NYC’s Delivery Protection Act Needs an Independent Cost Test

Reported fact

An existing proposal under renewed pressure

ALIGN is advertising an October 22 rally at City Hall to press for a vote on the Delivery Protection Act. The proposal is not a newly enacted law: the Council’s record, checked October 21, still lists Int 0518-2026 as laid over in committee after its April 9 hearing. Mayor Mamdani announced support on August 10. The administration says licensing, direct employment, training and safety standards would improve accountability and protect workers and neighborhoods.

Sources: ALIGN via Action Network · New York City Council · NYC Mayor’s Office

Reported fact

The Council has priced administration

The Council Finance Division’s April 6 statement estimates $257,500 in annual personnel and fringe costs for one attorney and two inspectors, offset by $75,000 in annual licensing revenue. That leaves an estimated $182,500 annual net General Fund cost. Its table uses those figures for FY2027 and FY2028, including the full-impact FY2028 column.

The estimate assumes full compliance, no fine revenue and existing DCWP resources for remaining duties. OMB did not supply its own estimate. This is a forecast of municipal administration if the bill becomes law, rather than an appropriation or money already spent.

Sources: New York City Council Finance Division

Reported fact

The household figure is a scenario

A June AKRF assessment prepared for the Five Borough Jobs Campaign models several responses, including hybrid operations. Its $664 per household per year figure assumes full relocation of the affected operations while preserving service, with 100 percent of the incremental delivery-system costs passed through evenly to all NYC households. A hybrid case yields $408.90 per household per year on the same full-pass-through basis.

The New York Delivers coalition says it is powered by the Five Borough Jobs Campaign and lists Amazon, FedEx and the Trucking Association of New York as supporters. These are industry-commissioned scenarios, neither household taxes written into the bill nor observed price increases. Operators face extra costs under those scenarios; how much would actually reach customers is unresolved. The citywide administrative estimate and these per-household scenarios cannot be added together.

Sources: AKRF, prepared for Five Borough Jobs Campaign · New York Delivers coalition

Reported fact

Safety evidence and worker protections

A November 2025 report from the Comptroller’s Office under Brad Lander found more injury-causing crashes near 14 of 18 facilities after they opened. It compares nearby areas before and after opening and does not attribute individual crashes to vehicles linked to the facilities. It does not measure whether the proposed direct-employment rule would prevent crashes.

The bill generally requires covered core workers to be direct employees, with exceptions and transition periods. It also gives affected subcontracted workers rehiring protections. These are proposed requirements, rather than observed job-retention results.

Sources: NYC Comptroller’s Office, Lander administration archive · New York City Council

Analysis

What City Hall should show before a vote

The administrative budget note cannot settle whether rewriting employment arrangements will make deliveries more expensive. A commissioned scenario model cannot settle how companies would actually respond. Neither figure supplies a complete cost-benefit test. The neighborhood safety findings and proposed worker protections deserve scrutiny alongside the costs.

The Council should require an independently reviewed comparison testing the likelihood and assumptions of relocation, hybrid operations and in-city adaptation. It should show private compliance costs, plausible consumer pass-through, worker earnings and retention, enforcement capacity and measurable safety gains. The analysis should distinguish recurring costs from temporary transition costs and compare the employment rule with licensing and safety enforcement alone.

Mamdani’s accountability promise deserves scrutiny at the point of delivery: whether workers gain stable employment, whether contractors lose business, and whether costs reach customers. Benefits should be measured as carefully as burdens. Before the Council votes, supporters should publish the assumptions and a plan to test the results.

Open question

What remains unresolved

These sources do not establish actual household price changes, jobs lost or gained, or the safety improvement this proposal would cause. Their estimates describe possible costs, rather than payments already made.

Sources: New York City Council Finance Division · AKRF, prepared for Five Borough Jobs Campaign · NYC Comptroller’s Office, Lander administration archive