A trial program to get NYC businesses to move truck deliveries to night and early morning hours has had promising results, as the city makes a bigger effort to tackle the issues of freight movement.  Results from the experiment, which took place in 2009 and 2010, were published as part of the city’s 2010 Sustainable Streets Index, an annual scorecard of transportation metrics (TSTC and other advocates won the local law mandating that NYCDOT collect these indicators).

The pilot project involved 25 businesses in Manhattan and eight trucking/delivery companies who volunteered to move deliveries between 10 pm and 8 am. Advantages included:

• Delivery speeds within Manhattan were more than twice as fast than they were between 10 am and 10 pm, and 50% faster than between 8-10 am.
• No parking fines were reported during the pilot, compared to “frequent costs of about $1,000 per month per truck” in typical operation, according to the Index.
• Drivers overwhelmingly supported off-peak deliveries, citing lower traffic and stress.
• Freight carriers said off-peak deliveries allowed them to maintain a smaller fleet because of the more balanced night/day schedule.
• Restaurants said the program improved worker productivity because staff no longer had to wait around for delayed food deliveries.

According to the Index, at least two of the 25 businesses have continued to stick with off-hours delivery since the program ended. If that 8% success rate could be scaled up to all of Manhattan, it’d make quite a dent in congestion. The city is looking to start a new, larger pilot program.

Reducing congestion caused by trucks was identified as a key initiative in the April relaunch of PlaNYC, the city’s environmental sustainability blueprint to reduce carbon emissions and absorb a million new residents by 2030. Other strategies to cut truck traffic and reduce its impacts on neighborhoods include the city’s ongoing studies of the Sheridan Expressway in the Bronx and citywide food distribution patterns; efforts to improve rail capacity to Hunts Point in the Bronx and the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal; and installing paid commercial parking in busy loading zones to increase turnover.