Mayor Adams Announces New Rules to Hold Delivery App Companies Accountable

July 28, 2025

Rules Require App Companies to Register with DOT, Assign Delivery Workers
Unique Identification Numbers, Provide Workers with Safety Equipment 

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez today announced new proposed rules to make New York City streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians by holding delivery app companies accountable as part of the agency’s forthcoming Department of Sustainable Delivery. The Adams administration is creating the Department of Sustainable Delivery via rulemaking in the absence of New York City Council legislation addressing these companies’ unsafe delivery practices. These rules will require delivery app companies to register with DOT, assign their delivery workers unique identification numbers and identification cards for enforcement purposes, and provide workers with safety training and equipment.

“Our administration is committed to creating safer, more sustainable streets for everyone from delivery workers to pedestrians to cyclists to drivers,” said Mayor Adams. “These proposed rules are a major step forward in holding delivery app companies accountable and ensuring delivery workers have the equipment, protections, and visibility they need to stay safe. This is a public-safety issue and a quality-of-life issue that affects all of us, and today, we are finally taking the steps to address both.”

“In the absence of legislation to address these public safety concerns, we are stepping up to help safeguard the lives of these delivery workers and everyday New Yorkers endangered by unsafe delivery conditions,” said First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro. “We continue to call upon the City Council to pass comprehensive legislation making the delivery apps directly responsible for unsafe conditions created by their business practices, but we are doing now what we can by rules to make our city safer.” “These tech giants created the wild west of e-bike riding on our streets, pressuring vulnerable, hard-working delivery workers to make fast and unsafe deliveries,” said DOT Commissioner Rodriguez. “It’s time to hold the big delivery apps accountable and protect all New Yorkers — and we’ll be doing so through these new rules and enforcement powers through the new Department of Sustainable Delivery at DOT.”

The proposed rules, to be published in the City Record, implement a framework for accountability on the part of delivery app companies by requiring them to provide safety training and equipment to delivery workers, and assign them unique identification numbers, which would be mandated to be displayed on vests or other reflective garments provided to workers. App companies would also be required to provide information to the city regarding the types of devices their delivery workers use while performing their jobs, enabling DOT to assess the safety of those devices. Delivery app companies that do not comply will face penalties. App companies often require delivery workers to meet aggressive delivery times that are incompatible with following traffic laws. The unique identifiers will allow DOT to track that unsafe behavior back to the delivery apps that are incentivizing it.

Nearly a year ago, the Adams administration sent comprehensive legislation to the City Council to address the pressing safety and worker protection issues arising from the tens of thousands of delivery workers and e-bikes on city streets, but the City Council has yet to act on that proposal. The administration continues to urge passage of comprehensive legislation, which would require licensing of delivery apps, subject them to financial penalties and even license revocation for repeat violations by their drivers, and set uniform rules of operation for licensed companies.

The Adams administration has been advancing measures by rulemaking to combat reckless driving, including rules to prohibit e-bikes and e-scooters from travelling faster than 15 miles-per-hour on city streets, mirroring best regulatory practices of European countries that are at the forefront of sustainable transportation, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as matching the existing speed limit in New York City for stand-up e-scooters to ensure speed limits are applied consistently across e-mobility devices.

DOT has also installed wider bike lanes along its busiest routes, expanded public e-bike charging options for riders, and educated the public and delivery workers about safe and legal e-bike use. This past spring, the city launched an e-bike trade-in program for delivery workers to exchange illegal mopeds and uncertified e-bikes for legal, fire-safe e-bikes and batteries. The city also established “microhubs” to shift deliveries from large, congestion-causing trucks to more sustainable modes, such as cargo e-bikes and smaller electric vehicles.

“This is a welcome first step toward addressing the e-bike chaos, and I thank the Mayor’s Office for acting when the City Council refuses to,” said New York City Councilmember Bob Holden, who urged regulations be adopted in the absence of legislation. “But much more needs to be done — we also need to pass broader legislation to ensure true accountability and take our streets back.”

“E-mobility is now a fact of life in the city, but it has come at a high cost, particularly for vulnerable pedestrians. Tech companies are responsible for a business model that rewards speed which, in turn, raises perilous risk to delivery workers and public safety,” said Rabbi Michael S. Miller, who was the victim of a horrific e-bike crash. “I applaud Mayor Adams for the series of steps he is taking to set standards of accountability and transparency in this industry.”

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