The Williamsburg-based grassroots non-profit North Brooklyn Neighbors will host an information session next week on the recently passed NYC law that rewards tipsters for reporting idling trucks and buses.
Under the Citizens Air Complaint Program, the city will pay 25 percent of the fines to tipsters who report commercial trucks and buses for idling for more than one minute in a school zone and more than three minutes on the street.
Idling truck fines start at $350 and go up to $2,000 for multiple offenses. One NYC man earned nearly $5,000 in a year for reporting idling trucks, according to the NY Post.
The North Brooklyn Neighbors’ Idle Ca$h info session is on Tuesday, October 1, at 219 Conselyea St. at 6:30 p.m.; RSVP here.
Part of the guidelines for reporting from the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection:
Trucks that are used or maintained primarily for the transportation of property and buses that have seating capacity of 15 or more passengers in addition to the driver and used for the transportation of persons. However, there are exceptions for when a citizen can file a complaint against a truck and bus.
Trucks that use the motor vehicle engine to run a piece of equipment such as the refrigeration unit on a delivery truck, an ice cream truck’s machines, a truck’s lift gate when being used to load and unload product, etc. are allowed to keep that engine running. When a secondary engine is used to run this type of equipment and the motor vehicle engine is off, the idling provision does not apply. If you submit a complaint regarding a refrigeration truck, you must document that the engine that moves the vehicle was on and was not being used to run the refrigeration unit.