Photo Courtesy of DOT
By Forum Staff
City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez on Thursday announced the summer launch of a pilot program to reduce the negative environmental and safety effects of truck deliveries.
Local delivery hubs, known as microhubs, will provide designated curbside or off-street locations for delivery trucks to unload items onto smaller, low-emissions vehicles or human-powered modes of transportation like cargo bikes and hand carts for the final leg of deliveries. The pilot is part of the agency’s larger effort to rethink the City’s curb space to meet the demands of e-commerce; DOT also released a new report today detailing its rapid installation of thousands of loading zones across the five boroughs to create dedicated spaces for truck deliveries.
More than 80 percent of New Yorkers receive at least one package at home each week, and 18 percent receive packages on four or more days per week, leading to an increase in delivery vehicles on city streets. Today, close to 90 percent of the City’s goods are moved into and around the city by truck. This overreliance on trucks exacerbates traffic congestion, contributes to public safety challenges on our roadways, pollutes our air, stresses our aging infrastructure, and negatively impacts quality of life. Local delivery hubs offer promising potential to reduce the number of large trucks on local streets by providing safe spaces for truck operators to transfer deliveries onto more sustainable modes of transportation.
The pilot program will include multiple phases, with the first beginning this summer and extending into the fall. NYC DOT will launch up to 20 local delivery hub sites to test both curbside and off-street hubs. Locations will be selected based on proximity to high density areas with mixed land use; as well as proximity to truck routes; transit; bike lane networks; and engagement with local communities and businesses. Through a DOT-issued Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI), the agency collected feedback from 23 respondents—including community organizations and freight operators, as well as technology, vehicle, and infrastructure providers, to help shape the program and pilot locations.
During the first phase, DOT will monitor hub operations, collecting data and refining strategies to ensure there is equitable implementation and enforcement for both small and large companies.
Phase two of the program, which will run from fall 2024 to 2026, will expand the number of local delivery hubs and delivery partners, explore regulatory changes and incentives, examine new technology and amenity options, and gather lessons to develop a permanent local delivery hub program.
A final report on the program is targeted for late 2026.
This pilot program, created in response to Local Law 166 of 2021, is part of DOT’s comprehensive freight strategy detailed in Delivering New York and Delivering Green. Alongside its sister agencies, DOT is working to reduce the City’s dependence on trucking by encouraging shifts in deliveries to smaller vehicles—like cargo bicycles, handcarts and electric vans—as well as to our ports.
“New Yorkers are receiving more deliveries than ever before, and we are pursuing creative ways to make these deliveries cleaner, safer, and more efficient by reducing the number of delivery trucks on our roads,” said Rodriguez. “These hubs will help better organize last-mile deliveries and support small and large businesses’ economic recovery as we emerge from the pandemic.”
