Growth of E-Commerce Exacerbated Traffic Crashes, Pollution, and Workplace Injuries: Comptroller Lander Reports

 

In a new report, Fast Shipping. Slow Justice, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found that the City’s lack of regulations on rapidly growing e-commerce and last-mile delivery services led to significant increases in crashes, traffic and workplace injuries, and concentrated air pollution in predominantly in Black and Brown neighborhoods.  

Daily package deliveries in New York City grew from 1.8 million before the pandemic to 2.5 million in 2024, with roughly one-in-three New Yorkers receiving packages daily. Today, Comptroller Lander joined elected officials, workers’ rights advocates, street safety advocates, and environmental justice organizers in calling on City Hall to address the growing problem. 

“We’ve become so accustomed to getting our toilet paper, socks, or butter cookies right away that we’ve stopped thinking about the consequences; but we all pay the price of more traffic crashes, worsening air quality, and worker injuries,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “This report is a wake-up call: adopt reasonable regulations for delivery services or worsen street safety, environmental impacts, and workers’ rights. We cannot allow the benefits of e-commerce to come at the expense of limbs, lungs, and lives.” 

The key findings of Comptroller Lander’s include:  

Traffic Crashes

• Increased traffic crashes: After “last mile” delivery facilities opened, 78% of nearby areas saw more injury-causing crashes, with injuries within a half-mile radius rising by an average of 16%. Truck-related crashes increased by 146%, and truck-injury crashes rose by 137%.  

• Hotspots in Maspeth, Queens: In Maspeth, Queens, crashes near two major FedEx and Amazon warehouses rose by 53% and 48%, respectively. A cluster of four East New York facilities also saw a sharp increase in crashes within a half-mile radius. 

Air Quality & Environmental Justice Impacts

• Environmental justice issues: 68% of last mile warehouses are located in officially designated Environmental Justice (EJ) Areas, including Red Hook, East New York, Maspeth, and Hunts Point. 65.8% of residents in these neighborhoods are Black or Latine, compared to 49.2% citywide, and already face higher levels of air pollution. 

• Warehouse-dense areas experience poorer air quality: Health Department data show that neighborhoods like Newtown Creek, Red Hook, Sunset Park, and Hunts Point have notably higher air pollution levels, likely tied to truck congestion and industrial activity. 

Worker Safety  

• Worker safety woes: Between 2022 and 2024, 38 of 50 facilities (76%) identified by the New York City Department of City Planning reported injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), totaling over 2,000 injuries, or an average of 678 per year. Injury rates per 100 employees at last mile facilities are more than triple the national average for all private employers (8.3 vs. 2.4). 

• Amazon’s subcontractor model: Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program in 2023 and 2024 had an injury rate per 100 employees of 9.2 and a Days Away or Restricted, or Transferred (DART) rate of 8.1, exceeding those of the greater last mile and courier industries. 

The report attributes these problems to a fragmented regulatory landscape, where warehouses can open “as-of-right” without public review, and major corporations use subcontracting models like Amazon’s DSP to evade liability for labor and safety standards. 

To address the crisis, Comptroller Lander’s report urges the City to take immediate action, including: 

• Pass the Delivery Protection Act (Intro 1396) to establish a licensing program to establish essential labor standards, bring liability to facility operators via requiring direct employment, and to curb worker injuries and vehicle crashes. 

• Enact an Indirect Source Rule (Intro 1130) to require warehouse operators to reduce harmful truck emissions. 

• Scale up the City’s freight management and Clean Trucks programs in dialogue with workers, including commercial cargo bikes, Neighborhood Loading Zones, and Smart Curbs.  

• Finalize the Last Mile Facility Text Amendment to end as-of-right development of last mile facilities and prevent further concentration of facilities in overburdened neighborhoods. 

• Establish a new coordinating entity to oversee the entire delivery industry and integrate zoning, labor, and environmental enforcement. 

Read the report here.