New York City Mayor Eric Adams has issued Executive Order (EO) 39, which will address truck and bus safety for the city’s fleet and contracted units. As part of the EO, city contractors will have new safety requirements, including preparing fleet safety plans, increasing driver training, adopting telematics, and adding 360-degree cameras to mitigate the impacts of visual impairments for operators.
Additionally, Mayor Adams also ordered that all new trucks that will be used by city employees must have 360-degree cameras or high-visibility designs.
“Traffic safety is public safety, and our administration is doubling down on our efforts to make streets safe places for pedestrians, cyclists, delivery workers, drivers, and everyone else using our streets,” said Mayor Adams. “The executive order I’m issuing today will help equip the vehicles that ‘Get Stuff Done’ for New Yorkers with the latest technologies and features to be as safe as possible. New Yorkers deserve safe streets, and we’re delivering for them again today.”
In addition to the new camera requirements, the EO also mandates the adoption of telematics that tracks location and speed. This information be reported to city agencies when performing city contract services. The city noted that the city’s fleet is already utilizing telematics to inform safety improvements and contracted school buses are also already using telematics. The EO will extend the requirement to all city contracts.
The city explained that an estimated 5,600 contracted trucks will be impacted by this executive order. The city also operates nearly 7,500 trucks and 10,000 contracted school buses, meaning the EO will result in safety enhancements for over 23,000 trucks and buses traveling throughout New York City daily.
“A key piece of delivering street safety is ensuring the vehicles on our roads are as safe as possible—not only for their operators but also for the pedestrians and cyclists on our streets,” said New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “These measures will bring important safety gains to our streets by requiring city vehicles, and those of the city’s contractors, to be held to high safety standards under Vision Zero.”
