Gov. Kathy Hochul has swell advice for businesses getting slammed by congestion pricing: Just get your deliveries in the dead of night!
Answering complaints about price hikes to make up for the cost of her much-hated toll, the gov haughtily advised businesses, “They should be definitely looking at the lower cost points for deliveries” during off-peak hours — meaning, between 9pm and 5am.
Gee, thanks, Kat.
Why haven’t owners already thought of such a bang-up idea themselves?
Oh, maybe because that’s when nearly all regularly operating businesses are closed.
The cost of driving below 60th Street is indeed lower overnight; just $3.60 to $5.40 per delivery truck, versus $14.40 to $21.60 during the busiest stretch.
But peak hours are peak hours because that’s when most people need to be in the city because that’s when most stores, offices and restaurants are open.
Hochul may have assistants running all of her errands for her, but most New Yorkers are aware of this fact.
To “save money” by getting deliveries overnight, most operations would have to hire workers specifically to sit around and wait to accept them, which would quickly surpass the cost of her congestion tolls.
Even open-late restaurants need supplies long before, not during, dinner rush.
Hochul might as well channel Marie Antoinette: Answer toll complaints with a simple “Let them eat cake!”
Then again, she may want to recall Queen Marie’s fate and ditch the tolls before her victims get to vote next year.
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