The City Council passed a suite of bills aimed at making e-bikes safer, including one banning the sale of reconstituted batteries.
File Photo by Dean Moses
Delivery app companies such as Grubhub and Uber Eats will have to register with the city and assign ID numbers to deliveristas as part of the mayor’s plan to tackle reckless moped and e-bike riders in NYC.
The rules would be part of Mayor Eric Adams’ “forthcoming” Department of Sustainable Delivery (DSD). The set of rules requires the app companies to register with the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) and assign their delivery workers unique ID numbers to wear on their vests, similar to a sports jersey.
Adams said he is proposing the rules because the NYC Council has not passed legislation that would hold reckless micromobility drivers accountable when hit-and-run collisions occur.
“Our administration is committed to creating safer, more sustainable streets for everyone from delivery workers to pedestrians to cyclists to drivers,” the mayor said. “These proposed rules are a major step forward in holding delivery app companies accountable and ensuring delivery workers have the equipment, protections, and visibility they need to stay safe. This is a public-safety issue and a quality-of-life issue that affects all of us, and today, we are finally taking the steps to address both.”
Delivery drivers, who are often forced to meet aggressive delivery times, would be mandated to display their ID numbers on their vests or other reflective garments as they work. App companies would also have to provide safety training to their employees.
The mayor said the rules will be published in the City Record, but the timeframe for that is unclear right now.
Queens City Council Member Robert Holden has called for similar rules by sponsoring “Priscilla’s Law,” which his colleagues in the council have yet to pass.
“This is a welcome first step toward addressing the e-bike chaos, and I thank the Mayor’s Office for acting when the City Council refuses to,” Holden said. “But much more needs to be done. We also need to pass broader legislation to ensure true accountability and take our streets back.”
Rabbi Michael Miller, who required surgery for his leg after being struck by a speeding e-bike driver on the Upper East Side last year, said he supports the proposed rules.
“E-mobility is now a fact of life in the city, but it has come at a high cost, particularly for vulnerable pedestrians,” he said. “Tech companies are responsible for a business model that rewards speed which, in turn, raises perilous risk to delivery workers and public safety.”
The mayor is “bypassing public input:” NYC Council rep
Meanwhile, a NYC Council spokesperson told amNewYork that members have been passing laws this year aimed at ensuring the city has a “sustainable delivery sector.” In fact, the spokesperson explained, similar legislation has been in the process of being finalized recently to “empower” the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection while protecting against the mass deportation of deliveristas—many of whom are immigrants.
“We are reviewing these proposed rules and their legality, but the democratic process required for legislation allows greater public input, which is critical when this proposed collection of workers’ data creates vulnerabilities for misuse by an abusive Trump administration,” the spokesperson said, alluding to President Donald Trump’s mission to hand off IRS records to homeland security. “The mayor is increasingly pursuing ways to bypass public input that can improve our city’s policies, which contradicts his first sham Charter Revision Commission and its ballot proposals.”
Josh Gold, a spokesperson for Uber, said the mayor’s proposal singles out the tens of thousands of immigrant workers in the food delivery business at a time of “heightened surveillance” by border patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“It would require these workers to display visible ID numbers at all times, mandate rosters containing their personal information be made available to the NYPD, and expose them to police scrutiny—even in the absence of any violation,” he said.
“Everything we do is already tracked:” Antonio, a delivery worker
Antonio Solis, a delivery worker and organizing leader with the advocacy group Los Deliveristas Unidos, said he is happy to see proposals that would hold app companies accountable for the safety of their delivery workers. But he also has concerns about how the mayor’s ID system would be used…and whether it would lead to surveillance and punishment of those workers.
“Everything we do is already tracked and monitored by the app companies. And the current administration has so far proven that it is more focused on punishing delivery workers than it is on creating the systemic changes we need,” he said.
Solis added that “real systemic change” is needed.
“That requires regulating the app companies that are responsible for creating unsafe working conditions, holding them accountable for aligning the industry and their business model with our city’s collective street safety goals, and empowering workers to prioritize their rights to safety without fear of retaliation,” he said.