I’m interested in maybe working towards opening up one of my own some day, and would love to get any advice from those who have experience with these mobile food spots. It’s be in the Pittsburgh area. I’ve checked out most of the usual web sites for general information about the whole deal, I’m hoping that some of you might be able to provide some wisdom gained from first-hand experience.
I’m with you! I’d love to have a food truck. There is a HUGE industrial park that recently ramped up in my area. Probably thousands of workers and (well, a year ago), one little place like Subway, and a gas station mini-mart.
I figured roll up there early, serve the coffee and breakfast burrito crowd, hang around till early afternoon, sell a bunch of burgers and sandwiches, roll home before dark.
But I’m too lazy. 
Good luck!
I know the people who own and operate Pittsburgh Tortas and Dad’s Mobile Grub, two Pittsburgh area food trucks that mostly serve breweries and events. I can tell you that they work hard. If things are going well, they are crazy-busy and pulling their hair out. If things are not crazy-busy, they aren’t making money. They work mostly 6 pm to 10 pm, but there is prep work and cleaning that also needs to be taken care of.
I’ve never worked a truck but I’ve worked in a number of kitchens, and I’ll just note that running a food service business is a lot more work than most people expect or can even comprehend; it is basically everything that goes into running a normal small business practice combined with a daily grind of shopping, cooking, and cleaning for dozens if not hundreds of people. If you really want to do this, get a toe in the water by working for someone else first before investing your own money, and make sure you research the market and write a clear business plan, then have it reviewed by someone who has worked in the business and gone through failures so they can highlight all of the problems that your plan will inevitably underestimate or overlook.
You don’t say whether you are thinking about opening a gourmet truck or one of the ‘white’ catering trucks or corner carts that sells more basic food. If the former, beware of trying to get too clever; it is best to keep your menu pretty simple and limit the number of different ingredients to reduce your wastage and minimize prep, and then make connections with local microbreweries, event organizers, and most importantly police who can either ticket you for any minor infraction or look the other way while you set up in a parking lot without going through the hoops of getting a single event pemit every time. If the latter, the owners who are established are jealously protective of their routes or corners and you are pretty much going to have to buy an established truck/cart and route off of someone else. And these guys are no joke; this is their livelihood and they do not hesitate to make legal claims to harrass competitors or vandalize trucks in order to drive off competition.
I have known a few people who have run trucks and they all described it as a “labor of love”. Not a single one of them runs a truck or even works in food service now, though. Some people do make a go of it, and even franchise out their concept (which is probably the only way to make real money at it) but it can be a grind to go through the daily work while trying to build a route and attract customers, and a single setback like mechanical problems with the truck can turn into a major setback.
Stranger
Hard work. I have volunteered for a group for many years and they have a food truck.
It’s tight quarters, it’s hot. There is not room enough to have plenty of help. Keep the menu simple. Keep choices limited. We never had room enough for drinks, we always run out of them before we sold out of food.
Not to mention how expensive they are.
If you don’t have experience;
Working a steady job with off shift hours,
Working serving John Q Public everyday,
Working in food service environment,
Then you should really reconsider. Try and get some experience on all three fronts before investing your money or time.
Good Luck !
I’ve only worked one multi-day festival on a food truck, which was about as basic as it got when it came to food (training was about 2 minutes, hygiene questionable) but it was pretty interesting. The whole row of different trucks, all serving different food styles and appearing to be different stalls, were actually all run by one family. They were pretty ruthless and I think they had to be to make decent money.
When it was busy, there were 4 people flat out per truck, plus two at the back getting change and stocking up with drinks and stuff. When it was quiet, it was dead. I’ve worked in cafes before, so a lunch rush is nothing new, but the food truck was even more all-or-nothing. You could almost hear the money trickling away during the quiet spells.
The food was poor quality, overpriced, served by minimum wage staff who mostly had no idea what they were doing, and we were serving as fast as we could for hours straight each day. Despite that, I was told on the last day by one of the regular staff that they’d barely broken even on the week, so they wouldn’t be back next year.
Yeah, i kinda figured what most of you are saying; I’ve been reading some horror stories of how cutthroat the competition is, especially in major markets. I’m thinking a big part of whether or not I’ll attempt something will depend on where exactly I end up moving to and what kind of competition/market is there. I don’t expect to get anything going in the city proper unless I somehow come up with an absolutely amazing gimmick/trademark food item or something. I’m not holding my breath on that one.
I’ve worked in food service doing pretty much everything except bartending, so I’m not entirely unexperienced. It’s been a while, though. Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
Would a food trailer be better to start with rather than a truck? It seems like your costs would be lower since you wouldn’t have all those truck-related costs.
Restaurants often fail. You should understand why they do and have a plan for why yours won’t. It’s not such a big deal if you’re doing it as a lark with fun money, but you don’t want to be planning on retirement income from your food truck profits.
Do you have any unique food ideas? Sometimes if you get get word of mouth going, you can be successful even with a limited menu or non-ideal location. But if it’s just a generic sandwich, hotdog, or whatever truck, you’ll have to be in a prime location.
Is Pittsburgh a food truck kind of town? What is the scene there like? Some towns are crazy for food trucks and welcome all kinds of wacky concepts, while others have them as regular just food for construction and office workers.
I haven’t worked a food truck, but many years ago my landlord at the time did. For reasons I don’t want to get into, he couldn’t follow his original line of business, and needed another source of income (being a landlord certainl;y didn’t bring in enough by itself), so he decided to get one of those trucks whose sides look like quilted aluminum foil, and sold Italian food from aluminum pans in it, along with various packaged foods, sodas, coffee, and the like. He had a regular circuit that he went through every day, then brought the food truck back home.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t particularly fastidious. He dumped the uneaten food behind his garage until the neighbors started to complain, then he simply dumped it into the garbage cans, until the flies became intolerable. We renters got together and dumped insecticide into the garbage cans, which caused a sort of explosion of maggots. It was wonderfully disgusting.
He was also kinda lax in the way he cleaned up – he simply used the garden hose to wash the truck out, which resulted in a huge ice slick in the winter. His ill-treatment of the hose lead to a deterioration of the faucet over the next few months, until it became inoperable.
Moral: Don’t skimp on proper waste disposal and cleanup. You’ll save money at first, but eventually you’ll piss off all your neighbors and reap the consequences.
Speaking only for the brewery end of things, yes, food trucks are popular. As PA’s liquor laws have softened, allowing breweries, food trucks are struggling to keep up (most breweries here lack kitchens). A brewery that cannot offer food (via a truck) rapidly losses business, IME.
You probably understand this but it bears saying explicitly; a good “gimmick/trademark” is well and good, but what will dictate success is building relationships with event organizers or other ‘clients’ and controlling costs is key to success. While the people buying your food are your customers, it is the people inviting you to serve at their event or brewery who are going to give you the advantage to be successful or not. And having a memorable schtick is important, but what will spread worth of mouth and have people going to where you are act and bringing their friends is serving consistently excellent food which can be tough even in a restaurant and really challenging in the limitations of a food van.
But if you really want to do it and you’ve put together a good plan, don’t let me discourage you. There are some great food trucks out there that have been around for years so they must be clearing a profit. Like everything in food service, the margin between success and failure can be very thin and requires constant dilligence and vigilance to control costs and wastage.
Stranger
I would go with a cart rather than a truck, unless you intend on driving it to different events. Even then, I’d rather tow it than drive it. With a truck, you have all the problems of the gear in the rear plus the maintenance of the vehicle. It’s also easier to sell a cart than a truck, I would think.
You need to be creative, and be ready to change your menu often. If you are waiting to come up with that food trademark/gimmick before opening your truck, then you should probably have a list of the next 4-5 ideas so you can easily change and be flexible to your market. And also be prepared for competitors to copy your food idea of it’s a good one.
If you end up doing this for real, and do not mind heading east of the city, I can help put you in touch with some local breweries who are looking to establish relationships with food truck folks. IME the important thing is to schedule far enough ahead so that you can get word out on Facebook, etc and have a good crowd on your night.
But keep an item or two that you become known for. If we go to a brewery Friday night because Dad’s Mobile Grub is there, and for some reason they do not have their almost famous gyro, I’d be sad.
Another tip: be sure to have some discounted packages, drinkers are easy to up sell when we think we’re getting a bargain. So, an $11 sandwhich and $6 fries are both fine, but offering that sandwhich with fries for $15 and your fryer basket will be in the grease all night.
Or a particular cuisine. The local Cajun cart rarely changes its menu, and some carts only specialize in a few items, but they always have lines waiting for orders.
Good article on food trucks in the Washington Post today. Probably worth a look to get some layout ideas.
Thanks again for all the replies and advice, I’m definitely taking it all in.
I have no personal experience, except as a customer of food trucks and food carts. But food trucks have become so popular in recent years that it’s probably difficult to compete. Take a look, for example, at this photo of the food trucks gathered at Long Wharf in New Haven Connecticut. The photo shows seven food trucks in a line (and there may be more out of the frame). So people will travel there just to try the various foods offered by the different trucks. I imagine you would have to be offering something special to be able to stand out in the crowd.
