I own a food truck and operate between three counties. I have to submit sales tax to each county for the days I was selling there. How do you keep track of this when you’re moving frequently?

I plan on retiring from the military in the coming years and have gotten into cooking. I feel like Ive found the path i wanna take, but i have zero experience in the food industry. My plan is to get a truck and haul a food trailer. I have a theme picked out (id like to keep it a secret since i feel that it would give me an edge in the area i live since no one else is doing it).

Is it worth going to college to learn how to run a culinary business?

What are some must haves?

What are some things or scenarios i need to watch out for?

I anticipate taking out a business loan to get started (around 200k), what are some things that would be a good investment other than a vehicle/trailer?

What recommendations should i consider when building my reputation?

What are some social media do's and dont's?

Hello awesome people,

18 months ago my super talented wife started a small venture, where she cooks very healthy, nutritious indian meals and deliver for free within souther suburbs of Cape Town. With a lot of support from our neighbors, we deliver 80-100 meals each week, making a decent profit.

We have grown the customer base by using all our neighborhood Whatsapp groups and posting our weekly menus, for customers to place an order with us. With this we have ~200 customers that we reach out to each week directly as well. Some of the what's app groups changed their rules about posting anything to be sold, and hence the response has been slow from our usual Whatsapp msgs.

What has worked for us so far, is really yummy and reasonably priced food, free delivery, a lean team for all the cooking at home and word of mouth.

To grow our customer base we are busy building a simple website and social media strategy to not depend on WA alone for sharing our weekly menus.

Also a few weeks ago, we bought a small food trailer to start selling our meals at busy locations. With all licenses and permits done, we plan to start trading next weekend at access park in Kenilworth.

At access park, this food truck park is being set up and there is a lot of waiting for vendors like us to book a spot. With that in mind, we are looking at other locations and communicating with CoCT for permission to trade at Newlands forest parking area.

I am basically looking for advise on the following to grow our business.

1. Does paid ads on Instagram covert to sales and what would be a simple strategy for a small business like ours.
2. What other spots should we look at to trade using our food trailer? We would like to have a regular spot that we book for each weekend, unlike one day events and pop up markets.
3. Should we venture into selling frozen meals as well?

Thanks in advance for reading this long post and helping us.

We have a food trailer. We did not have a commissary kitchen close, so bought a portable building and turned it into a commissary kitchen. We are wanting to sell it now. Are there any food truck sale sites that would let us list our building? Here is my Facebook post about the kitchen. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/14jnhJbP4h/

Hi everyone,

I recently spent a few days helping a friend with his food truck, and I noticed how much time was spent taking orders and handling payments during a shift.

As a developer, this gave me an idea: what if there was an app that allowed food truck customers to place their orders online and pay directly—via card, cash, or online payment? Customers could also schedule orders for the next day or even several days in advance.

They’d access the food truck’s page by scanning a QR code displayed on the truck, flyers, or other materials. The app would also let food truck owners manage their locations and schedules easily.

The result? No more wasted time taking orders or processing payments!

The business model I’m considering is a subscription fee for food truck owners, rather than taking commissions on each order.

Do you think this idea is interesting? If not, why?
How much would you be willing to pay monthly or yearly for a service like this?

Thanks for your thoughts! 😊

Curious if anyone has ever bought a food truck or trailer built by Kitchens on Wheels Canada in Alexandria, Ontario. If so, what was your experience dealing with the company and with the finished product?

Hi, I am considering entering the food & entertainment truck business world.

Just wondering where people with commercial sized trucks (or entertainment trailers) park overnight or when not in use? How much should I expect to pay for a secure facility?

Hi all! A different question than what most are used to seeing here: how do you efficiently collect tips on your POS? My dad runs a food truck, and he has his handheld POS where he puts in the order, takes the consumers card, taps/swipes/insert, then hands back the whole device for the consumer to input any tip. Is there a more efficient way? I personally don't like it because the screen size of the handheld POS to me limits how fast orders can be taken as opposed to a tablet/swiveling tablet. But a swivel POS can't be handed to a customer from a truck unlike a coffee shop.

Thanks for any input!

I am looking to start a new food truck. Anyone able to shed light on what a day/month in the life looks like? Questions:

1. How do you find a spot to park?
   1. How long does it take to find a new spot?
   2. Sign an official lease?
   3. Pay for utilities yourself or does landlord?
2. Events - how do you find events to go to? Do you reach out or do coordinators reach out to you?
3. Other admin work that isn't easy/straightforward?
4. Other difficulties you didn't know about before starting?
5. Best part of the job?
6. Worst part of the job?

Want to make sure I have a complete picture of what I might be getting into!

What websites or services do y'all use if you want to change locations? Do you call around, send emails, or is there a go-to site?

Disclaimer, I'm getting my feet wet in the business. Hope my question isn't too basic :)

Anyone out there operate out of a Dodge / Mercedes Sprinter van?

We're wondering about the feasibility of putting a hood / ANSUL into one of the high roof models. Seen a few selling food out in the wild, but never w/ a hood.

Looking to avoid p30 step vans that can barely get up to 60mph

Hi everyone, I am so devastated regarding choosing locations! I’ve been running my food truck for a little while now, and one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is figuring out the best spots to park. Some locations seem great at first but don’t always turn out as profitable as I hoped.

I’d love to hear how other food truck owners approach this. How do you decide if it is worth trying that new spot? How do you decide which spots are worth returning to?

This is so challenging issue for me. Especially if i want to try a new spot. It can be a waste of time to spend couple of hours and not get the return you hoped for.

Any advice or insight would be awesome—I’m all ears!

Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom and helping me 🙏

Hello, food truck owners!

I'm a video editor and motion designer from Peru, and I've been working with food trucks and restaurants for several months, helping them improve their social media presence. I offer services like flyers, animated flyers, video edits,schedules, content scheduling, and anything else you might need for your social media.

I work at affordable rates and offer a free week to try out my services with no commitment. When I first started, I had the chance to work with some members of this subreddit, and the results were excellent. Now, I’d love to work with more members of this community.

If you're interested in working together or have any questions, feel free to reply to this post or DM me!

Hi, I am planning to support my mom set up a food truck business from scratch. We have no experience. Any tips on the process and how to get started?

So I’m looking at my hood exhaust on the roof and it’s looking pretty dirty. Does anyone have any tips on cleaning?

Do you go through a company to clean it? Do you diy? And how to diy?

Thanks everyone!

I work for a company opening a restaurant that includes a permanent food truck. I'm working with MEP engineers to plan the building and I'm trying to figure out what the needs of the food truck will be, i.e. gas, electrical, water, wastewater. The truck isn't actually going to leave the premises and we want to have the utilities come from the main restaurant. We are going to rent the truck to local start-ups on a rotating basis, so we want to make it versatile for a variety of concepts. We will be buying an existing truck and modifying it as necessary. We want to avoid running exterior extension cords and hoses, etc. Does anyone here have experience with a similar setup?

Can anyone help with getting my truck connected with a commissary in the Philadelphia/NJ area? It appears as a food truck owner it's a lot of hurdles and negative energy. Do we as people still help one another?

Just curious if this is something people enjoy, or if it’s strictly for the money

Thinking of opening a food cart as a small business startup for some limited items !!!

Hey food truck and catering business owners, with lots of festivals being announced for 2025 can you share any tips on getting started. Some questions I have are below, thanks!

Are festivals really as lucrative as they seem or do they just even out in the end?

What kind of experience do festival company’s like to see in new companies joining the scene?

Every festival is different but has anyone noticed a difference in festivals that have different genres? I.e. rock music festivals, country music festivals, pop/Coachella type festivals, etc.

Caterers: Has working festivals ever increased your business outside or the festival scene? Increased exposure for private events?

Can anyone share pics of their festival set ups? Love to see how you utilize the space and inspire organization for others!

Anyone worked or signed up for when we were young, warped tour, sick new world, inkcarceration, welcome to rockville, Coachella, terminal v, edc, electric forest? Care to share your thoughts?

How are you calculating the price you charge your customers, is it determined by the festival or do you get to decide?

Anyone else looking to get started and want to chat as well! That would be so helpful for both of us!

Thank so much!

I’m a new chicken and rice (Pakistani style) food truck in SoCal… what are some tips or advice you can share with a newbie! Unexpected surprises? One concern of mine is I have limited refrigerator space, how do you manage with that?

I swear. These trucks are everywhere. . I don't understand the boners for their food. It's boring overpriced. Maybe I'm east coast born n breed. So I'm biased. We are here in Midwest and cousins is setting up at a freaking Boba T places. Wtf. Eventually the hard on is gonna go limp for these over priced lobster boats. Anyone care to share their insights.