Philadelphia, PA – Andrew Gerson helped found the Philadelpha Mobile Food Association, and serves as its vice president. He also has a business, Strada Pasta, making fresh pasta with locally sourced ingredients. One thing this Philly food-truck evangelist doesn’t have yet, though: An actual food truck.

What with the outdated regulations currently governing the trucks in Philadelphia, he says it just doesn’t make sense. “I haven’t launched a truck yet, because it’s very labor intensive. It’s a 16-hour day, and if I can’t sell enough volume in a day — which you can’t at this point in Philly — it’s not economically feasible. So I’m waiting another six to eight months to see what happens with this legislative change. It’s very hard to make a living due to legislative drawbacks right now.”

He may not have to wait too long. First District Councilman Mark Squilla says the city Law Department is reviewing legislation he worked on in collaboration with the PMFA and various city departments to clarify the rules around truck vending. He hopes to introduce a bill next month. “We’re trying to work with the food truck association to come up with regulations and ordinances that the food truck vendors and the city all can agree on,” he says. “We have no regulations from the Department of Licenses and Inspections on how they handle the food trucks. This will clarify a lot of the rules and regulations. I think it will be a big boost to the industry and also help the growth of the food truck market here.”

Find the entire article at citypaper.com <here>