9.1. SR 11-20-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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8 Food trucks’ customers—just like the customers of fast-food restaurants and people who eat their packed lunch outdoors—have the potential to generate litter after consuming their food, but there is no evidence that food-truck customers are more likely to litter.55 Food trucks are generally required by municipal laws to carry a trash receptacle for their customers’ use or to pick up any litter near the truck.56 Moreover, food-truck operators often go beyond the requirements of the law to ensure that they leave the areas in which they operate cleaner then how they found them.57 Conclusion Food trucks do not have an “unfair” advantage over restaurants. The restaurant business model is more favorable than the food-truck business model in several ways, and food trucks actually help the local restaurant industry. There is no basis for the argument that restaurants need government intervention to “protect” them from food trucks. (And, as several federal courts have recognized, regulation for the sake of mere economic protectionism is constitutionally impermissible.58) Nor is there any basis for the notions that food trucks pose some special threat to public health and safety. Instead of creating public policy based on these myths, elected officials should allow food trucks to operate freely within their cities, subject only to reasonable health and safety regulations. Doing so is good for the local entrepreneurs, the local economy and the local community. For guidance in creating a good legal framework for food trucks, see the Institute for Justice’s most recent legislative report, Food Truck Freedom: How to Build Better Food Truck Laws in Your City. For more on the benefits provided by food trucks and other street vendors, check out the Institute’s 2011 report, Streets of Dreams: How Cities Can Create Economic Opportunity by Knocking Down Protectionist Barriers to Street Vending. Both of these reports are available at www.ij.org/vending.