Coming soon: Fewer trucks blocking traffic?

Welcome to Crain's New York Top Stories. This week, reporter Caroline Spivack looks at what the city is doing to ease the headaches caused by delivery trucks.

The city is offering cash incentives for trucking companies and small businesses to reduce daytime deliveries that clog city streets with more overnight routes in anticipation of congestion pricing.

Added costs and logistical hurdles often prevent small operations from embracing deliveries between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. But with just weeks ahead of the June 30 launch of congestion pricing, and the up to $36 daytime charge it will bring for trucks entering Manhattan below 60th Street, the Department of Transportation says it will dole out $6 million in incentive payments for businesses to switch to overnight deliveries. That sweetens the pot since the companies will also save on congestion pricing fees, which during overnight hours drop to $8 or less for trucks.

The imminent congestion pricing tolls may heat up the historically lukewarm reception of mom-and-pop shops to move to overnight deliveries, business advocates say.

Read the rest of the story here and see what improvements the city has planned for pedestrians, bicyclists and bus riders ahead of congestion pricing's arrival.

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