Why is your food truck not "For Hire"?

• Posted on 1 December 2025
• By Skyler Spartan
• 0

Ever wonder why so many food trucks are closing permanently?
Here’s an honest look at what the public usually doesn’t see, and why we're so picky about what events we choose to take our Food Truck to.

We get asked on a pretty regular basis if we will bring our food truck to birthday parties, office lunches, community events, etc.

There are a few reasons why this isn't really feasible for us, chief amongst which are outlined below.

1. Event Fees

Many events charge trucks $50–$1,000 just to show up — and that fee doesn’t include food, labor, gas, supplies, or travel. Slow events often mean trucks lose money before they even begin.

2. Lack of Transparency

Some coordinators aren’t upfront about how many trucks will be there. Most trucks only find out after they arrive — and the crowd is divided too thin. This problem is amplified if a truck has overestimated the amount food they need due to the coordinator not being up front about this, leaving them with a lot of waste, which also means wasted money. 

3. Marketing Burden

Many events rely on food trucks to promote the event for them, meaning the advertising workload falls on the trucks, not the organizers. This is a major problem for the food vendors because it isn't even their event to promote in the first place seeing as how in a fair amount of cases they are the ones who have been asked to be a part of the event to begin with.

4. Rising Food Costs

Ingredients have skyrocketed. Some items cost nearly double what they did in 2024. Pricing becomes a balancing act between staying afloat and not scaring off customers. Truthfully, it can be a daunting task making sure you're providing good value while trying to watch your expenses.

5. Insurance Requirements

Food truck owners must carry commercial auto insurance AND separate commercial liability insurance. Both are required. Both are expensive.

6. Permits & Taxes

When you add up the fees for state permits + personal property taxes, commercial plates (varies by county), the separate permit you must have if you have a commissary kitchen like we do...these fees add up, and most people don't consider what it costs just to exist, let alone make a living.

7. Safety Inspections

Trucks with hood vents or fire suppression systems need inspections every 6 months: $120–$250 each time. Fortunately for us, we aren't subject to this, but a lot of food trucks are.

8. Unlimited Competition

There’s no cap on how many trucks a county can approve. Oversaturation = fewer sales per truck.

9. Commissary Requirements

Most states require a commissary kitchen: $200–$600/month seems to be an average figure. We only wish ours was that inexpensive.

There are trucks in our area that are fully self-contained, but space can be very cramped in them, and operating on a commercial scale with miniature everything to get the job done takes a special breed of people to operate that way.

10. Other Operating Costs

✔ ServSafe certifications

✔ Business licenses

✔ Sales tax filing

✔ Generator fuel

✔ Equipment repairs

✔ Cleaning supplies

✔ Storage fees

✔ Health department renewals

✔ Propane

✔ Disposable serving items

11. BBQ food prep isn't like other styles of food

It's generally a 3 (long) day investment for us to do food service in the truck.  Don't forget, BBQ is a low temperature, slow cooking process, and when you do it in bulk, it takes a lot of preparation, forethought, and careful timing. Normally we prep the food on Day 1, cook it all on Day 2, and then we're moving the truck and serving Day 3. After all of that is done, we still get to bring the food truck back to home base, and clean it out to have it ready to go for the next event.

Food trucks are passionate, hardworking, and community-driven… but the financial and logistical challenges are real.

When you support local food trucks, you’re supporting small businesses fighting every day just to keep their doors — and windows — open. ❤️ 

These, among others, are the reasons we choose to only service large scale events with higher numbers of people, and don't service smaller one-off events. The juice just isn't worth the squeeze.

HOWEVER

If you'd like us to be a part of your smaller event, we will happily cater it for you! 
We can do gatherings of around 15 people up to around 250, so feel free to go to veganrecovery.net and fill out our Catering Request Form to get started.