Legislation would crack down on subcontracting model that allows corporations like Amazon to evade responsibility for dangerous working conditions and unsafe streets
Bill would establish City oversight of “last mile facilities,” hold big corporations responsible for employing delivery workers and create new safety and worker protection standards
Today, Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani announced his support for the Delivery Protection Act, legislation that would rein in the power of corporate delivery giants like Amazon, hold them accountable for their exploitative business model and make New York City’s streets safer for workers, drivers and pedestrians.
Major corporations like Amazon have built billion-dollar businesses on a subcontracting system designed to shield them from responsibility. Through delivery subcontractors, corporations dictate hiring standards, delivery routes, steep productivity quotas and workplace expectations while denying that the workers making those deliveries are employees. The result is a system that leaves workers vulnerable and corporations free to avoid accountability for reckless conditions on city streets.
Sponsored by New York City Council Member Tiffany L. Cabán, the Delivery Protection Act would create a licensing system for certain last-mile warehouses and distribution facilities while establishing new safety, training and labor standards.
The legislation would also hold the company operating the facility, such as Amazon, responsible for employing the workers performing core services, such as delivery. That would give the City the tools to regulate last-mile operations and ensure major companies like Amazon are responsible for the consequences of the business decisions they make.
“Corporations like Amazon build billion-dollar business models by insulating themselves from accountability through a system of exploitative subcontracting. As last-mile delivery centers have exploded across New York, so too have traffic accidents and worker injuries. The Delivery Protection Act is commonsense regulation that protects delivery workers, safeguards the communities where these facilities operate and ensures that the corporations benefiting from workers’ labor are responsible for the consequences of their business practices,” said Mayor Mamdani. “New Yorkers should not be forced to subsidize corporate profits with less safe streets and more precarious jobs. The people who make these companies run deserve dignity, stability and a safe workplace. It's time to end the subcontracting model that puts profits over people and build an economy that works for working New Yorkers.”
“New York City should be a place where working people, consumers, small businesses and companies that play by the rules know they’ll get a fair shake. Corporations that rely on cheap, exploited labor undercut that promise,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su. “For years, Amazon has relied on a convoluted subcontracting system that denies last-mile drivers the protections other workers get, while maintaining extraordinary control over their schedules, workloads, and uniforms. The Delivery Protection Act would close this loophole, improve safety for drivers and communities and begin to correct the imbalance of power that massive corporations like Amazon have accumulated.”
“An economy that rewards exploitation, shields powerful corporations from responsibility and forces workers to gamble with their lives to earn a paycheck is not worthy of this city. The Delivery Protection Act affirms a simple idea: those who profit from our labor and public spaces must also be responsible for the people and communities that make it possible,” said Samuel A.A. Levine, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). “DCWP will use every ounce of our authority to protect workers and fight for safe streets. Because this city doesn't run because multi-billion-dollar corporations say so. It runs because working people show up every single day."
Last mile facilities are warehouses where packages are sorted and dispatched for final delivery. Since 2017, at least 18 large last-mile facilities have opened across New York City, including 11 since 2020. Although major delivery companies like Amazon do not always employ the drivers working out of these facilities directly, they nonetheless exert significant control over their actions and workplaces. For instance, a recent Bloomberg Businessweek investigation found that Amazon controls “which drivers [delivery subcontractors] can hire, when they work, where they drive, what they say, how they [dress] and much more.”
These facilities have also been linked to worsening traffic safety. A 2025 report from the Office of the Comptroller found that 78% of nearby areas experienced an increase in injury-causing crashes after last-mile facilities opened. In Maspeth, crashes near major FedEx and Amazon warehouses increased by 53% percent and 48% percent, respectively, while a cluster of facilities in East New York also experienced sharp increases in crashes within a half-mile radius.
The Delivery Protection Act would require last-mile facilities to obtain licenses from DCWP and establish minimum safety, training and worker protection standards. The legislation would also ensure companies are accountable for the quotas, schedules and routes that shape working conditions and affect public safety.
Mayor Mamdani’s support for the Delivery Protection Act builds on his administration’s broader effort to challenge concentrated corporate power and deliver a fairer economy for working New Yorkers.
Earlier this year, the Mamdani administration recovered $9 million in unpaid vehicle idling fines from Amazon. Last month, Mayor Mamdani announced the nation’s first municipal “Click-to-Cancel” rule and banned junk fees, making it easier for New Yorkers to understand the true cost of goods and services and cancel unwanted subscriptions. The administration has also taken action against predatory practices in the self-storage industry, cracked down on illegal towing companies and secured $104 million in additional tips for delivery workers through aggressive City enforcement against deceptive tipping practices by Big Tech.
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