NYC businesses forcing buyers to pay for congestion toll — even if they live outside ‘relief’ zone

Congestion-flation is hitting the Big Apple.

The MTA’s controversial congestion pricing program has businesses passing on their toll costs to customers — even outside of the so-called “relief zone” in downtown Manhattan, industry leaders said Wednesday.

And how much tolls have increased prices in the city can be tough to pin down, experts said, because the added burden of congestion tolls don’t always appear as a surcharge on a bill.

Delivery trucks face tolls as high as $21.60 for each trip into the congestion zone below 60th Street — but small businesses like Lightning Express say all of their clients are paying the extra costs.

“It’s just easier to say you know what, if it’s in Manhattan, you get charged with congestion pricing,” said owner Joe Fitzpatrick.

“To say that congestion pricing is working,” he added. “I think that’s a joke.”

Zach Miller, vice president of government affairs for the Trucking Association of New York, told The Post said he’s heard similar issues of service providers applying that congestion fee to every invoice — not just in the busy section of the borough. 

“The administrative burden is really the silent killer,” Miller said.

Other companies are simply absorbing the extra fee and administrative cost even as the extra baggage is “absolutely cutting into the bottom line,” he said.

Some larger freight truck drivers might be hit with numerous tolls in the span of minutes if they are near the congestion zone border and are looking for a spot to offload their goods, according to Miller.

“We have heard that essentially the service providers just add in the congestion charge to every service fee they charge,” he added.

“These are not our members but from the best I can tell is they are doing it for the administrative burden we are now put under. So rather than pay a staff member to spend hours going through the toll charges, the cleanest way for them to monitor this is to add it to every service charge.”

Fitzpatrick, of Lightning Express, said one of his eight trucks could be in and out of the zone four times in just a couple of hours.

An MTA spokesperson dismissed the concerns and claimed business leaders back congestion pricing.

“Trucks are spending less time in traffic and that means savings on fuel and labor costs that can be passed on to customers – no wonder business leaders support congestion pricing,” the spokesperson said.

But shops inside the zone say the congestion toll has been hurting their bottom lines over the past year – and one noted he’s even been forced to hike prices.

“We’ve had to raise our prices, and the customers don’t like it. They argue with us – why are these cookies, which used to be $2.50, now $3.00?” said bodega worker Suhel Ahmed, of 705 Quick Stop.

“But we have to raise the prices to cover the delivery fees from the congestion pricing. The customers don’t like it but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Townhouse Diner owner Stavros Dakis said he’s ready “to get the hell out of here” even as he’s been in business for 55 years.

“I’m paying about $100 a day in fees for deliveries because of congestion pricing,” he said.

“We’re losing business as it is, especially on Mondays and Fridays when a lot of people don’t come to the office to work. We have to raise the prices, and suddenly people stop buying two coffees every day.”

Hardware store owner Steve Ross said he’s paying about $1,000 each month to the deliveries he’s handling – and as a result is slapping an extra $15 fee “for deliveries, whether inside or outside the zone.”

“But I never used to charge. That was a big advantage for me, not to charge for deliveries, because a lot of other guys always charged,” said the owner of The Lumber Boys near Herald Square.

“Now I can’t do that anymore. I’m covering my costs but it’s not a good optic, it’s really not.” 

Jeffrey Bank, of Alicart Restaurant Group, which runs several restaurants, said not everything can be passed onto the consumer though.

“You know, people shop and buy things a certain way … And it’s not that everything’s just a pass-through. It doesn’t work that way in the small business world,” he said.