Portland Ranked #1 in Food Truck Business Environment

Thursday, March 29, 2018
GoLocalPDX Lifestyle Team

The City of Portland is ranked as the best city in the country for food trucks, according to a recent study by Food Truck Nation.

Read the Full Study Here

About Portland, the study says “Not only is it relatively easy to obtain permits and licenses, but doing business in Portland is a clear and straightforward process. There are no proximity restrictions or sales taxes.

Numerous parking lots are set aside across downtown Portland for the exclusive use of food trucks. And the local government goes out of its way to offer an easily navigable experience for staying in business.

Unsurprisingly, local food truck operators give Portland high marks across the board. The city scores particularly well on operational restrictions (4.8, out of 5.0) and governmental support (0.86, out of 1.00). In fact, the city’s Economic Development Plan, adopted in 2009, specifically incorporated mobile food vendors as a key tool for promoting growth and deterring blight downtown.”

The study also gives advice on how Portland could become a better city for food trucks.

“Survey respondents noted a few areas for improving Portland’s regulatory environment. “The permit is so expensive,” cited one owner; “lower the fee,” echoed another. Three more operators pointed to the city’s water tank requirement as being unnecessary. Trucks are required to have a 50-gallon water tank, “even though they are not used” or function only for handwashing. In addition, without a special permit, trucks can only cater an event from a separate commissary kitchen, they can’t cook food on board like they do for their everyday business.”

The Top 5 Cities Are:

1. Portland

2. Denver

3. Orlando

4. Philadelphia

5. Indianapolis

The worst city for food trucks is Boston, who ranks 20th.

The Method

The Food Truck Nation index measures the regulatory costs of doing business imposed on food trucks in 20 cities across the U.S. These 20 cities were selected to be geographically diverse and represent a wide range of economic and demographic factors. The overall index ranking is based on three components of regulation for food trucks across 20 U.S. cities:

(1) obtaining permits and licenses

(2) complying with restrictions, and,

(3) operating a food truck.

The regulatory burden of each area of regulation is measured by a combination of the required procedures, number of trips to government agencies, and fees paid to government agencies. The Index ranks these 20 cities from 1 to 20, where 1 represents the city with lowest regulatory burden.