Growing Number Of Online Orders Creating A Congestion Nightmare On NYC Streets
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – There's another side to the delivery dilemma congesting Manhattan streets – small trucking companies delivering some of the millions of packages residents order from the internet.
They block bike lanes, sidewalks, and park illegally CBS2's Marcia Kramer reports.
They pulled their box truck into an illegal parking spot on West 55th Street and began to unload a mound of boxes from Amazon. It's just a small percentage of the estimated 1.5 million internet orders delivered every day to city residents.
The workers for Perez Transportation came with a collection of hand trucks and proceed use the side walk to sort hundreds of packages. Using public space as their private warehouse, neighbors say they've been using this spot for over a year.
CBS2 cameras watched as pedestrians, people with baby strollers, people with dogs, even pizza delivery men had trouble navigating.
"I think it's terrible, absolutely terrible, they need a permit," Jaime Yallof argued.
They don't have a permit; not that the city would give them one because, according to the Department of Sanitation, "under city regulations, sidewalk areas must be kept free from any obstruction that could impede pedestrian traffic."
They're also doing something else that is a new no-no – blocking the bike lane. CBS2 watched as many bikers were forced out of the bike lane and into traffic.
CBS2's Marcia Kramer asked one of the workers if they had a permit.
"Nothing to say, nothing to say," the worker replied.
CBS2 called several city agencies about the growing problem.
The Department of Transportation says it's trying to cope with the problem by adding "no standing anytime" zones and installing "markings to further delineate the no standing anytime zones."
Ironically, the West 55th Street location used by Perez Transportation is in Council Speaker Corey Johnson's district.
"Curbside space is a valuable commodity and our policies need to reflect that, instead of the needlessly chaotic situation we're currently dealing with," a spokesman said.
Johnson, who has a massive street redesign plan on the drawing board, said at a press conference last week that plan would be expanded.
"We're also going to look to do a bill on these deliveries that we're seeing all over the city," Johnson said.
After CBS2 called the NYPD, officers from the Manhattan North Precinct showed up and made the truck move to a legal spot and stash their packages.
They gave them a warning telling them the next time, they would get a ticket.
Last year FedEx, Fresh Direct, Peapod, and UPS alone got over half a million parking violations equaling $27 million in fines.
