Is there anyone here that owns or has owned a food truck?

I'm thinking of trying to get my parents to help me out with opening a food truck. I live in a town of around 14,000 people, however it's a mainly industrial town with lots of people working in the factories. Finding employment has not been easy over the past year, and I would love to be my own boss, I also love to cook. Fare would be simple, filling food such as hamburgers, sandwiches, soups, just general hearty food to start with. The reason I think it would be successful is the fact that we have no food trucks here, I think with the all of the factories that it could be a lucrative business.

If anyone here has ever had such a venture, I'd love to know how it worked out, how much the licensing is and if you have any tips.

Any input appreciated.

In a town of 14,000 ... that could have its pros and cons. Statistically, people are more likely to buy from someone they know (and I'm assuming they also like you) ... however, you might be beating your head against the wall trying to cover food and gas costs if sales don't add up.

But if you really want to go through with this, I don't know where you live ... but generally it's always the same rule: keep hot beverages in the winter and cold beverages/ice cream in the summer. Try to get your menu as simple as possible and add your own twist to everything you make (i.e. make your burgers with a 50/50 ground pork/ground beef mix ... or even just add bits of ham to the chuck. It's your business. Get creative with it).

Also, I'd look into licensing fees and laws for mobile restaurants. With such a small town, you might need to go to the county. Where I live, the laws and fees are draconian at best. Usually, you cannot operate a food truck out of your own kitchen, so you'd either have to find a commercial kitchen you can use or you could just keep all your food in multiple freezers at your house and cook them all up in the truck (depending on whether you want to spend $1500 on a trailer or a cool half million on a top of the line truck.)

go for it but first check on your areas licencing and laws plus you might have to grease a few palms in local goverment .

go round factorys and offer them daily deliverys of sandwiches a hot box in a small van and a part time driver plus look on ebay for a vehicle and phone previous owners and pick their brains good luck .

You are going to need about 100k to get off the ground. It's a worthwhile venture if you are serious about it and you have the wherewithal.

If not, just a pipe dream.

Some cities only allow a certain number of vendor permits per type of business/vendor too, so you have to check if you can even do it first. Then look into regulations like fire, food safety, etc.

If you do it properly, 3-6 months to get off the ground. If you cut corners... Maybe faster but you will make less in the long run too.

Been doing it for 30 years +.

you best sit down and figure out just how many burgers and dogs you gotta sell to make ends meet.

unless your city has its own health department you will need to be state inspected.

you will need food safety certification. big time insurance for liability. like others said a commercial kitchen.

best of luck to you.

not a bad racket if you dont mind, no vacation, no sick days, no 401k plan, no health insurance,
no unemployment insurance, and paying thru your ass for taxes.

reply to post by dave_welch


You'll also have to know when these industrial sites give their breaks to their employees. Often they overlap and you'll be hard-pressed to be everywhere at once. Finding the more profitable businesses can be costly and time consuming.

Food storage will also be a factor. What you don't sell you'll have to donate or throw away after a period of time.

Maybe a small bar & grill near one of the larger sites might be better and definitely easier if zoning allows it.

There are a couple of websites in start ups.

www.dummies.com...

No! I'm not calling you a dummy.