Council members say Amazon vans are taking over residential curbs. Here's what DOT told them

Queens Council Member Phil Wong is asking the city to crack down on Amazon delivery vans that he says are being parked for hours on residential blocks and used as makeshift distribution hubs. Couriers then finish the deliveries on foot, pulling carts. Wong wrote to DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn on Monday, QNS reported. He said the practice is happening at more than a dozen spots in his district, which covers Maspeth, Middle Village and nearby neighborhoods. He said it ties up parking, slows traffic and blocks hydrants. "Amazon needs to be a good neighbor, and the city needs to enforce its own rules," Wong said.

Amazon told QNS that its on-foot delivery program takes hundreds of vans off city streets each day, and that more than 1,300 workers at its contracted delivery companies use pushcarts. The company said it met with Wong's office and passed the feedback on to those contractors. It is also reviewing delivery locations citywide. A DOT spokesperson told QNS that Amazon has been told it must follow curb rules.

Why it matters to residents: deliveries to homes have grown sharply since the pandemic, and the curb outside your building is where that shows up. It is where trucks park, where packages pile up, and where hydrant and parking rules either get enforced or don't.

What our records add

The same issue came up at a Council hearing the next day. At Tuesday's Transportation Committee hearing, a Queens member said Amazon trucks were taking over parking spaces in her district from morning to evening, including at the intersection in front of her office. She said she sees the same thing in Jackson Heights and Corona. The meeting's transcript identifies her as Council Member Sandra Ung (transcript).

Flynn answered that what she described is "micro distribution": a truck parks in one place and workers finish the route on foot or by cargo bike. He said a freight team in DOT's new curb management division is working on the problem. He mentioned a microhub pilot and shared package lockers as options, and said the goal is fewer trucks circling and "dedicated space for deliveries" (transcript).

Brooklyn has the same complaint. Near the end of the hearing, Council Member Shahana K. Hanif said a delivery operation on Wyckoff Street near her district office had drawn constituent complaints, with a contractor's truck double-parked while workers made deliveries. She asked whether it was part of the city's pilot. Flynn said he did not believe it was. He explained that the pilot gives a company dedicated curb space in exchange for a promise not to double-park or circle the block, and that the city takes the space back if the company breaks that promise (transcript).

The Council's delivery bills are mostly stalled. The biggest one, the Delivery Protection Act (Int. 518), would license large last-mile warehouses and has 34 sponsors. Ung and Hanif are among them; Wong is not. It hasn't moved since an April hearing, as we reported Tuesday. A broader delivery licensing bill, Int. 950, was heard Sept. 30 and laid over. Int. 78, from Gale A. Brewer, on keeping delivery data, has been in the Consumer and Worker Protection Committee since Jan. 29. That committee has 105 pending items, 72 of them for more than 180 days. We found no pending Council bill aimed specifically at curb use by package vans.

What's next

Wong asked DOT to spell out which parking and loading rules apply. He also asked DOT to decide whether these operations need designated loading zones or microhub authorization, and to work with the NYPD on enforcing the three-hour limit on commercial parking, QNS reported. DOT told QNS it is exploring a microhub pilot for smaller vehicles and is open to using LockerNYC, the city's shared package locker system. Nothing on these delivery bills is scheduled for a vote. The next full Council meeting is Nov. 12.