Bristol Township, PA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Sidewalk and street vending in Bristol Township falls under Chapter 144, the Bristol Township Peddlers and Solicitors Licensing Ordinance, enforced by the Office of Licenses, Zoning and Inspections. Peddling is defined as selling or offering goods, wares, services or merchandise for immediate delivery that the seller carries or controls on any of the streets or sidewalks, house to house, or on private property in the Township. A vendor selling merchandise from the sidewalk is a peddler and needs the Section 144-3 license before starting.

Section 144-8(A) is the core sidewalk rule: no licensed peddler may occupy any fixed location upon any of the streets, highways, alleys or sidewalks of the Township for the purpose of peddling, with or without any stand or counter, except as the section provides. The only carve-out in Section 144-8 is for temporary roadside stands, vacant lots and temporary structures, which must satisfy Chapter 205, Zoning. A vendor is therefore a mobile operator on the public way, not a fixture.

Section 144-7 adds vehicle limits. A licensed peddler cannot park a vehicle on any street, highway or alley to sort, rearrange or clean goods, cannot deposit refuse on those streets, and cannot maintain a street or curbstone market by parking on a street or alley longer than necessary to sell from the vehicle to persons residing in the immediate vicinity.

Section 144-10 prohibits hawking or crying goods on the streets or sidewalks and bars loudspeakers, horns or any other device for announcing presence; the section's exception covers ice cream trucks in the summer season and lunch trucks that go from business to business, and permits are required for those. Under Section 144-12, selling is barred on any day before 9:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m., prevailing time. Section 144-6 requires the vendor to carry the license and show it to police officers, Township officials and citizens, and to sell only what the license lists.