Author Topic: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?  (Read 5178 times)

Gone Fishing

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Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« on: October 29, 2015, 08:36:47 AM »
Running a restaurant is probably too much work post-FIRE, but a food cart might be interesting.  Pick and choose a few prime venues, piggy back on some sight seeing.  Seems like the foodies are getting into eating some great food out of the back of a truck.  What say you?

The_path_less_taken

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2015, 12:27:22 PM »
It's a ton of work, and risk, for not all that much money imho.

Unless you're hitting some sort of circuit: rodeo/fairs/craft shows/games.

And unless it's a pricey resale item: saw somebody talking on a blog about $20 lobster roll sandwiches in NYC.

No idea what the markup is but I guess if you can buy ingredients and mark up a ton...possible. But the sheer amount of time and physical labor is daunting.

Ice cream trucks though....those seem easy and I'd consider one of those.

honeybbq

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2015, 12:29:36 PM »
Permitting and licensing seem like a nightmare.

The_path_less_taken

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2015, 12:52:24 PM »
Permitting and licensing seem like a nightmare.

When I moved back from out of state I inquired: in this state if you buy 'pre-packaged' (crap) food, the licensing is still something like $500 a  year. The paperwork and inspections and health inspections...insane.

If you're cooking from scratch it's even more daunting. So it would have to be something super popular with low overhead/prep and sort of foolproof.

Example: those "elephant ear" modified fry bread things on the west coast....some flour, yeast, sugar and whatever you roll them in...cinnamon sugar, honey, etc.  Crap, but low cost and popular. And ingredients that don't go bad if you have a bad week.

humbleMouse

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2015, 01:43:32 PM »
One of my good friends runs one.  It is successful because the business model is very simple to execute.  The truck only requires one man to operate and the food is pre-prepared in a kitchen and all the truck has in it is an oven and a heat lamp.  That means that each customer interaction is very quick and he can do lots of business in a short period of time.  Closing the truck down only takes like 15 minutes as well.  Minimal cleanup/prep. 

If you are going to do it it is critical to factor in cleanup/prep/customer interaction time per sale.  Many food trucks have way too complex of menus, takes way too much time to prep your food, requires multiple people to run, ect ect.  All of those things are a recipe for failure. 


MrsPete

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2015, 02:07:50 PM »
Food trucks are a trendy thing around here.  We probably have 25-30 in our area, and they have a "food truck rally" on Friday nights.  A bunch of trucks show up and serve really good food.  You never know which trucks are going to show up, but there's always at least a dozen trucks, and they have live music in the summer.  Friday nights aside, I see signs all around town about where they are at different times and places. 

The prices are fairly high, especially considering that your buying out of a truck and sitting in a parking lot to eat, but the crowds are BIG every week. 

As for the hows and why of running the trucks, I don't know.  I just buy food.

m8547

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2015, 05:36:56 PM »
For a while I thought it would be fun to run a food truck. I've changed my mind.

Food trucks used to come to my work for lunch, one a day with a different one every day of the week, repeating the rotation next week. Only two of them still come, but in the last year we might have had 10-15 unique ones.

Almost every week, at least one food truck would break down or someone would get sick and they would not be able to come. When they did come, they didn't get much business. There are about 1000 people here, and almost no good places to purchase food in walking distance. But each food truck would only get about 10-30 customers over a 1.5 hour lunch stop by my estimation. I suspect the prices were too high. Most of them were $7-12 for lunch, which too much for me to buy on a regular basis. Only one of them was really worth it.

A lot of them had complicated food or things that need a lot of prep, so they had to have 2-3 employees working to keep the wait time reasonable. One time I waited 20 minutes for a burger, and there were only about 10 people in line. They would take your order to start cooking, then later take your order again when it was time to pay. Made to order is nice, but they should look at the line and guess how many people might want burgers (at a burger truck).

There's a long list of permits and requirements and taxes and fees for food trucks in this town. They have to be based out of a commercial kitchen, for example. All the requirements add cost and overhead.

I ran some rough numbers, and I don't think it would be profitable to run a food truck unless you can get a large number of customers and serve them efficiently.  It would be a huge amount of work, too.

jacksonvasey

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2015, 06:37:37 PM »
There's a hot dog truck I go to periodically, that does fairly well.  They offer more than a hot dog cart, in that they have like 3 different sausages you can order, and they're griddled rather than steamed.  Anyway, I know they keep things as simple as possible, by getting most of their supplies from Costco, and offering a limited selection.  I think you can get your sausage, a bag of chips, and a wide array of sodas, and that's it.

Service is quick, because most of their business is regular hot dogs, and they have enough experience now to be able to make more or less the right number of other sausages.

My understanding is it's a living, it gives them freedom, and enough money to more or less last through the winter without having to work.  I think they said they work about 6 hours on most days; an hour to set up, 3 hours selling, and 2 hours cleaning up/setting up for the next day.

They did run into a problem about a year and a half ago, where the building in the parking lot they were using got leased to a new restaurant, so they had to move.  They crossed town lines and got a food service permit for the new town, but the new lot they were operating in wasn't zoned for such a thing, so they had to scramble for a new location.  But they ended up in an even better spot now, even though it's no longer close enough for me to walk my dog to it (they keep all the hot dogs at the end of the day to give to dogs they see, which I liked).

Lordy

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #8 on: October 30, 2015, 06:41:41 PM »
I too have considered running a food truck. I can recommend the Food Truck Handbook which you can find on Amazon. It's a good read and will show you all the tiny things you don't think about when you start out.

I came to the conclusion that it would only make sense if I have a kitchen pre-cook stuff and then basically just hand it out from the truck. On-site prep/cooking is too much work, takes a long time and costs you a lot in salaries.

After running the numbers I decided to postpone the project indefinitely. Even if it would be running great I could not live off the income from one truck but it would take a considerable amount of my time that I am not willing to invest (opportunity cost).

kudy

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2015, 06:55:13 PM »
I run a food truck directory website for my local area. What I've learned is, most food truck operators are terrible at marketing.

I've brainstormed concepts that I could try when I "retire" - they would be easy to execute & not require employees/a lot of food prep time. Also, I think I could do a much better job of marketing than most folks. Even with a few advantages over the average truck, I am not sure it'd be a good "retirement" job, because it requires trading time directly for money.

There are lots of opportunities for serving at breweries around here, but there are also a lot of competitors... might be worth trying with the right audience, concept, & schedule.

Spork

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #10 on: October 30, 2015, 07:53:57 PM »
Permitting and licensing seem like a nightmare.

I am sure this varies by location.

Wife & I looked into this not quite 10 years ago.  We talked to the health department and they said (I'm paraphrasing, obviously) "We do not want your dirty, filthy food truck in our town, you low life hippie scum."

I'm not sure they said it in those words, but... it was sort of something like that.

They did, however say... (paraphrasing again) "We would absolutely LOVE to have that sparkling clean food truck attend our fairs and carnivals and anything where you would be buying a permit every week.  We think you guys are awesome and would like to see you succeed."

In short: Our city/county doesn't want to deal with food trucks as a real business, but they'd love to sell single use permits.

carameltooth

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #11 on: October 30, 2015, 08:18:44 PM »
It's a ton of work, and risk, for not all that much money imho.

Unless you're hitting some sort of circuit: rodeo/fairs/craft shows/games.

And unless it's a pricey resale item: saw somebody talking on a blog about $20 lobster roll sandwiches in NYC.

No idea what the markup is but I guess if you can buy ingredients and mark up a ton...possible. But the sheer amount of time and physical labor is daunting.

Ice cream trucks though....those seem easy and I'd consider one of those.

All of this...
I have worked part-time in a couple different food trucks, both of which the owners are chef friends of mine who own the business.  It is literally a restaurant on wheels so there are all types of problems, issues and hassles.  Permitting, storage, maintenance, staffing, consistency, food safety and handling, etc.  If you have a successful restaurant past coupled with some handyman and killer problem-solving skills you might be able to make some money but you are going to work real hard and sweat a lot to do it....

Cypher

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #12 on: October 30, 2015, 10:04:52 PM »
Couldn't give you the financial numbers on those things but we have an unbelievable food cart scene here.  There are over six hundred of them all around the city.  They are located in pods throughout the city and generally stay put so not moving around daily.  Restaurant quality food in many of them for ten bucks a pop.  Many of them have been around for years so they must be making something.  If I do eat out I usually eat at one of them.  There is a vegan BBQ cart that is my favorite place in Portland to eat.   

clarkfan1979

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #13 on: October 30, 2015, 10:35:15 PM »
There are opportunities. There was an old man that had a hot dog cart stationed in downtown Bloomington Illinois near the Illinois State University bars. He would be open from about 10:00 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. on Friday nights and Saturday nights. He probably sold around 400 hotdogs a night at 3/each. There was usually a constant line after midnight. However, he kind of had a cult following.

SwordGuy

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Re: Anyone run a mobile food cart/trailer/truck?
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2015, 07:34:38 AM »

If you're cooking from scratch it's even more daunting. So it would have to be something super popular with low overhead/prep and sort of foolproof.


I used to do consulting work in Tampa, FL.  There was a young lady on the side of the road who sold truly awful hotdogs at inflated prices 
But she looked and dressed like this:

I suspect she did a stiff business.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!