Title : Food trucks versus 'bricks and mortar' — a unique dilemma for mining towns
link : Food trucks versus 'bricks and mortar' — a unique dilemma for mining towns
Food trucks versus 'bricks and mortar' — a unique dilemma for mining towns
Food trucks might seem like a perfect fit for the changeable economy of mining towns.
Being portable, they can move with demand, and they provide a diversity of food options in areas with typically limited choice.
But while mobile food vendors are a permanent fixture in big cities, small mining towns are struggling to balance the popularity of food trucks with the viability of fixed business owners who are already under financial pressure.
Several food truck owners in central Queensland say the council has unfairly delayed or refused to grant them permits to trade.
Some vendors have found themselves paying back expensive loans on a vehicle they cannot trade from, with one owner forced to sell her van back to the bank after trading only a handful of times.
But the council says it takes into account the needs of the entire community when approving permits, and mining towns have a unique set of economic circumstances to consider.
A second chance
For Dianne Melville, a mobile food truck seemed like the perfect way to make a fresh start after going through treatment for leukaemia.
"When I got out of hospital, that's when I made the decision to move forward with the van," she said.
"I thought 'tomorrow mightn't be here, so you might as well do what you love'."
Her kebab, loaded fries and coffee van would provide a new food option in Moranbah, and she could travel around to different towns in the region.
But less than a year after custom building her van, Ms Melville is $80,000 in debt and contemplating bankruptcy.
She said despite gaining "preliminary support" to trade from Isaac Regional Council before she took out a bank loan, it took seven months for the council to issue her a trading permit.
"Once I got that [preliminary support] via email, it was full steam ahead. I contacted my lender, I felt very confident, everything started moving forward — designing the van, having it all ready," she said.
"Once I started putting in my paperwork to have roadside access, that was when things started to become difficult.
"Fifty-five emails was what has gone back and forth. I cannot count the number of phone calls because at this point I was phoning daily.
"When I got my roadside approval after seven months I had found myself in a hole — stressfully, mentally, financially drained."
Facing bankruptcy
Ms Melville attempted to trade for several months but said the trading hours allowed by the permit were "a joke".
"They offered me three days a week from 10:00am to 5:00pm," she said.
"Coffee trade finishes well and truly by 9:30am, then kebabs — that's dinner. We're in a mining town, there are very few people that are going to come through at lunchtime."
Unable to catch up on seven months of loan repayments and struggling with the hours she was permitted to trade, Ms Melville realised there was no way forward.
"I could not do it. I just had to let it go and now I'm $80,000 in debt," she said.
"I phoned my lender and said 'please come and collect [the van], I can't go on any further'.
"It was clear as day there was no recovery."
Ms Melville said that if she had been given the permits at the time of the provisional support she would have been able to trade and not fallen into seven months' worth of debt.
"I'm at a stage where I might have to go bankrupt or I'll have to pay this loan for forever and a day," she said.
Grounded for four months
Naina Pathrishi and her husband Sandeep have been operating their mobile Indian food van in Moranbah, Clermont, Dysart and Middlemount for over three years.
"No-one in Moranbah is selling Indian food so my food is unique," Ms Pathrishi said.
"I'm really doing well in Moranbah, many people like my food.
"There are not so many options in town for vegan people. I have a big list for vegan people, they come to me every day."
When Ms Pathrishi's trading permit expired in July 2018 she attempted to renew it, but was denied.
Despite making multiple attempts to negotiate the renewal, her van has been grounded for over four months while she is still paying off a $65,000 bank loan.
"It's really stressing me [out], I'm in stress for the last four months because they are doing this to me," she said.
"I earn money from this only. What do I do now? I'm in loss, I'm in depression."
The revenue from the food van was one of the family's main sources of income.
"I stayed in Moranbah because of this business. I'm paying my rent — $450 per week for my house — and how can I do that now?" Ms Pathrishi said.
"I feel helpless. This was my dream."
Finding a balance
CEO of Isaac Regional Council Gary Stevenson said the council had to strike the right balance between the needs of itinerant vendors and established businesses.
"The criteria are first, public safety, secondly, amenity for residents in properties around the area," he said.
"But also the balance with competition with locally established businesses that build their assets, pay their rates, taxes, and are there permanently to support the community.
"We've got people that have invested in bricks and mortar that pay their rates or their bills as fixed operators.
"It would be unfair for an itinerant to rock-up just out front of their building [in] competition to them [when] they didn't have that same level of investment and commitment to the community."
He said fluctuating economic times had caused stresses on small businesses in the area.
"There is no doubt that small businesses, typically those businesses that rely on economic activity and foot traffic, have difficulty from time to time sustaining a viable business. That's just the nature of a small town," he said.
"There is a real issue of the viability of those businesses that rent or build premises, as opposed to those that have a truck that can move it anywhere, anytime."
Review of local laws
He said the council was currently undergoing a review of its policies regarding itinerant vendors.
"We acknowledge that some of the applications that we've processed in the last six months have been protracted because we're in a state of flux and assessing new objectives," he said.
"In some cases there were mistakes on our part, and we apologise for those delays, but we try and deal on merit at the time.
"If council officers have provided inconsistent advice then I apologise for that. That wouldn't be acceptable. Delays also wouldn't be acceptable.
"But with food vendors that are mobile … their licence is a year-by-year licence, so they can't necessarily absolutely guarantee that their licence — either for food safety or for location — is bankable for the long term."
'It's a food truck, we're not trying to sell weapons'
Food truck owner Tai Lam is currently trading in Dysart, but he said he waited seven months before the Isaac Regional Council gave him a permit to operate.
"It was very stressful, and as the months were passing by you feel like you don't know what to do next," he said.
"I became very angry after waiting all that time … you can imagine the stress of bills and everything else piled up."
Mr Lam said his Thai food van cost $80,000, along with the cost of a vehicle to tow it.
"We've done everything under the sun for this food truck, they're not cheap. And every month the bank's knocking on the door for a paycheque," he said.
"At one point I was very close to saying 'stuff this, we'll go somewhere else'.
"It's a food truck, we're not trying to sell weapons here."
He said he bought local produce and employed locals.
"It's not like I'm going there and trying to rob the town. I'm one of the locals now. I bought a house in Dysart, my wife and I moved there," he said.
"I hire locals, I'm a local person trying to do the right thing."
'Competition a must'
Mr Lam said he understood the need to support owners of fixed businesses in mining towns.
"But we live in a place where competition is a must. You can't be anti-competition," he said.
"Competition drives the quality up and drives prices down."
Mr Lam said mining towns needed variety in dining options to sustain a permanent population.
"[The locals] earn great money, they work hard," he said.
"It's a reasonably good lifestyle — there's just nothing to eat.
"You kind of trap people. They'll last for a year or two and go 'this is bloody boring' and move back to somewhere near Brisbane.
"Food trucks create this culture of dining out, street food, and I think that's what makes towns vibrant."
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