Amazon.com Inc.

04/08/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/08/2026 19:30

Amazon’s testimony on the proposed Delivery Protection Act in New York City

The following is Amazon's submitted testimony regarding the proposed Delivery Protection Act in New York City.
Testimony from Amazon
Introduction No. 0518-2026, Licensing of Last Mile Facilities
New York City Council - Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection
Chair Epstein and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony in opposition to Introduction No. 0518-2026.
Our commitment to providing safe, fast, and affordable delivery to New Yorkers is central to everything we do in this city. If enacted as written, Introduction No. 0518-2026 would directly undermine that commitment by threatening the more than 40 local small businesses we partner with to deliver to Amazon customers and the jobs of the more than 5,000 people they employ. It would also compel us to seriously examine how we could still meet our commitment to New Yorkers-which includes the potential for relocating operations and delivery facilities outside of New York City.

Delivery Service Partners Are New York Success Stories

Introduction No. 0518-2026 would prohibit our agreements with more than 40 local small businesses known as Delivery Service Partners (DSPs), who provide jobs to thousands of New Yorkers from the communities and neighborhoods they serve.
The DSP program offers one of the most accessible paths to business ownership available today. DSPs are small, local business owners who make their own decisions about hiring, fleet management, capacity planning, and route assignments, while leveraging Amazon's logistics expertise to build scalable businesses. In New York, DSPs reflect the city's diversity and entrepreneurial spirit: 25% are owned by Black or Hispanic entrepreneurs, 10% are veteran-owned, and 10% are graduates of our Road to Ownership program-an accelerated pathway that helps high-performing DSP employees become business owners.
Consider DSPs like Jordan Rodriguez who owns One Dream Logistics in the Bronx, Roman Dekhterman who owns Falcons Deliveries on Staten Island, or Juan Martinez who owns COPR Industries in Brooklyn. DSPs in New York City hire locally and have built sustainable businesses rooted in their communities. They also provide competitive pay and benefits - since January 2025, DSP drivers in New York City have earned an average of nearly $24 per hour in wages. All DSPs are required to offer health care coverage to full-time employees and they provide paid time off that exceeds the city's minimum by 20%. Many also offer additional benefits, including retirement accounts, tuition reimbursement, and career development opportunities.
Working for a DSP means being part of a smaller team where drivers have direct communication with ownership and management. DSP owners understand their communities' specific needs and can offer flexible scheduling that accommodates student populations, caregivers, and workers balancing multiple responsibilities. Having more than 40 DSPs operating in NYC means drivers can choose the employer that best matches their priorities-a level of choice and workplace culture that wouldn't exist under the mandated single-employer model created in Introduction No. 0518-2026.

Safety and Innovation Support Fast and Affordable Delivery

Much of the debate concerning Introduction No. 0518-2026 relates to misconceptions around the safety of our operations and how it impacts our partners. The safety of our employees, partners, and the communities we operate in is our top priority.
Since 2019, we've demonstrated consistent and significant safety improvement at our facilities, with our Recordable Incident Rate improving by 43% and our Lost Time Incident Rate improving by 70% across our global operations.
We've also invested more than $2.5 billion to advance safety progress since 2019. This includes millions of dollars in safety technology and training. More than 180,000 drivers have completed in-person training through our Integrated Last Mile Driver Academy using virtual reality driving headsets and slip-trip-fall simulators to master delivery fundamentals and safety protocols, including techniques for navigating icy sidewalks, wet driveways, and snow-covered steps.
DSPs leverage on-road technology to promote safe driving in their delivery vans. DSP delivery vans are equipped with camera-based systems that provide real-time feedback on driving behaviors. When unsafe behaviors are detected, drivers receive alerts during delivery stops, and DSPs are notified so they can provide additional coaching to their drivers. In part because of technology like this and the operational excellence of DSPs, the serious crash rate in New York City improved by 35.7% from 2024 to 2025.
In Manhattan and Brooklyn, DSPs have deployed more than 800 electric cargo bikes that bring packages and groceries to customers, reduce traffic congestion, and produce lower tailpipe emissions. These e-cargo bikes - which cannot travel faster than 12 miles per hour - are particularly well-suited for New York City's dense urban environment, allowing for efficient last-mile delivery while supporting the city's sustainability goals.

Our Delivery Operations in New York City

Amazon supports more than 25,000 full- and part-time employees in New York City - more than 2,000 of whom work at our local delivery facilities that operate in all five boroughs. At these facilities, employees prepare packages for delivery to their friends and neighbors. The facilities also serve as staging areas where DSPs and their teams load delivery vans and electric cargo bikes, start their delivery routes, and maintain their operations.
Introduction No. 0518-2026 also creates significant uncertainty for any company where even the smallest of administrative errors-such as incomplete training documentation and housekeeping citations-could accumulate across facilities and trigger disproportionate consequences, including operations shutdowns.
To maintain our commitment to providing safe, fast, and affordable delivery to New Yorkers, we'd be compelled to seriously examine how we could still meet that commitment -which includes the potential for relocating operations and delivery facilities outside of New York City.

Conclusion

New York City is a great place to live and work. We're proud to be lending our support in many different ways to great organizations across the city. Since 2022, we've donated more than $15 million to food security efforts, surpassed 50 million pounds of food donated to City Harvest, invested in STEM education and library programs across all five boroughs, and committed nearly $5 million through our Career Choice program to help employees earn degrees and certificates. These investments reflect our long-term commitment to New York City.
We're committed to creating good jobs, supporting our thousands of employees and local small business partners in New York City, and providing fast, affordable delivery in a safe working environment. As written, Introduction No. 0518-2026 would directly undermine that commitment, threatening the more than 40 Delivery Service Partners we work with in New York City every day and putting the jobs of their more than 5,000 employees at risk. It would also force us to consider relocating delivery operations outside of the city. We're trying to prevent that by working collaboratively with the City Council, and we've invited every member to visit our delivery stations and meet with these partners and their employees before voting on legislation that could eliminate their businesses and displace thousands of New Yorkers from their jobs.
Thank you for your consideration.

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