The rise of food trucks in the southeastern United States has brick and mortar restaurateurs in panic mode. I can attest to the fear, being an owner of both and starting to migrate my business out of our building and onto the highway. The advantages of the food truck model are too great to overlook, and I predict this the beginning of what may be a cultural change for all the country.

Any traveler to a large American city has probably eaten from a food truck. I remember the first New York hot dog handed through a window near Times Square, the grease pooling under the mustard. I felt less like a tourist and proudly took my first bite while watching the scurry of locals. To the native New Yorker, the food truck is a staple, but the trickle down to my hometown is beginning. Food trucks are new, exciting, and a threat, depending on your perspective.

I signed our restaurant lease and spent half my savings equipping our restaurant to see trucks popping up at a fraction of the cost to steal my business. I was offended, mainly because I had not gone the food truck route myself, but also because I was locked into a five-year deal with no way out. I soon overcame my bruised ego and jumped onboard the food truck craze, hoping it not a fad. Our food truck business has tripled in three years, fad averted, and we are soon to put all our efforts into building this part and foregoing another lease.

Our new “restaurant”

My Food Truck Advantage

1. Mobility. This may seem like a given, but the food truck is mobile. I can now go to my customer. Changes in demographics, competition of surrounding businesses, roadwork in front of my restaurant, are solved by parking the truck in a different location.
2. Labor cost. My restaurant requires more staff. The income to labor ratio is greater than my brick and mortar, and shifts are easier to cover since I can work the truck myself if need be.
3. Working when I want. This point is the main reason for my transition as a business owner. Our restaurant has posted hours which must be manned whether we sell food or not. With a food truck, I can plan events around my schedule and actually take a day off.
4. Flexible menu. Changing our menu in-store is a hassle. Aside from the printing costs, I have to commit to a change for a given time frame. Our food truck menu changes per event. We can focus our menu on our targeted customer with an eraser and a piece of chalk.
5. Depreciate all assets. I lease our restaurant building. The lease is fair, but I still have no depreciation of assets other than our equipment. The food truck is an asset, so the whole “restaurant” depreciates with Section 179 expense. I can use all the depreciation on the food truck, year one, and reduce profits as long as my business is not put at a loss for that year.
6. Public exposure. My food truck is a rolling billboard, a business card for every car we pass. Social media gives me the same advertising opportunities as with our restaurant and I can keep the public informed of where we will be each day.
7. Start-up expense and risk. Signing a lease, equipping a restaurant, paying utilities, extra labor, and insurance is reduced or eliminated with the food truck. Other costs surface like fuel for cooking and the truck itself but these become costs of goods sold and not fixed costs. Without the risk of a building lease, making entry into the business is attainable with a vehicle loan, the ability to cook, and hard work. If your idea fails to catch on, the food truck is easier to sell in this frenzied market, than to pay years on a lease while working at a loss.

I own a restaurant and food truck, but the future is in flexibility. The food truck model trumps brick and mortar in nearly every category, so lower your risk and your blood pressure, and get mobile.