Above: Andrew Cho of Far East Taco finds the increased fine of surpassing metered time limits kind of ridiculous.
next photo

Above: The price of doing business. A food truck vendor shows a ticket issued by what he calls “a notoriously zealous” D.C. parking enforcement officer. The vendor claims the allotted 2-hour time period had yet to expire, and that he reported a broken meter and posted the report number on the meter.
prev photo

Sonny Setianko climbs into the driver’s seat of his brilliantly-painted, red Saté Truck just after 12 p.m. on a recent Friday afternoon. He and his business partner, Echo Putra, are taking a few moments away from serving customers their savory Indonesian meals for what has become a ritual, repeated every two hours. He fires up the engine and glides the truck forward. A white House of Falafel truck glides into the just-vacated spot near the ornate Pension Building on 13th Street, NW. Then Setianko backs his truck into the space where the Falafel truck owners had been selling their food. The driver of each truck dutifully pumps money into the parking meters standing sentry on the sidewalk. Two hours later, the process will be reversed.

Why such a game of musical trucks? It’s all part of the challenge of coping with regulations the D.C. government imposes on food truck vendors. In this case, they are not allowed special privileges regarding parking meters, and must move their trucks every two hours. That’s a nuisance, especially for some vendors whose vehicles might take up to twenty minutes to set up or break down. The talk among truck operators is one of apprehension that more stringent regulation is coming.

On October 5, the Office of the City Administrator proposed another round of new guidelines governing vending requirements in the District of Columbia, and they are aimed directly at the growing food truck industry. The truck owners believe the city is responding to pressure from Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, a trade organization representing established brick-and-mortar restaurants, which seek to prevent mobile food service from cutting into their business.

Approximately ten percent of the city’s registered vending trucks are Asian- American owned, and the proposed plans are not popular with some of them. Setiantoko worries the changes will make parking more of a challenge. Fines for staying at a metered space past the expired time limit are scheduled to quadruple, from $25 to $100. The plans offer a proposal to designate spots specifically for vendors to use between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., peak food-vending hours. But there is a major drawback, Setiantoko says. “There will only be 135 spots, and food trucks are growing big, with more coming,” he notes. “I don’t know what will happen.” He and Putra also worry about limits on the time they are able to serve. “What if we want to serve breakfast?” he asks.

Other features of the City’s plans include a mandatory “10-foot sidewalk rule,” which would result in fewer vendors parking in some downtown areas with smaller sidewalks, and the establishment of Vending Development Zones. These Zones would allow community or business groups to supervise public spaces in their neighborhoods, although there are some safeguards to protect vending trucks from being singled out for discriminatory action.

Both Rodney Goh of Fire on Rice and Andrew Cho of Far East Taco cite financial considerations as areas of concern, especially a new 10% tax rate, which they claim will require them to raise their prices to offset the cost. If they would like to take advantage of selling food for more hours each day, they will be allowed to apply for a permit for the new Mobile Roadway Vending locations. But the cost for the permit will be $1,920 per year. Cho finds that idea “kind of fair,” if it eliminates the penalty of time-limit expirations, but he feels “it’s just another way to be taken advantage of, for the city to get our money.”

Yong Yi of Tokyo in the City likes the Mobile Roadway Vending Permit concept, if it would work like pre-paying for meters, but he worries the regulation limits the number of trucks per location to three, and at only one location per block. He complains that vendors “would have no idea where they would be vending each day” as D.C.’s Department of Transportation would be in charge of assigning the Mobile Roadway Vending Locations.

Other areas of discussion by the City including changes to the old “Ice-Cream- Truck Rule,” which would now allow vendors legal parking without having to be hailed by customers, and to remain in the spot under posted parking rules. Sweet-food trucks, however, would only be allowed to remain in a spot for up to 10 minutes when customers are not waiting.

Some changes are welcomed by the vendors, including the elimination of the requirement that a licensed operator must always be present. Under the proposed changes, a truck owner could acquire one vending license for his or her business, with employees allowed to operate the trucks with special vendor employee ID badges.

The challenge for D.C. is to serve area residents and visitors who enjoy the variety of convenient foods the trucks offer, while protecting restaurants who do not appreciate seeing potential customers buying food outside. Mayor Vincent Gray originally proposed updates to 30-year-old vending rules last January, and changes have been slowly working their way through the city’s bureaucratic process. The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs is accepting public comments about the latest proposals through November 5.

“AAPI workers and small businesses, including food trucks, play a major role in DC and our nation’s economy. We hope that these contributions will be recognized and that these new regulations will work for all stakeholders,” says Gregory Cendana, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.

The D.C. Food Truck Association isn’t waiting to see how D.C. will handle vendors, however. Looking to the future, it is changing its name to the Food Truck Association of Metropolitan Washington, and expanding its membership activities into suburban Virginia and Maryland. After all, people like fast, convenient food there, too.

To offer comments on the changes, visit http://dcra.dc.gov/.