NYC wants to create a first-of-its kind department to regulate app-based delivery

Across the country, cities are filling up with e-bikes, cargo bikes, delivery robots, and even drones—micromobility options meant to provide a way to move restaurant meals, groceries, and packages in a quick, environmentally efficient manner.



But for all their benefits, including fewer emissions and reduced car traffic, these innovations have also come with downsides, including issues around worker pay and safety, clogged bike lanes and sidewalks, and a general lack of city oversight or accountability.



These tensions are especially felt in New York City, where extreme density means everything happens at a heightened scale: In 2022, cargo bikes made more than 130,000 trips across the city, delivering more than five million packages for carriers including Amazon, DHL, and UPS. There are some 65,000 workers deliver for Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates, and other apps, across the five boroughs.



Now, New York is looking to address those tensions by regulating micromobility companies through a new proposed entity called the Department of Sustainable Delivery, officials announced at the State of the City address on Wednesday. It’s not meant to stop micromobility apps from setting up in New York, but to provide a “front door” for these companies to go through, and a regulatory framework that makes sure they meet certain requirements.



“New Yorkers have been clear: We welcome the future of transit and mobility, but we cannot have mopeds speeding down our sidewalks, delivery apps exploiting workers, or chaos on our streets,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams in a statement to Fast Company. “The Department of Sustainable Delivery will be a first-in-the-nation way to . . . ensure that the next generation of mobility innovation works for our workers, our neighbors, and our city.”



Requirements would center around safety, data sharing, and fees and permits to operate. When it comes to safety, workers are often incentivized to deliver orders as quickly as possible in order to maximize their earnings, which can come at the expense of road safety and traffic rules. That draws the ire of pedestrians, some of whom say they’ve been injured by e-bikes; e-bike riders themselves have been killed or injured on the road.



“They’re coming from such an unequal footing. And so really having the company share in that responsibility—[which] today they’re very separated from—is only achievable through a wholesale regulatory framework that requires that as part of operations in the city,” New York City Deputy Mayor of Operations Meera Joshi tells Fast Company. Instead of incentivizing workers to move as quickly as possible to earn a living, the city is looking to incentivize companies to establish safety rules, ensure good road conduct, and provide better systems for workers, or else face fees or the loss of their operating license.



The first step of the new department will be a task force made up of tech, transportation, labor, and government representatives. There are currently some city regulations around delivery operations, but they’re fragmented; the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, for example, has addressed delivery worker rights (and recently announced a new minimum pay rate for app-based food delivery workers), while the Department of Transportation focuses on commercial delivery, and has taken steps to address delivery cargo bikes. “We don’t have a place where every company that wants to dispatch in volume and move freight [and goods] around in the city on a micro level comes through and has to show that they’re going to meet certain requirements,” Joshi says.



Managers of truck delivery fleets often track their driver’s performance and behavior with tools like GPS; through the new department, micromobility app companies may be required to share their GPS delivery data with the city. That data might reveal more about how long delivery riders are working, or how heavy cargo bikes’ loads are, which could lead to new regulations. Joshi also points to e-bike fires and rising e-bike rider deaths as red flags that signal the need for more oversight and legislation, which could prevent future tragedies.



More information about where and when these deliveries are happening could also help the city adapt its infrastructure to this growing market. “As more and more of the city is feeling the effects of the commercialization of bike lanes, we certainly do have to rethink how wide our bike lanes are, what they are there to accommodate, does there need to be some separation between motorized and nonmotorized [bikes]?” Joshi says. “But these things need to be informed.” The city is already making some such updates. Last summer, it upgraded a stretch of 10th Avenue to include a 10-foot-wide bike lane, to better allow regular cyclists and delivery e-bikes to coexist



Tech advancements often move faster than the government, resulting in a game of legislative catch up for cities. Joshi says New York City is thinking about micromobility in this way because “we’ve seen this movie before,” referring to tech disruption, “and we’d like a different ending.”



While Joshi knows that companies may bristle at the increased oversight, she says being proactive about these issues and taking steps to address them will likely help the firms and their public perception long-term. And not addressing micromobility challenges now could also impede larger climate progress. “If we are not able to show that we have a comprehensive framework, show that we’re able to manage what we have today and prepare for the unknown, we could have people, saying ‘it was better when [delivery] was in trucks,’” Joshi says, “and that would actually be probably the worst thing for the environment.”