A bill set to be introduced to the City Council would ban grocery delivery apps from advertising 15-minute delivery times, citing worker protections and threats to street safety. 

Over the past year, several grocery delivery apps have sprung up around the city, including JOKR, Fridge No More, Getir and Gorillas. The apps operate in various empty warehouses and stores and boast things like “instant delivery” within minutes. 

Councilman Christopher Marte, who represents neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan including the Lower East Side and Chinatown, said the pressure for delivery workers to meet these timeframes puts them in precarious situations. 

“It creates a lot of risk, a lot of pressure and a lot of stress on these workers to do a 15-minute delivery,” Marte said. 

He said the workers, many of whom ride electric bikes or scooters, are pressured to pass red lights or take on other traffic violations to get the groceries delivered on time.

“The reality is that in New York City, going from point A to point B, you cannot even get there in 15 minutes — not even a subway — but they're expecting that [delivery workers] do,” said Hildalyn Colón Hernández, director of policy and strategic partnerships for Los Deliveristas, an advocacy group for delivery workers.

She said that although the distance between a grocery warehouse and a customer’s home may only be a mile or so away in some cases, the 15-minute window does not take into account all the factors involved in making a delivery, including weather conditions and the weight of the grocery load.

“Sometimes workers are expected to carry a huge amount of things on a bike, which are extremely heavy, which actually creates a problem for them to maneuver on the street and how fast they can react to certain circumstances,” Colón Hernández said.

Marte said he plans to introduce the bill in the coming months, but that he and other stakeholders, including Los Deliveristas, the United Bodega Association and the Asian American Federation are “going to do whatever we can to make sure that this passes as quickly as possible.”

“Bodegas owners, small grocers and delivery workers helped keep our city running during a global pandemic,” Jo-Ann Yoo, executive director of the Asian American Federation, said in a statement. “Now, these immigrant-sustained sector of our economy is looking to policymakers for help as they face an increasingly unlevel and unsafe playing field. Workplace protections are needed as unsustainable pressure from corporations with resources are now competing with small businesses.”

Speaker Adrienne Adams, who will play a big role in determining the bill’s fate, declined to comment on the proposed legislation since it had not yet been formally introduced.  

The planned bill proposal comes after reports of an increase in e-bike fatalities over the course of the pandemic, as much of the city came to rely on delivery services. 

It also comes as Grubhub announced Wednesday it will begin offering "ultrafast delivery" in collaboration with Buyk, one of the new grocery delivery services in the city.

"This partnership represents everything we want to avoid when it comes to protecting small businesses and workers," Marte said in response to the Grubhub announcement. "Grubhub buying into this 15-minute model shows a blatant disregard for the safety of their workers, and a callous expansion into business competition with our City’s vast, diverse, and immigrant-run bodega network."

Grubhub representatives would not comment on Marte’s remarks.

Marte said he fears the apps could have the same impact on bodegas that Uber and Lyft have had on the taxi industry, saying these "dark stores" and their promises of fast deliveries could put brick and mortar shops out of business. 

“My dad was a bodega owner so for me this is personal,” he said. “What we have to do, as an elected official, is come in early, make sure that the workers are protected.”

While Marte’s planned bill proposal would bar apps from advertising 15-minute delivery windows, he said it’s just the first step in protecting workers.

He also wants to consider limits on the total amount of weight a single delivery person is expected to carry and bring upstairs to a customer’s front door.

“We just have to make sure that as these new companies come up throughout the city, that we protect the workers,” he said.

Gorillas said in an email that they "put our riders first."

“We are fully focused on their well-being rather than delivery time commitments," Adam Wacenske, U.S. head of operations for the delivery app, said in a statement. "We have never favored fast delivery at their risk, which is why we opted to update our promise to offer delivery in minutes rather than in a specific amount of time, shortly after launch last year.”

JOKR, Getir, and Fridge No More did not respond to requests for comment.