Pittsburgh extends 'smart loading zone' program for delivery drivers for 3 years

Pittsburgh City Council is extending a pilot program designed to make it easier for delivery drivers to find parking spots for brief periods of time.

The pilot, launched in the spring, was scheduled to last one year. Council voted Monday to extend it for another three years.

The smart loading zone program aims to allow delivery drivers working for companies such as Door Dash, Uber Eats and Amazon to use designated parking spots for short-term parking while they pick up or drop off food orders and packages.

The smart loading zones use a graduated payment system to encourage people not to linger in the spots for long. It costs 7 cents a minute to park in the loading zones for the first five minutes, but the cost jumps to 27 cents a minute if cars stay for 30 to 60 minutes.

Participating delivery drivers don’t have to make payments at a parking meter. Cameras at the loading zones scan license plates to automatically charge the registered vehicles for the time they are parked in the zones.

When the program launched, officials said the license plate scanners could also be used to ticket people who park in the zones without registering for the program. Officials last week said that ticket-by-mail system for unregistered vehicles hasn’t launched yet.

Officials said they are interested in launching that ticket-by-mail system during the extended pilot.

The extension also could allow the city to create new smart loading zones. They are now located primarily in the city’s Downtown and Oakland areas.

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