Taking it on the Road… Are you in danger of losing your restaurant or closing down for the winter? Starting a Food Truck may be your way to survive.

Many restaurants and food service providers have been using outdoor seating to continue their

business through the pandemic. They are also no doubt stressed about the upcoming winter and

not having enough space inside to keep things running whether they are in warm climates or cold.

If this sounds like what you’re facing, think about “taking it on the road” and making your

business a mobile one.  Here are a bunch of reasons why:

• Low startup costs. Opening a high end restaurant can have you looking at a startup costs of

          $500k or more. A food truck can cost as little as $50k.

• Facilities Costs. If you are keeping your existing restaurant’s kitchen open, then you have

          no worries regarding food prep, storage and cooking. However, if you need a kitchen, there

          are a growing number of cloud kitchens to choose from (insert link to cloud kitchen article)
          and also probably some restaurants in your area who would be happy to make a buck letting
          you use their kitchen at off-hours.

• No Dining related costs. There’s no dining room to heat, light and clean.  Instead, you only

          pay for parking permits, if needed. 

• Reduction in staff costs and headaches.  Managing people’s schedules, performance,

          training, and personal issues is time consuming. “Taking it on the road” means a much
          smaller staff, fewer headaches, less of your time, and lower costs.

• Build a catering business. Mobile food trucks will give you the opportunity to go to where

          the food is needed, and it also provides an opportunity to cater.

• Quality of life. Imagine getting out in the fresh air as part of your work. A food truck

          business gives you the flexibility of working in a variety of locations, and when you want.

During the summer of 2020 the city of Boston, MA started a food truck initiative to launch a

temporary site for food trucks to come and cater their food to the public. If cities can come

together and secure a site for food trucks to operate during the winter months then the idea

of going out to eat can be saved! 

Another example of this comes from Burlington, VT where every Friday food trucks gather

together at a site called “ArtsRiot”. An event is hosted called “Food Truck Friday” which

brings together many people around Burlington to try out food they have never had before.

This is unique because food trucks from all over Vermont come to one spot where people come

and enjoy new food while helping restaurant owners stay in business.

Food trucks can be fairly similar to a business named “CloudKitchens” which is a food service

business that prepares food in a kitchen that can be ordered and delivered to customers where

there is hardly any direct contact with workers. Food trucks can do something along those lines

as well! A food truck can offer a delivery service that makes and prepares food orders in the

truck then delivers the order to customers with their mobile food truck. This is different from

“CloudKitchens” because there is no need for a place to be rented out to use the kitchen, rather

they can do all the food preparation in the truck and on the move where they can get food out

to their customers safely and efficiently. 

If you’re looking to start a food truck now, click here to learn about the National Food Truck

Association (NFTA) COVID-19 assistance program. 

Finally, to make facilities management even easier in your mobile food truck, download

TableBoost’s free restaurant equipment repair and maintenance app that will help you

organize and maintain your equipment and systems. TableBoost will help ensure that

your business’ equipment works properly wherever you may be, so you can keep taking your

business on the road.

Click here to return to TableBoost.com