Businesses say customers will feel the effects of NYC congestion pricing as prices of goods increase
MIDTOWN (WABC) -- Drivers aren't the only people feeling the pinch of congestion pricing.
Some businesses say they're being forced to pass the added cost of the toll onto their customers.
It's getting more expensive to do business.
Delivery companies are forced to add a surcharge to the shops they do business with just to help cover the costs that the delivery truck drivers are getting hit with daily because of the congestion toll.
Now businesses are having to make difficult decisions that are leaving some of their customers unhappy.
Montel Romero delivers to small businesses in Midtown but he says goods he normally would have sold, are still on his handtruck.
"This is a return too," Romero said.
According to a store worker, inside International Grocery on 9th Avenue, it's a circle of growing expenses.
"All the deliveries we get they increase the prices so the effected people are going to be the customers because we have to increase our price too and they gotta pay for it," Erasmo Cisaeros said.
Call it the trickle-down effect of the congestion toll.
The NYPD has released images of some people tampering with their license plates, including a delivery truck obstructing the plate altogether to avoid paying the toll.
Police have issued 29 summonses on Tuesday specifically for people covering their plates.
Mayor Adams said on Wednesday, "We have to make sure that no one is circumventing the payment because if they don't pay, it's going to come out of the pockets and may increase the cost of everyday working-class people."
Some working people may already be changing their commuting habits.
Preliminary data from the MTA shows subway ridership was up 12.7 percent Tuesday while bus ridership was up 10 percent.
"Driving into town, it backs up traffic, it hinders essential public services, it slows everybody down and there are costs that the individual can't see and that's the hard part of it," one commuter said.
For Cisaeros, the deal is not so sweet.
"We have a lot of customers who come from out of state, Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and all these people if they don't bring their cars they're not going to come to the store," Cisaeros said.
A private transportation data firm called Inrix shows a mixed bag of results so far regarding how well congestion pricing is working on clearing the roads.
Traffic in the congestion zone was averaging 1 to 3 percent slower yesterday compared to one year ago hovering between 11.3 and 12 mph.
Meanwhile, the southbound FDR was moving at 28.2 mph at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, compared to a very sluggish 18.2 mph a year ago.
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