Are you in the food truck business and need ideas for the best parking spaces? here are 7 tips for finding the perfect parking space for your food truck.
The food truck industry is very popular in the United States and continues to grow. According to the National Restaurant Association, the annual revenue from truck sales is $ 650 million. But even with this impressive statistic and the fact that food vans are set to increase by almost 4% over the next five years, a St. Leo University survey shows that almost half of respondents have never eaten. in a catering van. …
Perhaps this could be because many people don’t know where to find their local food truck. To be successful as a food truck owner, you need to know how to find the best seats for your food truck.
Unlike a regular restaurant that can’t move, deciding where to park the food the truck can make or break you. Choosing the best location is critical to your success. One of the very important parts of starting a food truck business is figuring out how you can position your business for maximum return. For some people, this can be an easy decision; for others, the opposite seems true.
Whether you are trying to determine where you should park for the first time or are looking for a new location, there are many factors to consider. Finding the right location for your food truck business can be the difference between the success or failure of your business.
If you choose a location that has few visitors, you might not have enough customers to frequent your van, which can be a major challenge when it comes to selling and growing your business.
To be able to successfully run a food van business, you not only need to plan a good menu, you also need to map out the best places in your city to park your food truck. Here’s how to find the perfect parking spot for your truck that will increase your bottom line.
8 factors to consider when finding the perfect location for your food truck
and. One of the most important factors to consider when choosing your ideal location is proximity to the cooking zone. This factor only takes effect if you are cooking offsite. If you cook all of your food in your truck, you shouldn’t mind.
b. Customer: Customers are the lifeline of any business. You certainly won’t be selling food if you’re not where the people are. To be successful, you have to meet the demand, and the demand comes from the customer.
However, you can bet that wherever there is a lot of people there will also be a lot of competition. Staying with other truck companies in the same area makes a lot of sense. When a group of food trucks gets together, they tend to generate interest in the community.
If your competition consists of five well-known pizza trucks, and you are also a pizza truck maker, you might want to choose a different location. Now if your competition is a pizza truck, tacos and a Hawaiian truck, and you are a Thai truck, then you might have found the perfect spot.
If your competition is already established and it seems to cover all of your customers, it might be in your best interest to move elsewhere. As in any industry, competition motivates you to improve, it helps keep prices reasonable, encourages you to try new things, and more.
You can choose an alternative route by making your truck stand out from the competition, check the waters on this one. You may find that it doesn’t work the way you thought it would.
vs. Obey the Law: Another very important aspect of getting the ideal position for your food truck is to obey the law in everything you do. If you are not allowed to park in a certain location – even if it seems like the best place to you – then you simply cannot leave your food truck there. It’s just common sense.
Each city has its own rules and regulations governing where food machines can and cannot do business. For example, in Kansas City, food trucks cannot park within 50 feet of any type of restaurant. They must also support a three-foot pedestrian bridge. In Los Angeles, you must have a dumpster outside your food truck, and it must be clearly marked as a dumpster and have a sign that asks customers to throw their garbage in the bin.
In addition, they also cannot park one block from the school during the school day for 30 minutes before and after school. so as not to violate them. You can Google your city and truck laws for a full rundown of what you can and can’t do.
re. If you need to park your food truck in a place where there are other food trucks, you should not park your truck next to another truck selling similar food. Fight your truck and park next to the trucks where you will stand out.
e. Find a place with lots of visitors: Like any business, a food business requires the owner to make business decisions. No matter how great you think the location is, without a lot of pedestrians it just doesn’t make sense.
You must choose a place where it will be very crowded. You can’t just rely on your friends and family to buy what you are selling. Even if you have repeat customers, most of your sales will come from people who have never bought food in your van. This is why it is so important to choose a destination that is crowded with people. If you haven’t taken it into account, that might be why your food truck business is falling apart.
F. Will you have one or more locations? a very important question for a new or even existing catering van owner to ask: “Will I have an advantageous location, multiple locations, or do I intend to get in the van after the food van?” The choice is yours! You can, of course, have the best of both worlds. Since your food truck is mobile, you can open a store in many places.
There are many food trucks that have a primary location but can move to other locations as well. For example, your food truck might be parked next to a huge commercial building, where there are bound to be a lot of people flocking to your truck during your lunch break.
Likewise, you can be in a prime position on weekdays and wow food. motor vehicle activities on weekends. Food trekking events can be from fall holidays until the concert. Just know what’s going on in your area and then see if your van is allowed to host the party.
For example, your primary location might be a food truck near a downtown community, near a business district, etc.
Here’s a tentative plan for a Food Truck Owners Week: Monday and Tuesday you can go to the farmers market. On Wednesdays, you can go to the business district. On Thursday and Friday you can stay in your usual place, then go on tour on Saturday and Sunday. It really just depends on the food truck and your adventurer. You can change your location on a weekly basis.
g. Offer mobile orders and payments: when it comes to groceries, mobile is the future; and food trucks are no exception. There are a few things you need to cover to make sure you’re working properly with mobile devices.
To help customers find your food truck, there are mobile apps like Roaming Hunger and Eat. St. What can you use. You just need to list your catering van in apps like the ones above.
In addition to using third-party food van finder apps, you may also want to consider creating an app specifically for your own food van. The process may seem daunting, but it’s actually relatively straightforward. Additionally, you need to have a mobile optimized website.
Finally, if you really want to stand out from the crowd, consider offering mobile payment and mobile ordering options. In the fast food world, mobile ordering is a huge trend. In fact, at restaurants like Taco Bell, top-priced orders are on average 20% more in-store than in-store orders.
To take full advantage of the food truck migration to mobile devices, the key must be visible to the appropriate third-party applications; make your site mobile; consider creating an app; and offer mobile services such as ordering and payment.
h) Increase your presence on social networks: the marketing on social networks has become a very important aspect of business and marketing today. However, the rapidly changing nature of the food truck industry makes the presence of an equally responsive modern social media presence of immense importance.
To make more money for your food truck through social media marketing, you will need to get creative. Don’t just position your business physically, you need to position it well in cyberspace as well.
9 best locations for your food truck business
1. Special Events: If you live in a socially active city, you should take advantage of it. Keep up to date with all the social events happening in your area, such as festivals and concerts, and find out which of these social events are open to food trucks.
Find out about the key contacts of the Tourism Bureau and the organizers of all the popular events that take place throughout the year in your area. You will receive more invitations to participate in these activities if you start to develop good relationships from the beginning.
Special events can be a great place to park your food truck as it will give you access to guests. who are attending the event, which means you don’t have to do much about promotion. Keep an eye on annual events and try to build a good relationship with the event organizers so that you are always invited on an annual basis.
Please note that in case of unforeseen bad weather; the event may be canceled resulting in loss of money on your part. Also, if the audience for the event doesn’t match your customer profile, you might not be making a lot of sales even if there are a lot of guests at the social meeting. For example, burgers and fries may not be as popular at a health and fitness festival as they are at a concert, say, a band.
2. Areas of activity. If you want loyal fans to come for breakfast and lunch, head to the business and financial districts in your area. Hungry employees looking for a quick but tasty meal between meetings can turn a good profit for you.
Park in the same spot at the same time every day and you will know your customers by name and develop loyal followers to help you grow your business. Due to the popularity of business districts, you should expect to find a lot of value in other food trucks, and therefore you should avoid placing them next to your direct competitor.
3, street parking: to park your street well, you need to know well where the hungry people are. For example, if you have local parks in your area or historic sites that also attract a lot of people, check out local parking regulations nearby. street.
If there are no legal restrictions, this might be the best place to catch passers-by. If there is heavy construction going on in a certain area, you can also park for a while during breakfast and lunch to feed all the hungry workers.
4. Shopping areas: Granted, most large indoor malls will certainly have plenty of restaurants and usually a food court inside small malls or small shopping areas in busy urban areas, on the other hand, it does. usually not a lot of speed. eat well the options. This can be a good place to set up a store in the evening or on the weekend.
5. Farmers ‘markets: In spring and summer, many people buy fresh fruit and vegetables at farmers’ markets. So this can be a great place to park your food truck if you mainly use locally sourced organic ingredients in your menu. In addition to attracting new customers, you can also build new relationships with local manufacturers.
6. University Campuses: Many students find the food served in their canteen to be less than adequate. University students are always on the move and are always looking for a quick meal to grab a bite to eat between class and class.
And if you don’t mind working late at night, you can enjoy the nighttime cravings that always amaze students, whether after a long night at the school library or after partying in the evening.
7. Freight fleets. Food trucks have become popular in recent times. To further increase their popularity and maximize their profits, many catering truck owners have started working together for the common good. This resulted in the parking of several food trucks at the same location at the agreed date and time. Typically, a group of food trucks gathered in one location is able to interest people with more than one truck in a certain location.
One of the benefits of communicating with other owners is that you will learn more about the location and times of these truck fleets. You don’t have to be friends with everyone, but try to maintain a professional relationship with your “competition” to be invited to these lucrative events.
8. Bars and Nightclubs: If you don’t mind working late, bars and nightclubs can be good frontiers to explore. When people drink, they always tend to be hungry and are not afraid to buy food. If there is a popular bar in your area, you can make a lot of money in just a few hours of work.
One of the best strategies is to position the truck in sight (and feel) the entrance. Thus, visitors to the bar will experience delicious taste when entering and exiting the building. This is the winning formula for a successful location.
If you find a bar or nightclub that consistently turns out to be profitable, you should do your best to be on good terms with the owner or manager of that place, as this type of relationship can earn you big profits over the years. to come up.
9. Gas Stations: When approached correctly, gas stations can be a great place to park your food truck. Often times, construction workers, delivery men, or law enforcement will buy a 5 a.m. hot dog or microwave sandwich from the store at lunchtime, refueling. However, if these people can find a better alternative, they won’t mind spending a few extra bucks to get a decent meal.
Generally, gas station owners and managers like to have freight carts around their premises, as food trucks can draw more attention to their business and keep people in the area longer. As long as you don’t get approval from the business before it goes live, it can be a win-win scenario for you and the gas station.
When identifying the right gas stations to look for, think of the convenience stores or “super” stations that attract a lot of customers. One place to start looking is to be near major and interstate highways, as you could serve hungry travelers as well. or if you want to get into an industry, you need to understand how important your location is to your success.
This is just as important as the quality of the food you cook, because even if your food is good, but it is parked in an inconvenient place, it will be difficult for people to return. Where you park your truck determines your financial success. It could mean the difference between seven clients and seventy. To be successful, you have to be noticed. It means finding the best location for your food truck.
You may find that finding the perfect spot can take some trial and error; and when you find that perfect place, you have to zealously guard it. You can do this by sending a prep vehicle past your truck to capture your favorite spot before someone else. Rumors are spreading and you should do your best to keep this place to yourself.
Make sure you let people know where you will be. Use your website and social media platforms to broadcast your daily location to help people find you. Get creative and familiarize yourself with local policies and you are sure to build a regular customer base quickly.
