Amazon Suing Braintree Over Delivery Truck Regulations: Report

BRAINTREE, MA — After agreeing to terms with the Planning Board last year for a new distribution center, global eCommerce giant Amazon is suing Braintree over regulations the town wants to impose on the company's delivery trucks, the Boston Globe reported. In July 2018, the Planning Board agreed to let Amazon open a distribution center in the industrial park on Campanelli Drive.

Part of the agreement was that any delivery trucks coming or going from the facility be marked with signs identifying them as such. But after one of Amazon's attorneys told town officials this regulation made sense, the company is suing claiming that same regulation is "arbitrary, capricious, and illegal." Amazon's attorneys also argue extra driver safety checks and insurance the town is requiring are also illegal and not required with similar businesses in Braintree.

Braintree's Planning Board told Amazon the signs are important because it ensures the truck drivers, who are contractors rather than Amazon employees, follow the town's traffic management agreed upon by the town and online retailer. These regulations, as well as well as several other conditions, were big parts of why the Planning Board unanimously approved the 200,000-square-foot distribution center last July.

Those conditions include Amazon paying $1.2 million for upgrades to the traffic lights across the Granite Street corridor, which includes the South Shore Plaza and Five Corners, and possibly a new light at the intersection of Granite Street and Campanelli Drive. The upgrade would allow the impacted traffic lights along the road to communicate with each other, according to Melissa Santucci Rozzi, the assistant director of the town's planning and community development office.

Many residents and town officials had objected to Amazon's plan before the Planning Board approved it, especially after Amazon officials said the building would add about 2,800 trips each day to an area already known for heavy traffic.

"Are we just going to add more cars into the problem? We already know it's a traffic hazard. To go from the industrial park to Five Corners is a traffic nightmare," resident Robert Taylor said last year.

Councilor Stephen O'Brien also spoke out against the proposal, citing the low quality of the jobs, the current traffic situation.

"I rise in opposition largely because the voice behind me is speaking in volume. I haven't heard more than one person who is in support of this," he said. "Amazon is a good company, these are not great jobs. This is not the Amazon office facility that everyone wants. These are non-high tech, low paying jobs."

For more on this story, check out the Boston Globe.