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City of Sydney

City of Sydney Council · NSW

Food Truck Registration Fee
$600/yr
Per year — food truck registration
Coffee van / low-risk vehicle: $400/yr
Realistically from $990/yr all-in
Principal approval $600 + annual food administration fee $390 (up to 5 food handlers). Drops to $695 if your handlers are classed low-risk ($95 admin), or to $870 with a 5-star Scores on Doors rating ($270 admin). Vehicles already approved by another NSW council use the $120 recognition pathway instead of the $600 principal approval. Inspection $247/half hour is charged only where a visit returns a high or moderate result.
Lead Time
56 days
PLI Required
$10M min
Renewal
Renews Sep
SOT Required
Yes
State
NSW
Fee Verified
2025-06

What you need to know

Two vehicle types: (1) Food trucks ($600/year) — sell potentially hazardous food cooked to order. (2) Food vans ($400/year) — restricted to low-risk food or low-risk practices such as frothing milk for coffee or selling ice cream. Submit concept design at least 8 weeks before trading (food trucks). Applications lodged by email, mail, or in person at Town Hall House. Both require: $10M public liability insurance, $10M third-party property damage insurance, food safety supervisor certificate, vehicle registration, trade waste permit from Sydney Water, operational plan of management. Trading hours: CBD area 8am–3am; other areas 9am–midnight. Separate restricted areas and exclusion zones map applies. Food trucks must have consent of land owner to trade on private or Council land. Local approvals policy last updated September 2025.

Apply for your licence

Submit your application directly on the council website. Allow 56 days for approval.

Apply Now →

Public Liability Insurance

City of Sydney requires a minimum of $10M public liability cover. Arrange this before you lodge your application — councils will not approve without a current certificate of currency.

Fees sourced from City of Sydney Council published fee schedules. Verified: 2025-06. FIGURES NOW CORROBORATED BY A SECOND SOURCE, BUT STILL 2025-26. ABLIS (the Commonwealth business licence service) independently publishes City of Sydney mobile food vending approval fees as food truck $600 / food van $400, explicitly labelled "Fees for 2025-26" — matching the figure shown here. Council itself has not published a 2026-27 figure: its mobile food vendor page (forms last modified 16 July 2026) quotes only "at least $400", the food van tier. So $600 is the correct amount to quote as the latest published fee, but it is a 2025-26 figure and no 2026-27 schedule was locatable as at 11 August 2026. TWO CHARGES WORTH KNOWING ABOUT: (1) a RECOGNITION APPROVAL at $120 for vehicles already holding a principal approval from another NSW council; (2) a SEPARATE annual food administration fee on top of the MFV approval ($390 for up to 5 food handlers, $95 if low-risk handlers), reduced to $270 for businesses holding a 5-star Scores on Doors rating. Adopted fees are open access information under the GIPA Act — request by email at council@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au rather than phoning. Always confirm before applying.