Roanoke County, VA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Sidewalk & Mobile Vending (2026)

Section 10-45 sits in the county's peddler and itinerant merchant article of the business license chapter. Subsection (a) defines a peddler as anyone who carries goods, wares or merchandise from place to place and sells or offers to sell them, and sets the license tax for peddlers of 'family supplies of a perishable nature' and of ice, wood or coal at $50 per year; peddlers of general merchandise instead pay $250 per month per vehicle, capped at $500 in any one year. Subsection (b) covers itinerant merchants, those who occupy a location for less than a year, at the same $50 annual rate for perishable family supplies but $500 per year for general merchandise.

Subsection (c) is where food trucks are named directly: it defines 'family supplies of a perishable nature' to include 'meals from food trucks,' along with meats, milk, eggs, poultry, vegetables, fruits, seafood and sandwiches, and requires proof of any required health department permit or license before the commissioner of the revenue issues the business license. Subsection (d) exempts anyone who sells only what they grew or produced themselves, in person or through employees, from the license altogether, on proof of the exemption if asked. The license itself is a Chapter 10 business license: § 10-4 requires the operator to apply to the commissioner of the revenue before beginning business in the county, and no license is valid until the tax is paid to the county treasurer.

Operating without the license does not relieve the operator of the fee and tax owed under § 10-4(e), and § 10-6 adds a ten percent penalty for a late-filed application or late payment.