KUALA LUMPUR: The government must come up with a single comprehensive guideline for food truck operators to facilitate their mobile trading activities, said Malaysian Food Truck Association (MAFTA) chairman Datuk Mohamad Zaini Md Taha.
He said that, until to date, many food truck operators still did not have valid business permits as they were confused at guidelines which were not fixed from different local authorities when they moved to certain areas to trade.
“Since their businesses are mobile, they are often confused when the conditions to apply for permits are rather different and obtaining permits are often time-consuming.
“Whilst their businesses are only for a short period of time…so, there are those among them who ignore the process and straightaway pay the site rentals to the organisers or traded illegally without applying for permits from the local authorities,” he said when contacted by Bernama.
He said that over 80 per cent of food truck operators nationwide had yet to obtain a permit from the local authorities resulting in them often being issues summonses and acted against.
“Until to date, there are 820 food truck operators who have registered as members under MAFTA nationwide.
“Traders who have permanent sites from the local authorities are indeed assured, but it is the mobile food truck operators who must be given exposure on the fixed guideline, other than ensuring their safety and conducting their activities legitimately,” he said.
In addition, he said many food truck operators were also oppressed as they were forced to pay exorbitantly for site rentals to the organisers or the owner of the food truck sites.
“Co-ordinate the site rentals, have different rentals for certain events, but fix the rental for the long term, and not at overly expensive rates,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (KLCH) Corporate Planning Department director Norhaslinda Nordin said KLCH always provided a mentoring programme for food truck entrepreneurs with the co-operation of the National Entrepreneurship Institute in planning the menu, marketing and the business food truck models.
She said, in order to ensure food cleanliness and safety, KLCH would also provide exposures to food truck operators to ensure they toed the line pertaining to Clean, Safe and Healthy (BeSS) from the Malaysia Health Ministry.
For applications of permits, Norhaslinda said food truck operators must apply under the ‘Mobile Trader’ category based on the Licensing of Traders, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (By-Laws 2016), which would be processed in 30 working days.
“Among the criteria for mobile permit applications are Malaysian citizens above 18 years old, registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia, had typhoid injection, truck approved by the Malaysian computerised vehicle inspection company, Puspakom and had public liability insurance.
“In addition, upon obtaining a valid permit, they can only conduct their truck trading at the stipulated locations under the supervision of KLCH and with the consent of the site managers,” she added. – Bernama
