New analysis from the Teamsters argues that New York City’s booming last-mile delivery machine has blown past the rules meant to keep streets and workers safe. The report pins much of the blame on Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner subcontracting system and algorithm-driven quotas, saying they fuel constant curbside blockages and relentless driver churn. With a City Council hearing set for this Thursday, labor groups and street-safety advocates are pushing for licensing and hiring rules that would make facility operators directly responsible for what happens at the curb.
The report from Teamsters Local 804 analyzed city parking data tied to 1,553 Amazon-associated license plates and found thousands of safety-related citations between 2021 and 2025, including 2,696 no-standing summonses, 906 bike-lane tickets and 2,183 hydrant violations. In all, the union’s proxy-fleet analysis counted about 15,090 recorded citations for those plates. Using published enforcement-rate studies, the report estimates that the real number of safety violations could be many times higher. The Teamsters link that curbside mess to high turnover among delivery drivers and to quotas set by companies that do not list those drivers as their own employees.
Enforcement Can’t Keep Up
An academic study in Cities found that the NYPD often closed 311 complaints about illegal parking without issuing tickets, with observed enforcement rates dropping as low as 2.87 percent in the sample. That gap has opened up as the delivery tide keeps rising: daily package volume in New York jumped from about 1.8 million before the pandemic to roughly 2.5 million by 2024, according to the NYC Comptroller. Taken together, the research suggests that the sheer number of packages on the street, not just bad actors, is overwhelming the city’s ability to police dangerous stopping and standing.
What the Council Is Considering
Council Member Tiffany Cabán is backing a proposal that would require licensing for certain last-mile facilities and prohibit third-party subcontracting for core warehouse and delivery work, which would effectively force operators to hire drivers directly. The bill, listed as Int. 1396/Int. 0518, has more than 40 co-sponsors and is scheduled for a Thursday hearing in the City Council Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection, according to the New York City Council. Supporters argue a licensing system could lock in training, record-keeping and safety standards that sporadic ticketing will never deliver.
Amazon Pushes Back, Workers Push Forward
In a statement to Streetsblog New York City, Amazon described its Delivery Service Partners as “independent small business owners” and insisted that “safety remains central to everything we do.” The Teamsters’ report runs the numbers on enforcement and concludes that the current system is nowhere close: with about 2,155 Traffic Enforcement Agents each issuing an average of roughly 4,100 citations per year, the union calculates that fully closing the enforcement gap would require hiring around 9,700 additional agents at a cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In the union’s view, that price tag strengthens the case for changing the rules instead of just writing more tickets. Meanwhile, drivers at Amazon facilities in Queens have been organizing around similar complaints, as documented by the Queens Daily Eagle.
What To Watch
Thursday’s committee hearing is the first real test of whether the City Council will crack down on last-mile operators or stick with business as usual. Expect to hear from union organizers, Amazon delivery drivers and staff from city agencies about whether licensing and direct-hire requirements can actually cut down on curbside hazards. The committee agenda and full bill text are posted on the New York City Council.
