Boston could create permit for food-delivery apps
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Food-delivery apps now need a permit to operate in Boston. Photo: Paul Frangipane/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Mayor Michelle Wu issued an ordinance Monday cracking down on food delivery drivers who skirt the city's traffic laws.
Why it matters: Boston wants to use the new law to keep food delivery platforms accountable for the safety of their delivery drivers as well as pedestrians and fellow motorists.
Driving the news: The new ordinance would require food delivery platforms, including DoorDash and GrubHub, to get a permit from the Boston Transportation Department to do deliveries in the city.
- Applicants must have liability insurance coverage for all of their drivers and will need to share data on these deliveries with the city.
What they're saying: State Rep. Jay Livingstone said he was almost hit by a delivery driver riding a moped Sunday as he walked with his children on the sidewalk on Dartmouth Street.
- "Nobody wants to stop delivery services," Livingstone told reporters. "All we want are common-sense solutions with companies to create a safer situation — not only in our streets but on our sidewalks."
Between the lines: Tensions have risen between deliverers on mopeds and scooters and others who share the roadway.
- Wu says more than 100 311 calls have reported traffic violations involving deliverers in the past year.
The other side: "This ordinance would clearly miss the mark in its efforts to create safer streets, doing little to improve safety for Dashers or the public and creating new costs that would add price hikes for Boston families along the way," DoorDash spokesperson Eli Scheinholtz said in a statement.
- The company says the cost of liability insurance for its deliverers will likely increase costs, which it would then pass on to customers.
Flashback: Police Commissioner Michael Cox and chief of streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge wrote a letter to DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber last year warning them about traffic violations involving their deliverers.
- DoorDash announced a month later it was launching an internal "law enforcement response team" to work with police on inquiries involving drivers and that drivers who break traffic laws would be booted from the app.
Zoom out: New York City's comptroller suggested requiring permits for app companies seeking to offer food deliveries in a report released in October, StreetsBlog reported.
- San Francisco imposed permits for delivery robots in 2017, per TechCrunch.