Food Truck permits in New York City, New York

This is the inspection decal that goes on the truck or cart itself, separate from the personal vendor license. New York City caps the number of full-term street permits by law, so the official $200 fee is almost beside the point and the real constraint is access: applications open only when the Health Department calls you off a waitlist. The historical cap has sat around 2,800 to 3,100 year-round street permits citywide, and the exact live count keeps shifting as the Local Law 18 and 54 expansion adds permits. Any unit that gets called and passes its pre-permit inspection receives the permit.

Issued by

NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)

Fee

$200 for 2 years for a cooking or processing truck, or $75 for a non-processing unit selling pre-packaged food. Free for honorably discharged veterans and their surviving spouses or domestic partners.

Renewal

Every 2 years; DOHMH mails a renewal packet about 90 days before it expires

Processing

You cannot just apply. DOHMH only takes an application after it reaches you from the waitlist, and then you schedule a unit inspection. The city does not publish a start-to-finish time.

This is the realistic path to a new street permit today. Local Law 18 of 2021, sped up by Local Law 54 of 2026, requires the Health Department to offer 2,200 supervisory license applications a year for five years starting July 1, 2026, a total of 11,000 new permits. The yearly batch splits into 1,500 non-Manhattan licenses, 500 citywide, and 200 for veterans and people with disabilities. Only a person, never a company, can hold one, and the holder has to be physically present and vending whenever the unit operates, which is the city's tool against permit sub-leasing. Permits issued before July 2022 keep renewing without a supervisory license until July 2031.

Issued by

NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)

Fee

The city has not published a separate application fee for the supervisory license itself; the unit permit it unlocks costs the same $200 (cooking) or $75 (non-processing) for 2 years.

Renewal

Every 2 years, the same cycle as the permit it carries

Processing

Offered off the 2022 waitlists first; the city has not published a wait time for a brand-new applicant

This is the way around the street-permit cap, and it matters for a lot of food trucks. A Restricted Area permit has no cap and no waitlist, but it only lets you vend on private property or on New York City Parks property under a contract with the owner, never on a public street or sidewalk. If your truck lives at a brewery lot, an office campus, a private event, or a parks concession, this is the permit you actually need, and you can hold it in weeks instead of years.

Issued by

NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)

Fee

$200 for 2 years for a cooking unit, or $75 for a non-processing unit. No supervisory license required.

Renewal

Every 2 years

Processing

Roughly 4 to 12 weeks once you have a signed property agreement, since there is no cap or waitlist

Every person who works a cart or truck, owner or employee, even for a single shift, has to carry this personal photo-ID badge from the Health Department. There is no cap on it, and it is a prerequisite before you can apply for any unit permit. You cannot mail it in or send someone in your place: you apply in person at the Citywide Licensing Center at 42 Broadway and register and pay for the mobile vendor food course at the same time.

Issued by

NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH)

Fee

$50 for 2 years. Free for honorably discharged veterans and their surviving spouses or domestic partners with a DD-214 or New York State peddler's certificate.

Renewal

Every 2 years

Processing

Mailed about a week after you pass the final exam

Veterans and people with disabilities get three breaks. Honorably discharged veterans and their survivors pay no fee for the license or the unit permit. Of the 2,200 supervisory licenses offered each year from July 2026, 200 are reserved for veterans and people with disabilities, in priority order: disabled veterans first, then non-veterans with disabilities, then other veterans. And a veteran with a service-related disability can apply for a specialized vending license that reaches some otherwise-restricted areas, including the Midtown Core, plus a separate disabled-veteran permit to vend on the sidewalks around city parks, which falls outside the street-permit cap but limits you to park perimeters.

Issued by

NYC DOHMH (license and permit fee waivers and reserved supervisory licenses); NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (disabled-veteran specialized vending license)

Fee

No license or unit-permit fee for honorably discharged veterans and their surviving spouses or domestic partners. A disabled-veteran specialized vending license from Consumer and Worker Protection carries its own fee, which the city does not post in one place.

Renewal

Every 2 years

Processing

Veteran and disability-reserved supervisory licenses open with the July 2026 expansion; the city has not published a wait time

This is the Health Department's own mobile vendor course, and it is not the same as the food protection certificate fixed restaurants use. Passing its final exam is required to get your Mobile Food Vending License, and national certificates like ServSafe do not count in its place. You register in person at 42 Broadway and attend the class at the Riverside Health Center in Manhattan.

Issued by

NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Health Academy

Fee

$53, paid in person when you register for the license

Renewal

Retake the course and pass the exam again after 10 years, or sooner if your license lapses

Processing

An 8-hour course split over two days; the license follows about a week after you pass

Required only if your unit runs on propane (LPG) or compressed natural gas. Whoever connects or disconnects any gas container over a pound, which is the person doing daily setup, needs this personal certificate, not just a supervisor. On the street a truck may carry no more than two tanks of up to 100 pounds each, and idling the engine is a separate violation. The certificate is good citywide for the individual who holds it.

Issued by

NYC Fire Department (FDNY)

Fee

$25 to apply and test, $15 to renew (plus a $25 penalty if you renew between 90 days and a year late).

Renewal

Every 3 years

Processing

Same day if you pass the in-person exam at FDNY headquarters in Brooklyn, or mailed within about 5 business days through an approved company procedure

This one sits on the commissary side. If a facility stores more than about 46 pounds of propane (400 standard cubic feet), the person supervising that storage needs a G-44, and the storage cage itself needs its own FDNY permit after a plan review and site inspection. Many operators never realize their commissary carries these obligations until an inspection raises them.

Issued by

NYC Fire Department (FDNY)

Fee

$25 to apply and test. The renewal fee is not posted on the city's G-44 page.

Renewal

Every 3 years on the standard FDNY cycle

Processing

Same day for an in-person exam pass, or mailed within about 5 business days through an approved company procedure

Anything sold ready to eat off a truck or cart in any of the five boroughs is taxed at the full 8.875% combined rate, and that rate is identical across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The 4.5% city share is the part that stacks on the state rate. You collect and remit it under the state Certificate of Authority covered on the New York state page.

Issued by

NYS Department of Taxation and Finance (state share); New York City (local share); MCTD (surcharge)

Fee

Not a fee you pay. It is the 8.875% you charge the customer: 4% state, 4.5% city, and a 0.375% transportation district surcharge.

Renewal

Not applicable

Processing

Not applicable

Where you park is as regulated as how you cook. Carts and trucks have to stay off the restricted-street list (heavily concentrated in Midtown Manhattan), keep at least 10 feet from a crosswalk, subway entrance, or driveway, sit on a sidewalk at least 12 feet wide, stay within 18 inches of the curb, and keep 20 feet from any building entrance or sidewalk cafe. Trucks cannot use metered spots and cannot idle. Check the Health Department restricted-streets map before you pick a spot, not after. Sanitation has led enforcement since 2023, and the most common tickets are vending on a restricted street, parking too close to an intersection or subway entrance, and not leaving enough sidewalk clearance.

Issued by

Rules set by DOHMH (Health Code Article 89 and 24 RCNY) and the Administrative Code; enforcement led by the Department of Sanitation since 2023, with Health, Consumer and Worker Protection, Transportation, and the police as partners

Fee

No fee, but breaking these rules draws fines from several agencies

Renewal

Not applicable; ongoing operational requirement

Processing

Not applicable