Overview
- A Teamsters-led rally on Thursday, August 13 pressed the City Council to vote after Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly endorsed the Delivery Protection Act.
- The bill would require companies like Amazon to directly employ last-mile drivers, a change that would effectively ban Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner subcontracting model inside the five boroughs.
- Opponents have mounted a well-funded campaign that includes roughly $5 million tied to Amazon and an AKRF study that warns up to about 10,000 jobs could be at risk and that a full relocation scenario could raise annual household delivery costs by about $664.
- Amazon says it partners with more than 40 local delivery firms that employ over 5,000 people in the city and has warned the law could prompt it to move last-mile operations outside New York, but labor advocates say the DSP model causes unsafe conditions, illegal firings, and shields the company from liability.
- The bill still requires a formal Council vote and its real-world effects will depend on final legislative language, Department of Consumer and Worker Protection licensing rules, likely court challenges, and how delivery companies restructure or relocate operations.