A friend and I watched the movie Chef and we wondered what bureaucratic hurdles a real-life food truck operator would have to jump. We discovered that the Boston License Raj requires seven separate permits (flow chart from Harvard Law School experts) and that one must become a customer of at least two government-selected companies (Trimble and Sprint). Los Angeles doesn’t seem to be very different (example; see also this guide). Chicago bans food trucks within 200 feet of any restaurant (Huffington Post). How about in Miami, where the movie food truck gets its start? This site says that 10 separate licenses are required and notes that “Miami entrepreneurs will find no shortage of licenses they must obtain.”
Related:
- America’s License Raj (Economist)
- “The Unequal Effects of Liberalization: Evidence from Dismantling the License Raj in India” (American Economic Review 2008), in which the 10 lb. heads of Harvard, Princeton, etc. found that “industries located in states with pro-employer labor market institutions grew more quickly than those in pro-worker environments” (i.e., employers chose to locate in employer-friendly places)
These city Rajs are Protection Rackets under the guise of Safety and Health.
I had the same thoughts when watching that movie.
After reviewing that flow chart, it is a wonder anyone goes into the food truck business.
The Trimble and Sprint thing is disturbing.
According to the City of Boston website:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/business/foodtruckpermits/gps.asp
“This GPS will allow people to check on the City of Boston’s website to see when and where your truck is open.”
BUT, arstechnica says this:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/dude-wheres-my-truck-mapping-businesses-that-move/
“…. there is somewhat of Big Brother motive to requiring a GPS in each of the city’s vehicles, as the hardware “ensures the vendors are operating in the spots to which they are assigned by the city.” But there is a benefit for customers too, according to the city’s director of food initiatives, Edith Murnane—this data can eventually publish a truck’s location in real time online.”
The Trimble GPS thing is creepy, not to mention a significant cost for a struggling vendor.
According to arstechnica:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/dude-wheres-my-truck-mapping-businesses-that-move/
“there is somewhat of Big Brother motive to requiring a GPS in each of the city’s vehicles, as the hardware “ensures the vendors are operating in the spots to which they are assigned by the city.” But there is a benefit for customers too, according to the city’s director of food initiatives, Edith Murnane—this data can eventually publish a truck’s location in real time online.”
Note the word EVENTUALLY – I found no place where the city actually posts this data currently. They do have a site where they list where the trucks are supposed to be, but this is not based on the live GPS data. Maybe they’ll get around to it in a few years.
Meanwhile, if you visit the city site where vendors are advised of the GPS requirement,
http://www.cityofboston.gov/business/foodtruckpermits/gps.asp
It says,
“This GPS will allow people to check on the City of Boston’s website to see when and where your truck is open.”
without mentioning at all that the main purpose of the mandatory GPS is for the government to check up on you – they make it sound like it’s for your own benefit. In fact, they never mention that purpose at all. It’s one of these government double talk things like “in order to serve you better, we have closed your local post office.”
To me, this sounds like a camel’s nose in the tent kind of thing. Once you accept the idea that the government can require mandatory GPS on food trucks, then why not extend that to all commercial vehicles? We have laws that prohibit commercial vehicles from operating on certain roads, so with the GPS, we can insure that commercial vehicles stay off those roads. And, we also have laws against speeding, going thru red lights, etc. Now we have set up speed cameras, red light cameras, etc. BUT with the simple expedient of requiring a GPS in every vehicle, commercial and private (and remember that driving is a privilege, not a right), we could get rid of all that hardware. As soon as you exceeded the speed limit (the government would generously allow a 5 mph cushion) or passed thru an intersection where the light was red , a ticket would automatically issue. Now, it’s true that this data would also be accessible to law enforcement if a crime was suspected. However, eventually the government is planning to set up a web site so your friends will be able to see how close you are to getting to their house, so it’s really for your own convenience.