Chesapeake, VA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

Chesapeake defines a mobile food unit in Sec. 18-106 as 'a restaurant that is mounted on wheels and readily moveable from place to place at all times during operation,' and regulates it through Division 2 of Chapter 18, alongside contractors, in Sec. 18-111. The reciprocity rule in Sec. 18-111(a) tracks the state's mobile-food-unit statute: once the owner of a new mobile food business pays the license tax where the unit is registered, that owner does not owe a further license tax to any other Virginia locality, including Chesapeake, for running the truck there, and the exemption covers up to three units.

That pass runs for two years from the date the owner paid the initial license tax in the home locality, after which the exemption expires and the truck becomes subject to Chesapeake's own license tax like any other business. Regardless of whether the tax exemption applies, Sec. 18-111(b) still requires the owner to register the mobile food unit with the commissioner of the revenue or director of finance in every locality where it operates, Chesapeake included, so the city always has a record of who is operating even during the reciprocity window.

00 or the applicable percentage rate above that threshold under Sec. 18-60. Food safety, equipment and commissary requirements for the truck itself run through the Virginia Department of Health's mobile food unit regulations, separate from this local registration and tax rule.