New York's worker-protection chief uses 14,000 Amazon van citations to push for direct hiring

Levine's remedy for a traffic record is an employment law. He said the findings point to a threat that Amazon's delivery model brings to the city's streets ^[13], and he urged the City Council to pass the Delivery Protection Act ^[15]. "The data is clear: an economy that rewards exploitation and shields powerful corporations from responsibility causes real harm to our communities," Levine said in a statement ^[14].

The report's complaint is about where responsibility lands after something goes wrong. "But when workers complain about dangerous conditions, Amazon points them to their DSP," it reads. "And if an Amazon van is responsible for a traffic crash, the victim may sue Amazon for damages, but Amazon could argue that only the DSP is to blame." ^[6] The crash point is written in the conditional, as an argument Amazon could make ^[6].

Blocking emergency vehicles, obstructing fire hydrants and speeding in school zones are all on the citation list, and the violations were spread across all five boroughs ^{[2] [11]}. Divided across the 637 license plates involved ^[11], the total comes to about 22 citations per plate over five years ^[1], or roughly four a year ^[2]. That rate needs a comparison with other commercial fleets on the same streets before it says much about Amazon. A hydrant citation and a school-zone speeding citation are also different kinds of risk, and Business Insider's account of the report does not break the 14,000 down by type ^[1].

Amazon's reply, in its board-deck version, is about driving. A spokesperson said the company works with DSPs "to promote safe delivery practices, from hands-on driver training to in-vehicle safety technology" ^[7], and it has trained roughly 110,000 drivers through its Last Mile Training Academy ^[8]. It is also investing in cargo ebikes and on-foot delivery ^[10]. Those answers cover how the vans are driven. The bill asks a different question: who employs the driver.

The most recent result of New York's crackdown on delivery services under Mayor Zohran Mamdani was a pay case. The city settled with DoorDash for $131.5 million over its pay practices last week ^{[3] [4]}. Business Insider's headline says Amazon vans "may be" the city's latest target ^[17]. I think the move from pay to safety is real in the city's argument. So far it consists of an advocacy group's report, one official's endorsement and a bill still before the council ^{[1] [3] [15]}.