Food trucks help bring the crowds to beaches, village festivals and night markets, but owners say they are discouraged by layers of fees imposed by government agencies and mayors.
Legislative Vice Speaker Tony Ada held a roundtable on food trucks Tuesday, and operators described widely varying fees for events, inconsistent regulations, lengthy wait times for inspections and a general lack of transparency.
Vendors said that in addition to standard licenses and permits, they are charged fees by village mayors and different government agencies.
“When there is a festival at any village, the amount is not the same,” Sticky Fingers owner Geneve Apuron said. She said in Malesso’, she could pay $6,000 to park her confection truck for a 2-1/2 day festival, but in Hagat the cost is $3,000.
“And that's just for the spot. That's not adding everything else like power, because they're not even giving me power as a truck. I have to provide for everything. What I'm paying for is a space. That's a lot of money. I don't know what they're using the money for.”
There are no refunds for bad weather, and employees must still be paid.
Joseph Atalig, owner of The Food Truck, said when he started in 2016, vendors got a peddler’s license from the Department of Revenue and Taxation with a sanitary permit from Public Health, and they were allowed to operate on any government easement.
He started at night markets and eventually found a spot at Skinner Plaza, where up to 20 food trucks used to gather on Thursday nights.
“As food trucks started to grow, then things started to change,” Atalig said. Different agencies began adding fees.
The Department of Parks and Recreation began charging fees for food truck operators who parked at the beach.
“When Skinner Plaza got really big, then Public Works jumped in and said, ‘Hey, now you have to come pay Public Works too, if you want to park at Skinner Plaza,’” he said. “Then I never went there.”
Food trucks on Department of Recreation property pay $1,500 a month for a permit, plus a separate fee of $5 per employee.
Apuron said she used to pay the fee to park at Salaluga Pools in Inalåhan, but the park is now under the jurisdiction of the Inalåhan Mayor’s Office.
“So when the mayor tells me I have to pay, let's say $200 for just the weekend, I have to pay $200 just for the weekend,” she said.
Atalig said they have to pay the same base sanitary permit fees as brick-and-mortar restaurants, with no distinction between restaurants that seat and serve customers and vendors who pass a plate through a window.
“If the Dusit is paying $750, then we’re paying $750,” he said.
Bert Javier, owner of Pono Hawaiian Grill, said other places have specific locations where food trucks can operate, and Guam “could benefit from having a designated destination for [the] food truck experience.”
At the Tumon Night Market on Sunday evenings, the vendors pay a nightly rate of $175, or about $700 a month, for a food truck to operate a few hours a week on a government easement, Javier said.
“They're relying on us to create a unique experience for our visitors, but we're paying to participate, or to provide that experience to our visitors,” he said.
Operating times for food trucks are also shorter than traditional restaurants, and food truck vendors have to buy gas for generators.
Before the trucks at Skinner Plaza were hit with extra fees, the vendors got together and paid someone to remove trash on Thursday nights, Atalig said.
“Imagine bringing that back where you get 20 food trucks every Thursday night,” Atalig said. “The public, the military, the locals, the tourists all know where to go just to get a food truck night, and it was one night a week. And at the peak, everyone would just have to have their sanitary permit, business license, and peddler's license.”
Javier said the food truck industry is the most accessible way for someone to enter the restaurant business, but it comes with challenges.
“Our business is so vulnerable. We travel. The wear and tear on our vehicles, not just our vehicles, but our trailers, our equipment. So there's so many, like, hard costs and fixed costs that are associated with the wear and tear of our business, but that's not accounted for,” Javier said. “They just look at us like, ‘Oh, these guys are just, they just show up and they make money.’ No, we're not. We're having a hard time making money.”
