Food truck operators in northern Illinois say rising food, fuel, and operating costs are squeezing their businesses, but some say the biggest challenge comes from having to navigate different regulations and fees as they cross county lines.
Lawmakers in Illinois had been working on House Bill 1052, the Food Truck Freedom Act, until the spring legislative session, when it died, to help bring relief for food truck operators who work across county lines.
The bill would establish a single, statewide reciprocal licensing system for food trucks. Supporters of the bill believe it will lower permitting costs – potentially by thousands per year – for food truck operators while maintaining safety and public health standards.
State Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, said legislative work would have to resume in the new year to help these entrepreneurs in navigating the challenges they face.
“We haven’t been able to get movement in a relevant committee, so it’s more than likely getting pushed over to the next General Assembly, which will start in January,” Keicher said. “It’ll have to be reintroduced.”
Keicher said he’s spoken with some area food truck owners about the difficulty they’ve had working across county lines.
“It’s just something that is consistently a thorn in their side, a frustration that keeps coming up,” Keicher said. “If you need a permit to sell in town like a business license, that’s one thing, but when it comes to some of these certifications and requirements that are overlapping, we need to make sure that we’re doing the right thing by not subjecting them to too much duplicate regulation.”
The rising cost at the gas pump is also weighing on some entrepreneurs.
Jeff Otte, who operates Cream-Crunch-N-More, said it’s been affecting the way in which his food truck operates.
Cream-Crunch-N-More sets up shop primarily at locations in Will, Grundy, DuPage and Cook counties.
“With gas and everything, we try and stay local,” Otte said. “We could pretty much concentrate in Will County, Grundy County.”
Rheon Gibson, who operates Back At It BBQ, said he’s taken into account travel expenses in a new policy he’s adopted.
In it, Back At It BBQ sets forth guidelines about how it may charge a deposit to cover certain events based on out-of-pocket costs. Back At It BBQ is usually parked along Lincoln Highway or Peace Road in DeKalb but is also open to catering and setting up at community events.
“I’ve implemented new policies because I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me from other cities wanting to book us for events,” Gibson said.
Gibson said this way, it won’t throw off his food truck operation’s profits and losses.
But it’s not only gas prices that food truck operators are concerned about.
Otte said inflation has prompted many items to increase in retail price.
“Everything has gone up sky high – ice cream, toppings, cups, spoons,” Otte said. “Every type of supply that we need to run the food truck has increased.”
Otte noted that food trucks can face permit fees from health departments in each county where they operate.
“We also in Illinois get stacked with tons of fees for the county health, depending on what county you want to be in, you [have] got to pay their fee,” Otte said. “Then, some festivals to get in or places you got to go pay a fee to put your truck there.”
Gibson credits his experience in a local academy for helping his food truck business.
He was a recent graduate of the Breakthrough Community Business Academy that was sponsored by Opportunity DeKalb.
“It’s a vast amount of skills I learned, like everything from pricing, collaboration, marketing, how to develop an appropriate profit and loss sheet, how to make sure that you’ve got all your licensures, all your permits, everything like that in order,” Gibson said.
Opportunity DeKalb Executive Director Chad Glover said it was a pleasure working with Gibson.
Opportunity DeKalb strives to be a resource to area entrepreneurs, working collaboratively to revitalize DeKalb’s Annie Glidden North neighborhood.
“We can be a real asset for people who have food trucks if they’re going through our program, like Rheon,” Glover said. “The academy will hopefully help them, and then what we’re able to do with our partners after the academy will help them continue to advance their business.”
Glover said it’s clear that not everyone aspires to run a brick-and-mortar restaurant business.
“I think there’s lots of evidence where people can have a successful food truck business without a brick-and-mortar location,” Glover said. “Of course, part of that is having access to a commercial kitchen, and that’s a big part of the equation. Of the food trucks and food entrepreneurs we’ve worked with, some of them do aspire to eventually have some sort of a brick-and-mortar location, and others that’s not part of their current plan.”
Ivan Lazcano, who runs and operates Tacostumbras food truck, said he, for one, sees a lot of positives to running a food truck operation.
“My overhead cost is pretty low,” Ivan Lazcano said. “I don’t have to pay utilities. I don’t have to pay rent. I don’t have to pay none of that. So, that’s a good thing.”
Looking ahead to the next session of the General Assembly, Keicher said that there’s been support on both sides of the aisle for this issue.
“The conversations I’ve had with [state] Rep. [Dave] Vella, the concerns about how food trucks need to comply with regulations is shared on a bipartisan basis and something that needs to be fixed because we want to foster the ability of people to open their own small business and make it easy as possible,” Keicher said.
Dining and Cooking