Mobile business model is on wheels, and St. John's wants to keep up
In the beginning, there really was one food truck to rule them all.
Ziggly Peelgood's has been a fixture in downtown St. John's and in Churchill Square, slinging fries since the late 1980s, but the city's mobile business industry has changed dramatically in recent years — and council is trying to keep up.
"There's been a huge uptick in mobile vending, both with food and non-food items in the city, and the province as a whole," Coun. Maggie Burton said following Tuesday night's council meeting.
"There's a lot of reasons right now why we need to look at these regulations."
Council voted in favour of forming a committee, made up of city councillors, community members and city staff, to examine the city's mobile business industry.
"We're going to strike a small working group to assess current practices around mobile vending and see how we can better redesign our approach to it, to meet the needs that are current in the community," Burton said.
Better communication is key
Burton said it's difficult to find the information around food trucks or get answers to questions new mobile entrepreneurs might have for the city, and that's something she hopes the working group can change.
"Some people have a lot of questions and they can't find the answers for it easily, so hopefully this group will be able to make some recommendations about a better communications framework," Burton said.
"It might look like a webpage or somewhere where we can make information more accessible to residents who may want to start up a business, so we want to make it more user friendly overall."
The committee hasn't been fully selected yet, but council's decision comes a few weeks after mobile vendors got together and formed the Mobile Vendors Association of Newfoundland.
The board includes Johnny & Mae's Fine Food Truck, Saucy Mouth, Ziggy Peelgood's, Big Boy Baos and Scout Mobile Clothing.
The group's goal is to make it easier for the mobile businesses to communicate with each other, with the province and with municipalities.
Burton hopes the city's committee will improve interactions.
"I am hoping that it will be an opportunity for us to make sure there is a level playing field," she said.
Burton also sees the possibility of mobile business branching out into unprepared foods, like fruits and vegetables
"I see it as a way that it might be able to fill some food deserts within the city," she said.
"We have quite a few neighbourhoods in the city that don't have grocery stores or other ways to get food within a five to ten minute walk from their home, so I'm hoping that his might be able to help solve that problem."
There are currently seven mobile vendor parking spaces in the city — six in downtown, and one in Churchill Square — while other trucks rely on private business for the use of parking lots.
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