Keeping our city on the move

We are a coalition of delivery and logistics companies standing up for Chicago’s working families, small businesses, and the jobs that keep our city moving. We are working to keep delivery affordable for every household, protect the good-paying jobs that support local neighborhoods, and invest in a modern delivery system that works for everyone.

We Deliver

Every day, our members deliver groceries, medicine, and other essentials in every Chicago neighborhood. Behind each delivery is a network of local small business owners – drivers, warehouse workers, and retailers – working together so every package arrives on time and at a fair price.

The Chicago City Council is considering new rules that could have a devastating impact on this network we’ve all come to reply upon. The Last-Mile Warehouse and E-Commerce Fulfillment Centers proposal (Substitute Ordinance SO2025-0018778) would create a costly, unclear, arbitrary and difficult-to-implement regulatory system that would threaten locally owned businesses and the jobs they support. Here’s what it would do:

Raise costs

Every new regulation, license requirement, and compliance mandate carries a cost, and those costs would be borne by these businesses at a time when they are already facing an affordability crisis. Those costs are particularly difficult for smaller businesses to absorb.

Eliminate jobs

Last-mile delivery in Chicago is powered by independent, locally owned businesses that hire from the neighborhoods they serve. Over 36,000 Chicago-area residents work in this sector, with median pay around $40,000 a year. The needlessly arbitrary and burdensome requirements of this ordinance could force small-community-based delivery companies out of business. Chicago should be supporting locally owned businesses and the jobs they create, not creating new barriers that could make it more difficult for them to compete.

Worsen traffic and congestion

If warehouses are forced out of Chicago, delivery routes get longer and require more vehicles on the road. Transportation researchers have documented this warehouse sprawl in Chicago and cities worldwide. The result is clear: more gridlock on our local roads and highways.

Disrupt essential services

Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults order food or groceries online. Medicare patients managing chronic conditions who get their medicine delivered are 59 percent more likely to take it as prescribed. This proposal means Chicago families will pay more for groceries, medicine, and essentials — and risk slower, less reliable service.

Make our streets less safe.

The ordinance is being justified around concerns about worker and street safety, but many of its requirements would actually make Chicago’s streets less safe. This legislation would prohibit the use of technology that tracks vehicle speeds and erratic driving. It would also make it harder for these companies to take dangerous drivers off the street.