New York City hit UPS with $23M in parking fines in 2019

In other words, it’s likely that UPS’s and FedEx’s fines are actually a smaller proportion of all commercial parking fines in the city than their numbers would indicate.

As eye popping as the UPS and FedEx fine amounts may be, they actually represent declines from 2018, when FedEx paid $14.9 million in parking fines and UPS handed over $33.8 million.

Asked why the fees might have declined, a UPS spokesperson cited the company’s “more than 30 sustainable urban delivery pilot projects around the world, including innovative uses of pedal-assist bikes, including in New York City, and working together with micro-depot solutions in crowded inner-cities.”

Free services like UPS My Choice and the UPS Access Point network that enable consumers to receive deliveries where and when they want also help reduce redelivery attempts.

A FedEx spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the stipulated parking fine program “plays an important role in our ability to serve our customers in New York City, allowing us to better manage the ticketing process while meeting our customers’ pickup and delivery requirements.”

In the statement, the UPS spokesperson also called  out “the scarcity” of commercial vehicle parking, “which often forces deliveries to be made in a way that seemingly conflicts with other road uses, like biking.”

The underlying issue, the statement said, is how cities manage and allocate curb space.

“Simply put, the curb today in most American cities is overwhelmingly devoted to single occupancy personal vehicle parking, which is simply unsustainable and not aligned with most cities’ stated transportation priorities, like shared mobility, active transportation, safety, equity and commercial goods movement,” the UPS spokesperson said.