Food trucks must get separate permits for every county they serve

A food truck operating in a metro area that spans multiple counties — like the San Francisco Bay Area (9 counties), Greater Houston (9 counties), or the DC-Maryland-Virginia triangle — must obtain separate health permits, business licenses, and fire inspections from each jurisdiction. Each permit has its own application, inspection schedule, fee structure, and renewal timeline. An operator serving corporate campuses across three Bay Area counties might spend $2,000-$5,000 in annual permit fees and 40+ hours dealing with three different health departments, each with slightly different sink depth requirements, water tank capacities, and fire suppression inspection schedules. The result is that most food trucks restrict themselves to a single county, leaving money on the table and reducing their addressable market. This persists because health and safety regulation is administered at the county level with no reciprocity agreements, and no jurisdiction has an incentive to accept another county's inspection as valid — each department justifies its budget through the permits it issues.