Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 214 posts

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#11

Post by giarc »

kevindong wrote: post #9

> “What percent of your deliveries are truly urgent — 5 percent or 2 percent?” said Mr. Holguín-Veras, the Rensselaer professor. “We as customers are driving the process and to some extent creating these complications.” As a NYC resident, it's not really a matter of urgency. Identical products are generally much cheaper online (and generally with free shipping). And it's much more convenient since the products get sh…

I live in Canada but have family in the US. I was visiting once and was ordering some things on Amazon. Amazon offered me coupons if I delayed shipment of items. I wish Amazon would expand this offering to other countries. I'd be happy to have packages combined into a weekly or biweekly shipment. If I need something right away I could indicate that, but for the most part I don't need things same day.

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#12

Post by endtime »

CydeWeys wrote: post #5

A few thoughts as a bike commuter in Manhattan who sees this first hand every day: The congestion tax can't come soon enough (and it should have no carve-outs, certainly not for people who live here). We need to get rid of lots of free on-street parking in the city and replace it with loading zones so that taxis/Ubers and trucks have free spaces on every block to conduct their business without blocking travel lanes o…

It makes it dangerous for drivers too! Lane changes and merges are generally relatively dangerous, and every double-parked truck (or car) forces a spontaneous and often unexpected lane merge. Sometimes they even force driving on the wrong side of the street!

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#13

Post by frereubu »

kweks wrote: post #4
carrozo wrote: post #2

In Paris, freight trucks enter the city at night and deliver packages to smaller warehouses near homes. In the morning, bikes and electric vans haul them to people’s doorsteps. Some neighborhood convenience stores and flower shops double as pickup spots for packages. European model seems like a good one to copy here.

On paper, it's a perfect system. In reality, failing businesses who want the extra income sign up to be package pickup spots, and then provide deplorable service. Some don't respect the opening hours that were published. Some literally climb over mountains of packages. Some have no organisation. Delivery companies realised that they no longer have to attempt deliveries so automatically dump their packages in the pick…

Anecdatum - a local failing newsagent (UK) is the UPS pickup point and I've not had a single problem with them. In fact I prefer picking up from them because UPS delivery times are verging on fictitious. I think it may keep the newsagent afloat and that's absolutely fine by me if I can pickup my packages from them, because they're not going to exist for much longer just selling the curious mixture of indigestion tablets, cat fancier magazines and third-rate chocolate biscuits that they do currently in their windowless hovel.

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#14

Post by CydeWeys »

endtime wrote: post #12
CydeWeys wrote: post #5

A few thoughts as a bike commuter in Manhattan who sees this first hand every day: The congestion tax can't come soon enough (and it should have no carve-outs, certainly not for people who live here). We need to get rid of lots of free on-street parking in the city and replace it with loading zones so that taxis/Ubers and trucks have free spaces on every block to conduct their business without blocking travel lanes o…

It makes it dangerous for drivers too! Lane changes and merges are generally relatively dangerous, and every double-parked truck (or car) forces a spontaneous and often unexpected lane merge. Sometimes they even force driving on the wrong side of the street!

Yes, it makes it more dangerous for everyone. A big problem is when intersections are daylighted (i.e. there are no parking buffers near the intersection to provide clear sight lines for safe turning), but then people park illegally in the no parking buffers anyway. Now you as a driver or cyclist are much more likely to hit, or be hit by, something unexpected in the intersection, because you can't see it coming nearly fast enough.

As a cyclist, even greens are dangerous enough (from cars running reds or pedestrians jaywalking) that I slow way down when I come up to a green with poor visibility, because it's simply not safe to trust the green.

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#15

Post by kevindong »

giarc wrote: post #11
kevindong wrote: post #9

> “What percent of your deliveries are truly urgent — 5 percent or 2 percent?” said Mr. Holguín-Veras, the Rensselaer professor. “We as customers are driving the process and to some extent creating these complications.” As a NYC resident, it's not really a matter of urgency. Identical products are generally much cheaper online (and generally with free shipping). And it's much more convenient since the products get sh…

I live in Canada but have family in the US. I was visiting once and was ordering some things on Amazon. Amazon offered me coupons if I delayed shipment of items. I wish Amazon would expand this offering to other countries. I'd be happy to have packages combined into a weekly or biweekly shipment. If I need something right away I could indicate that, but for the most part I don't need things same day.

In the US, the incentive (that is offered to me) for delaying an Amazon shipment is a $1 digital credit (details quoted below). I have no use for Amazon's digital credits since I consume all of my media via YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, and the ebooks offered by local public library.

> Choose FREE Amazon Day Delivery on this order and we’ll automatically apply a $1 digital reward (applicable to select eBooks, digital music, videos, and apps) to your account once your order ships. You can use this reward by logging on to Amazon.com, or browsing your smart phone, tablet, e-reader, TV or streaming device. Find an eBook, Prime Video, Digital Music, or app from Amazon Appstore that you want to purchase and we’ll automatically apply the reward at checkout. Offer redemption requires customers to be in the U.S.

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#16

Post by zdragnar »

giarc wrote: post #11
kevindong wrote: post #9

> “What percent of your deliveries are truly urgent — 5 percent or 2 percent?” said Mr. Holguín-Veras, the Rensselaer professor. “We as customers are driving the process and to some extent creating these complications.” As a NYC resident, it's not really a matter of urgency. Identical products are generally much cheaper online (and generally with free shipping). And it's much more convenient since the products get sh…

I live in Canada but have family in the US. I was visiting once and was ordering some things on Amazon. Amazon offered me coupons if I delayed shipment of items. I wish Amazon would expand this offering to other countries. I'd be happy to have packages combined into a weekly or biweekly shipment. If I need something right away I could indicate that, but for the most part I don't need things same day.

It isn't all that great in practice. At first, they were offering a dollar off music purchases (which I wasn't making). Once i moved to an area that no longer had 2 hour delivery (prime now) they started offering coupons for prime now orders... I HAD been using that on occasion, but couldn't any longer.

It's almost like it was a gimmick that they didn't really care about...

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#17

Post by CydeWeys »

giarc wrote: post #11
kevindong wrote: post #9

> “What percent of your deliveries are truly urgent — 5 percent or 2 percent?” said Mr. Holguín-Veras, the Rensselaer professor. “We as customers are driving the process and to some extent creating these complications.” As a NYC resident, it's not really a matter of urgency. Identical products are generally much cheaper online (and generally with free shipping). And it's much more convenient since the products get sh…

I live in Canada but have family in the US. I was visiting once and was ordering some things on Amazon. Amazon offered me coupons if I delayed shipment of items. I wish Amazon would expand this offering to other countries. I'd be happy to have packages combined into a weekly or biweekly shipment. If I need something right away I could indicate that, but for the most part I don't need things same day.

The coupons I've seen are $1 per delayed order, and that money can only be spent on digital goods like e-books. It's not enough of an incentive for me to do it because I don't particularly want to acquire DRM-encumbered digital goods.

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#18

Post by skizm »

> They racked up more than 471,000 parking violations last year...

I knew someone who owned a trucking company. They had a lawyer on retainer and every month or so they would gather all the parking tickets, go to a judge (or city official) and cut a deal to pay a fraction of the actual owed amount for all the tickets. This is because, if they did not comply, each ticket would be fought tooth and nail, and the city would be wrapped in legal red tape forever.

Re: 1.5M Packages a Day Bring Chaos to NYC Streets

#19

Post by booleandilemma »

alexhutcheson wrote: post #6
CydeWeys wrote: post #5

A few thoughts as a bike commuter in Manhattan who sees this first hand every day: The congestion tax can't come soon enough (and it should have no carve-outs, certainly not for people who live here). We need to get rid of lots of free on-street parking in the city and replace it with loading zones so that taxis/Ubers and trucks have free spaces on every block to conduct their business without blocking travel lanes o…

100% agreed. This is a trivially solvable problem, and the only thing standing in the way is the fact that politicians are terrified to upset the small minority of people who currently benefit from free on-street parking. We're currently giving away huge amounts of the most valuable real estate in the country, and we need to reclaim it for publicly beneficial uses including bus lanes, bike lanes, and designated loadi…

I’m all for anything that will get bikers off the sidewalks.
Post reply on HN