Motorists now have to pay to enter the area south of 60th Street in New York City, and trucking stakeholders are warning that all New Yorkers will be paying for congestion pricing if changes are not made.
On Tuesday, Jan. 7, the Trucking Association of New York expressed several concerns with New York’s freshly launched congestion pricing program. Many of the issues addressed echo the association’s claims in a federal lawsuit challenging the tolling scheme.
Congestion pricing officially began on Sunday, Jan. 5. Truckers driving a multi-unit truck with an E-ZPass are charged $21.60 during the peak period, which is from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. For more details on the pricing structure, click here.
Despite accounting for only 4% of traffic in the congestion pricing zone, trucks are being charged more than twice as much as passenger vehicles, which make up 35% of traffic but pay only $9. Taxis and ride-sharing vehicles like Uber account for more than half of traffic and pay no congestion fee. Rather, taxis tack on 75 cents to each ride, while ride-sharing vehicles add $1.50 per ride.
In addition to a much higher toll fee, truckers are also charged each time they enter the congestion pricing zone. Passenger vehicles are capped at one toll per day, regardless of how many times they reenter the area.
A trucker making three deliveries south of 60th Street will pay nearly $65. Meanwhile, a passenger vehicle can leave and reenter the area a dozen times and pay only $9.
“This fact alone will have devastating downstream impacts across the city due to the essential role that the trucking industry plays in our economy; consider that nearly 90% of goods in the five boroughs are delivered by trucks,” Trucking Association of New York President Kendra Hems pointed out in a statement.
Congestion pricing is meant to encourage motorists to use other modes of transportation when going south of 60th Street in Manhattan. Commuters have several public transportation options, but truck drivers have no alternative available to them. Although a 75% discount is applied to overnight deliveries, truckers are at the mercy of the customer.
“Grocery stores, after all, can’t be stocked with shipments that travel on the subway,” Hems stated. “Additionally, while we fully support overnight deliveries, our drivers do not determine when and where deliveries occur – their customers do. In other words, drivers do not have the luxury of being able to drive during off-peak hours.”
Last June, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul paused the implementation of congestion pricing. During her announcement, Hochul cited the increasingly high prices of groceries, housing, childcare and other costs of living as reasons behind her decision to delay congestion pricing. Seven months later, the Trucking Association of New York claimed the situation is not much better, and congestion pricing will only make it worse.
“We are already in the midst of an affordability and quality-of-life crisis,” Hems said. “Congestion pricing will only exacerbate these circumstances as the industry will be forced to pass along increased costs to customers. Ultimately, New Yorkers will be picking up the tab.”
Legal challenge
There are at least nine federal lawsuits challenging New York’s congestion pricing, but the Trucking Association of New York’s lawsuit is specific to truck drivers.
In May 2024, the Trucking Association of New York filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the state attorney general, claiming congestion pricing fees against truck drivers are unconstitutionally excessive. Unlike the other lawsuits, the association is not necessarily seeking a complete dismantling of the program.
“To be clear, we are not inherently opposed to congestion pricing,” Hems said in the Tuesday, Jan. 7 statement. “As we’ve said all along, as well as in our ongoing litigation against the MTA, our concern is that the current plan disproportionately targets trucking operators by charging them on a per-trip basis, unlike passenger vehicles, which are charged once per day.”
Pointing to the higher fees with no daily caps despite trucks’ low contribution to overall traffic, the lawsuit claims congestion pricing violates the Commerce Clause, as “it imposes a financial burden on TANY trucks (that) is not a fair approximation of their use of the (congestion pricing zone).”
The lawsuit also claims that because truckers do not receive the benefits of public transportation funding, the toll fee is “excessive in relation to the benefit conferred.”
All other federal lawsuits attempt to get rid of congestion pricing altogether by claiming violations of the National Environmental Policy Act. Judges in those cases have dismissed nearly all of those claims, severely gutting the lawsuits. Motions for preliminary injunction have been denied in all cases.
However, the trucking association’s lawsuit deviates from the other eight in its claims. The association’s arguments deal specifically with the pricing structure for truck drivers, not the constitutionality of the entire congestion pricing program. Whereas decisions in the other lawsuits have a domino effect on one another, the Trucking Association of New York’s challenge is a standalone domino.
“This lawsuit was a step we took only out of necessity after the MTA repeatedly refused to make any concessions to our industry and ultimately used our essential, hard-working members as a tool to meet their arbitrary funding requirements,” Hems said in a statement. “We hope that we can, through this litigation process, create a more equitable and fair policy that works for New York City.” LL
Credit: Source link
