Food Trucks & Mobile Vending · 6 min read · Last updated
The 4 Day Event Licence is Hamilton's short-term option for a food truck or cart that wants to work one event rather than a full season. It is open to Class B and Class C vehicles, it costs less than an annual licence, and no municipal plate number is assigned. The trade-off is that you file most of an annual application for four days of trading, which is why the City actively encourages upgrading if you plan to do more than one event.
The City of Hamilton lists this under its “Mobile” category: “FOOD SERVICE VEHICLE - 4 DAY EVENT LICENCE, By-law 07-170, Schedule 6. Available to Class B and C Food Service Vehicles ONLY. A Municipal Plate Number will not be assigned for event licences.”
Who needs this permit?
The 4 Day Event Licence is available to Class B and Class C food service vehicles only. Class A, being non-travelling and site specific, is not eligible, and neither is an unlicensed operator who has skipped the class question entirely.
The licence exists for a specific situation: you want to trade at an event rather than run a season. It covers a short window rather than a licence year.
One structural difference is worth planning around. No municipal plate number is assigned for event licences. If your business model depends on carrying a municipal plate, this is not the route to it.
The City is unusually direct about the alternative. Upgrading from a 4 Day Event Licence to an annual food service vehicle licence is available at any time during the calendar year, and the guide actively encourages it, on the basis that it gives you the flexibility to attend multiple events and saves both time and money.
What documents do you need?
The event licence applies the same annual application requirements as the underlying class, which is the part applicants underestimate. It is not a light-touch permit.
- Completed Business Licence Application Form.
- Business registration, corporate profile or master business licence dated within one year.
- Valid liability insurance of no less than two million per occurrence with the City of Hamilton listed as an additional insured, plus third party liability of no less than two million per occurrence.
- Vehicle safety certification dated within 36 days of the application, matched to the weight of the vehicle or combination.
- Written permission from the event organizer.
- Vehicle ownership, if applicable.
- A list of the food and refreshments you will sell, specifying how each item will be refrigerated or heated.
- A spill containment plan, including how and where grey water and grease will be disposed of.
- A description of the vehicle with photographs of all four sides and a clear view of the Ontario licence plate.
The event organizer's written permission is the item that has no equivalent in the annual licences, where you file a property owner's permission instead. It confirms you have a place at the event you are naming.
The vehicle safety certificate runs on the same 36 day clock as the annual licence, and that is the timing trap. A certificate obtained two months before a summer festival will be out of date by the time you file.
Run the arithmetic before you commit. If you expect to attend three or four events in a year, filing this package repeatedly costs more in fees and effort than a single annual licence, which is exactly the point the City is making when it encourages the upgrade.
Zoning and premises requirements
There is no Zoning Verification Certificate in the event licence checklist. You are trading inside someone else's event, on a footprint the organiser controls, for a few days.
What replaces it is the organiser's written permission. That document is the equivalent of the property owner permission in the annual licences: it establishes that you are entitled to be where you say you will be.
Zoning applies to where the business operates rather than to the licence holder. The event as a whole sits on land that has its own permissions, and the organiser carries that responsibility, not each individual vendor.
If your plans change and you start trading outside events at your own chosen locations, you are no longer inside this licence, and the annual Class B or Class C licence with its conditional zoning requirements is the right route.
Inspections and approvals
Two inspections are circulated by the Licensing Team after the application is received, exactly as for an annual licence.
- Health Inspection: food handling, hot and cold holding, hand washing, water supply and waste water, and the sourcing and temperature handling you declared.
- Licensing Inspection: the vehicle against your description and photographs and against the by-law requirements for the class.
This is the strongest argument for applying early. Both inspections have to happen before your event, on the City's timetable rather than yours, and an event date is not a reason for them to move.
A four day licence does not get a lighter inspection than an annual one. The same vehicle serving the same food to the public is assessed the same way, and a failure found two days before a festival is very hard to recover from.
How much does it cost?
The City sets the amounts in its fee schedule and confirms them when you apply. The event package is:
- A processing fee, with HST.
- A licence fee for the event licence, no HST, set well below the annual Class A or Class B licence fee.
- A health inspection fee, with HST.
The licence fee is the only line that is discounted for the short duration. The processing fee and the health inspection fee are charged in full, which is why the savings shrink quickly if you file more than once.
That structure is the arithmetic behind the City's advice to upgrade. Attend a few events on separate short licences and you will have paid the processing and inspection charges several times over for less flexibility than one annual licence would have given you.
The upgrade to an annual food service vehicle licence is available at any time during the calendar year, so the decision does not have to be made before your first event.
How to apply
Confirm your pitch and get the event organizer's written permission. Nothing else in the application is worth starting until you know you have a place at the event.
Book the vehicle safety inspection so the certificate falls within 36 days of when you will file, and arrange liability and third party liability cover at no less than two million per occurrence with the City of Hamilton listed as an additional insured.
Prepare the menu list, spill containment plan and photographs of all four sides with the plate clearly visible, and complete the business licence application form for the event and dates.
File with Licensing and By-law Services and pay the fees, leaving real time before the event for the health and licensing inspections to be circulated and cleared. If a second event is already in your calendar, ask about upgrading to an annual licence instead.
Renewals and staying compliant
An event licence is not renewed. It covers the event it was issued for and then it is finished.
Another event means another application, with the same document set, another processing fee, another health inspection fee and another round of inspections on the City's schedule.
The intended path out of that cycle is the upgrade. Moving to an annual Class B or Class C licence is available at any time during the calendar year, and the City recommends it for anyone attending multiple events.
If you do upgrade, the annual licence brings its own renewal obligations: a Declaration B, repeat health and licensing inspections, and current insurance, propane and vehicle safety documentation where applicable, with a reinstatement fee if you let it lapse.
Quick quiz: test what you learned
Three questions, all answered in this guide. Click an answer to check it.
1. What does a 4 Day Event Licence not include that an annual food service vehicle licence does?
The City states that a municipal plate number will not be assigned for event licences, while both inspections and the insurance requirement still apply.
2. Which document replaces the property owner's written permission for an event licence?
Because you are trading inside someone else's event footprint, the organiser's written permission stands in for the landowner permission used in annual licences.
3. Why does the City encourage upgrading from a 4 Day Event Licence to an annual licence?
The guide says the upgrade is available at any time in the calendar year and is encouraged because it allows attendance at multiple events while saving time and money.
Skip the paperwork
Tell Permits2Go about your business and it assembles the permit application for you — document checklists, e-signatures and a guided workspace for Hamilton, with more cities on the way.
This guide is general information, not legal or professional advice. Licensing requirements, by-laws and fees change and vary by municipality — always confirm the current rules with the City before you apply.