March 2, 2012:
In West Palm Beach, the city commission is looking for restricting food trucks by limiting their operations in the city. The possible reasons cited for planning to restrict the food trucks are – the food trucks are competition to the restaurants, their presence hurts traffic into non-food businesses and the fear of food trucks not being inspected properly.
It is for sure that most of the trucks’ critics are those who have never seen any truck or never eaten their food alone. On the other side, the truck owners are always happy to serve you touring on their establishment-on-wheels at every nook and corner. And these food trucks are not like restaurants. So, you get what you pay for at both the food centres, be it restaurant or the food truck.
Both, the restaurant and the food trucks, are different and are for useful different purposes or situations. For instance, if you are planning for a candle light dinner with your girlfriend or boyfriend, then you’ll prefer restaurant. And if you are going empty stomach to the office, then you’ll lookout for a food truck on your way for quick meal.
These food trucks possess permits, licences and inspections. They pay for all these along with the cost of gas which keeps on rising. They keep on moving from one point to another and require doing cooking, serving and cleaning, driving and help for other related stuff. So, they require a helper as the owner or a single person can’t do all the work alone. This leads to job creation at small scale.
The city commission is planning to set-up truck zones and increase regulations as well as restrictions. However, setting up truck zone would not serve the need of the eaters who want the vendors and they will have to go all the way to the truck zone. In addition to this, the imposition of more regulations and restriction would increase the costs for the vendors.
Moreover, the food truck vendors could collectively decide to boycott the city altogether and take away their business to some other location where it is required. So, if the city commission is not allowing the food trucks in the West Palm Beach, the food trucks can go to another location. However, a compromise can result in co-existence of food trucks and other food businesses too. So, the city commission must also think on these lines.
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