In 2011 I wrote a number of times about the seemingly gathering energy in Savannah to open the door for certification and regulation of food trucks in ways that would benefit both businesses and consumers.
I raised some questions about the movement here, and I last talked about the movement in Atlanta here.
While the Savannah efforts seem to have evaporated — as so many seemingly energetic movements do here — things are still moving ahead in Atlanta, which is after all a huge city.
Click to go to the Atlanta Food Truck Park website
So isn’t the whole point of food trucks that they can move?
Well, not necessarily. Outfitting a single truck for to-go food service and then parking it temporarily on someone else’s property can give the businesses all kinds of financial and logistical flexibility. I’m not 100% certain about current policies in Charleston (I think food trucks are pretty much limited to parking on privately owned commercial lots), but the city has a seemingly thriving food truck federation.
It seems inevitable that someone will get Savannah’s stalled food truck bandwagon rolling again at some point. I sure hope that any would-be investors consider Savannah’s size, demographics, and highly seasonal changes in activity. It’s likely that the first successful food trucks would be ones affiliated with brick-and-mortar establishments.
Still, I’m all for the effort, as long as we use other cities’ experiences as models and don’t try to reinvent the wheel.