For students who find the 2 a.m. trek from Bob’s to BSki’s a little bit daunting, Chapel Hill Town Council seems to have come up with a solution: food that drives to you.
Food trucks are already a common sight in Carrboro, Hillsborough and Durham, but until last month, they weren’t allowed within Chapel Hill town limits.
Unfortunately, when Town Council voted to allow food trucks, they also imposed fees of almost $800 that truck owners must pay in order to park in Chapel Hill.
These exorbitant fees have deterred many local food trucks from bringing their business here. Carrboro imposes only $85 in fees, and food trucks there are doing just fine. There’s little incentive for them to come to Chapel Hill.
Though it seems counter-intuitive, food trucks are actually one of the fastest-growing sectors of the eco-friendly restaurant business.
First of all, they eliminate the need for the resources expended in constructing an actual building. And brick-and-mortar restaurants rank among the most energy-intensive spaces, using between two and a half and five times more energy than other commercial buildings.
A traditional restaurant requires electricity and natural gas to maintain comfortable temperatures, provide light for customers, run a bathroom, etc. Obviously, this is all unnecessary in a truck.
Due to their inherent space restrictions, food trucks have no choice but to conserve resources. It’s not physically possible to fit most energy-intensive restaurant equipment, like giant industrial dishwashers, on a truck. Food trucks also have to conserve water, since the average truck can only hold about 40 gallons.
Some argue that the gas consumed when the truck drives to different locations detracts from its eco-friendliness. But if you think about it, it’s a lot more efficient for the food to come to the customers than the other way around.
