Desnudo Coffee's East Austin location serves hundreds of cups of coffee each day. But once a year the truck has to shut down for its annual health safety inspection. Closing for even a day can cost the business thousands of dollars as it has to prepare and move the trailer, and that's doesn't include how much it loses in profits
That process is changing this month. Food truck owners in Austin will be able to get their trucks inspected on-site making it easier to continue operations and get the inspection and permits they need.
The new health safety inspection program comes more than a year after the Austin City Council promised to improve the inspection process for mobile business owners. The city’s current program requires the owners to move the trailer to a city facility in North Austin, which they said can be complicated and costly.
Sergio Trujillo, who co-owns Desnudo Coffee, said the annual process requires them to close down for at least a day and a half to prepare for the inspection. He said it also means finding a way to tow the trailer to the city facility, which can be expensive.
“It's once a year, but if you have multiple trailers and your staff counts on you [for income] ... it affects a lot more than you think,” Trujillo said.
There are more than 1,500 mobile food vendors across the city, and each is required by state law to get inspected annually.
Council Member José Velásquez said making the process more accessible and equitable was important to ensure small and micro-businesses can continue to operate in Austin.
“We wanted to look for a practical way to relieve some of that burden on our small business owners because we know when we are talking about food trucks they are [operating] on razor thin margins,” Velasquez said.
Now, the business owners will have more options following the council meeting on Thursday. Council members approved an expansion of the program that allows for on-site inspections and permits with an increase in cost for the convenience. On-site permits will cost $740 and the on-site re-inspection fee will be $230. The cost for re-inspections at the city facility are $109. Permits there start at $212, according to city documents.
Trujillo said the tradeoff is worth it.
“We lose a lot of money by closing [those days] plus we have to pay a fee for someone to tow our trailers over there, and we also have to be there, or send someone, to the inspection,” he said. “So it's those hidden fees that you don’t really think about.”
Velásquez said the new on-site inspection program was created with business community input. Over the last year, the city created a focus group to help shape the program that included Desnudo, Veracruz All Natural, Spicy Boys Fried Chicken and others.
City documents show offering on-site inspection was a top desire of food truck business owners, with about 92% saying they wanted the option.
On-site inspections are just the beginning, Velásquez said. Looking forward, he said the city is also looking at how it can do on-site inspections for an entire food park.
“That would be more cost effective if we had our inspector do four or six all at one time for an entire trailer park, then it would just help expand the product and the efficiency of the product,” he said.
