A surging number of wholesale and retail food distributors are crying foul over New York City’s congestion pricing – claiming that the hated tolls could cost each of them tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to bring goods into Manhattan.
After a month of punishing tolls from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, logistics companies have hastily banded together to form the NYC Food Distribution Alliance. The group testified before state lawmakers on Thursday to plead for an exemption for delivery trucks, warning that already stratospheric food prices across the Big Apple could ratchet even higher.
“We might be facing a $300,000 or maybe higher,” Seth Gottlieb, senior vice president of logistics for Baldor Specialty Foods, which services restaurants among others and has some 80 trucks that go through the zone daily.
Depending on the time of year, Baldor will pay anywhere from $500 to $1,000 a day in tolls, Gottlieb said.
LP Brands, a seafood distributor based in Hunts Point, has been shelling out between $500 and $600 a week in tolls for about five trucks, chief executive Ian MacGregor told the Post.
He expects the congestion pricing toll to ding him to the tune of $60,000 a year for his fleet of 17 trucks.
That’s on top of the $100,000 a year the company pays in parking tickets and bridge and tunnel tolls as well as the $50,000 to $100,000 a year it pays in MTA payroll taxes.
“It’s a real slap in the face to be told in addition to these costs you’ll pay another $14 for a little truck to cross the 60th St. threshold each time,” MacGregor said. Meanwhile, regular cars are only required to pay the toll once a day, he griped.
The food distributor group began organizing in December when some 100 businesses including Baldor, FreshDirect, Great Performances catering and the Hunts Point Produce and Meat markets joined forces to oppose the controversial toll.
Their numbers have swelled to more than 200 members as the full impact of the toll has become clearer.
Consumers and businesses pay $9 for cars, $14.40 for small trucks and $21.60 for large trucks during peak hours 5 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekends for traveling below 60th St. There are discounts for delivering between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.
In the early days, some distributors were excited by what appeared to be a reduction in traffic in Midtown.
Drivers for meat wholesaler Nebraskaland of the Bronx were finishing their routes an hour earlier last month and co-owner Daniel Romanoff was thrilled.
“But eventually traffic picked back up,” Romanoff lamented. “We are taking the increased cost on the chin,” he added, noting that the company isn’t raising prices for customers.
The Alliance also argues that the cost is impacting the already slim margins of non-profit Food Bank for NYC, which estimates that it will pay $30,000 a year or the equivalent of 90,000 meals.
January is among the slowest months of the year, so a delayed delivery to a restaurant – which typically wants meat to arrive between 7 a.m and 9 a.m. – isn’t typically a major issue. But come May when the tourist season ramps up, distributors will be forced to bring more trucks into Manhattan.
While President Trump has threatened to squash congestion pricing, it’s not clear whether Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is amenable to an exemption for food services.
“There is no savings for us with congestion pricing,” MacGregor said. “It’s all stick, no carrot.”
