St. Petersburg, FL Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Food Truck Permits (2026)

2 lays out the baseline permit and compliance requirements every mobile food truck must meet regardless of class. Subsection A requires compliance with all state and local business tax regulation, meaning a business tax receipt is a prerequisite to operating. Subsection B requires the vehicle itself be designed and constructed specifically for vending, and licensed under whatever state and federal rules apply to the truck or the products it sells. Subsection C splits insurance requirements by location: trucks operating in the right-of-way must carry whatever coverage POD (currently the Risk Management Department) determines necessary, potentially general liability, commercial automobile liability, workers' compensation, and environmental liability, from a Florida-licensed insurer, with the City named additional insured and three business days' notice of any coverage change; trucks operating elsewhere need only the minimum insurance required by other local, state, or federal law.

1 layers class-specific permit requirements onto Class III ice cream trucks: anyone selling from the right-of-way must individually register as a peddler under Chapter 17 and obtain that registration's certificate or permit, a requirement that applies notwithstanding the exceptions otherwise available under the peddler ordinance (currently § 17-159), while sales from any other location require a mobile food establishment permit issued concurrently with the business tax receipt. 1, applied for through POD, unless the trucks are already covered by another City-issued permit.