The Significances

Food trucks, like those in many other cities, epitomize many small business entrepreneurs’ so-called American dreams.  

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Lawrence Bowdish, director of research and issue networks with the US Chamber of Commerce, described food trucks as a “perfect microcosm of a lot of the issues we are seeing in either city regulations, or other issues that are really limiting the growth of American business.”

 

He added that cities like Boston, with issues such as spacing and zoning, make the start-up price awfully high because owners have to pay for the zones.

 

Bowdish made the assumption that “Boston is trying to regulate the number of food trucks by making the barrier to enter very expensive.” He added that instead of having food trucks fight for limited spots, the attempt is to have fewer food trucks and to make sure only those with a lot of start-up capital get on the streets.

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Michael Hendrix, the researcher of the Food Truck Nation report, emphasizes inequality in the food truck industry. He sees the excessive regulations as one example of a “government-imposed barrier,” which undermines the economic opportunities for people, especially the lower class and immigrants. On the contrary, wealthy, upper-class entrepreneurs usually don’t encounter such restrictions.

 

“Lucky” is the word Moy used to describe Moyzilla’s success. His truck is able to stay in the industry because it has an innovative menu, the whole family is involved, and Moy actively engages with customers on social media. As food trucks become more socially acceptable, they do special events such as catering, weddings and graduation parties to make up profits besides the limited hours on streets.

 

“I think the city really can listen to the owners and operators.” Moy said, “It seems like they are just judging it from the lawmaking perspective or they are just making rules that they think are best for food trucks. They can’t really figure that out unless they talk to us. And I think it goes both ways. We need to understand what they are coming from as well.”