The American Trucking Associations and Trucking Association of New York are urging Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to permanently end New York City’s congestion pricing plan as a deadline approaches Friday.
The program, which charged drivers to enter a congestion zone in Manhattan, would raise trucking costs and prices for people living, working and visiting New York — while also potentially generating “significant job losses,” the groups wrote in a letter to the nation’s top transportation official.
“We would like to thank you for your efforts to halt this ill-conceived, discriminatory scheme,” ATA President and CEO Chris Spear and TANY President Kendra Hems wrote. “We encourage USDOT to take all necessary steps to ensure that New York’s application of tolls is consistent with the Constitution and federal statutes.”
In an accompanying press release, the associations cited a March 21 deadline for ending the program set by the Trump administration in February.
The U.S. Department of Transportation had already taken a step toward ending the program, rescinding last month the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of the congestion pricing plan.
“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” Duffy said in a Feb. 19 statement. The FHWA will contact the New York State Department of Transportation to “discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations,” the transportation secretary said in a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul the same day.
The program would have required passenger vehicles to pay a $9 daily fee providing them with unlimited passage into the zone, while trucks would be charged up to $21.60 each time they enter the zone.
“Our members report that, as a result, they have increased their rates to offset the additional costs, which are significant and cannot be absorbed by carriers already operating on low margins,” the trucking groups’ letter said.
