck equipment like noise-reducing devices, security alarms and cameras to leave the trucks unattended at night. Transportation officials suggested businesses use the money to invest in “last-mile” delivery vehicles like cargo bikes.
“Congestion pricing is helping combat gridlock in more ways than one. New Yorkers are receiving more deliveries than ever before, so we will be using tolling revenue to make deliveries cleaner, safer, and more efficient," Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn said in a statement. “This incentive program will support local businesses and reduce the number of delivery trucks on our roads during busy daytime hours.”
More than a dozen businesses will receive a total of more than $500,000 through the program, including local soap and candle company Element Brooklyn, Migrant Kitchen and Tea and Milk. The transportation department said it is welcoming applications from other interested businesses.
The MTA also allocated $20 million in funding from congestion pricing to help improve pollution in the South Bronx by replacing old diesel-guzzling refrigeration trucks at the Hunts Point Produce Market with hybrid vehicles.
