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

New York, NY — 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. 

“Comptroller Lander’s report makes it clearer than ever that last-mile delivery services are undermining New Yorkers’ access to clean air, safe streets, and protected workplaces,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. “From heavier traffic to increased pollution, families in neighborhoods like Red Hook, East New York, and Sunset Park are especially feeling the disruptive impacts of the growing e-commerce industry. It’s time for the City Council to pass the Delivery Protection Act and Indirect Source Rule to rein in this largely unregulated industry once and for all.” 

“Today, the Comptroller’s Office delivered us deeply unsettling information about the risks that last mile operations pose to our city. In response, we must pass the Delivery Protection Act,” said Council Member Tiffany Cabán. “We must deliver dignity to every worker who gets our packages from the warehouse to our doors. We must deliver safety to every person who sets foot on the streets of New York. And we must deliver on the promise of New York as a city for all of us, a city where power lies with the people and the workers, where the safety of our streets and the cleanliness of our air is valued over the profits of billionaires and their big corporations.” 

“Amazon doesn’t care about the well-being of New Yorkers,” said Tom Gesualdi, President of Teamsters Joint Council 16. “This company hides behind its DSP subcontracting model to dodge responsibility for worker safety. But they can’t hide anymore. The Delivery Protection Act will give our city the power to hold this corporate giant accountable.” 

“Amazon’s dangerous business model puts workers in harm’s way to maximize profits,” said Brenan Radtke, an Amazon driver from the DBK4 facility in Maspeth, Queens. “Our communities are suffering because of the greed of this $2 trillion company. It’s time to end Amazon’s stranglehold on New York City by passing the Delivery Protection Act.” 

“We thank Comptroller Lander and his staff for documenting the impact of an industry that has expanded without real oversight. The findings echo what workers and the Labor Movement have raised for years,” said New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Janella T. Hinds. “The subcontracting structure in last-mile delivery drives unsafe conditions and weakens accountability. Intro 1396 meets that problem head on by setting clear standards for operators and making them responsible for the jobs and the delivery practices they oversee. We urge the City Council to pass this legislation and give workers and communities the protections they deserve.” 

“For too long, Amazon has been allowed to poison our city for profit, leaving behind dangerous streets, polluted neighborhoods, and injured workers. With this report, the Comptroller’s office exposes the e-commerce industry’s reckless harms and solidifies our need for labor and climate regulations that make NYC work for us, not Amazon,” said Theodore A. Moore, ALIGN Executive Director.

“This report confirms, yet again, what Amazon workers and their neighbors have been saying for years — the company’s business model is built on exploitation. Amazon has flooded our city with unsafe jobs, endless delivery trucks, and rising injuries, all to deliver packages faster and cheaper at everyone’s expense. Workers are getting hurt, communities of color are breathing in more pollution, and neighborhoods are paying the price for corporate greed. It’s long past time for New York City to hold Amazon accountable and put strong protections in place for workers and the communities where they live,” said Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).

“This report highlights that the clustering of these facilities is leading to increased air pollution, truck traffic, and crashes in environmental justice communities across the five boroughs. These warehouse operators operate without any oversight and need to be regulated,” said Kevin Garcia, Senior Transportation Planner with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. “An indirect source rule to address the emissions from last-mile warehouses, the Delivery Protection Act, and a special permit for all new facilities will protect our communities and workers. The unregulated growth of last-mile warehouses should not come at the expense of our communities, and we need regulations to protect our communities, improve labor standards, and create healthy neighborhoods.”

Read the report here. 

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