Hercules, CA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

1012 defines a "mobile food vehicle" as any lunch wagon, eating cart, food truck or ice cream truck selling foodstuffs on Hercules streets, alleys or highways. Before parking or standing one to sell food, subsection (b) requires a written permit from the City Manager or a designee, and that permit fixes the exact location where the vehicle may stand along with any other conditions of sale. Getting the permit means appearing personally at the Hercules Police Department under subsection (e) to pay a nonrefundable application fee set by City Council resolution, and subsection (d) requires a lengthy disclosure list: the applicant's business and residence addresses, a description of the food to be sold, every vehicle's make, year and license plate, the applicant's California driver's license number, two recent 2-inch-by-2-inch photographs, three years of employment and permit history including any prior license revocations, a full record of criminal convictions, the names and license numbers of any drivers or employees, proof of public liability and property damage insurance, and fingerprinting for a background check paid for by the applicant.

Subsection (d)(13) also requires certification of a valid Contra Costa County Department of Health permit, and (d)(17) requires the applicant already hold a City business license. The permit runs one year under subsection (h), cannot be transferred to another person or entity under subsection (j), and subsection (c) lets the City Manager revoke it outright once the Chief of Police documents three or more violations within any six-month period, after which the vendor is barred from a new permit for six months.