Best Food Trucks Blog

You're here because you've decided to up your party game and provide your valued guests with the hottest gourmet eats around. Renting a food truck can be a complicated affair, but not when you partner with Best Food Trucks, the industry leader in food truck catering for parties. There are a variety of considerations in your preparations for your party and since we started the first mobile food truck vendors association in the country back in January 2010, we have literally seen everything one can see in this industry, and our experience is yours, helping you cut through all the complications to ensure your party goes off without a hitch. And one of the first questions countless individuals have asked us is the cost of renting a food truck for their party.

If you want beverage and/or dessert options (with a savory truck) in addition to your cuisine catering, expect a range of $1-$5 in addition per person.

Further, a general rule of thumb is that requests of cuisine orders under a total of 50 people will likely face food truck rental minimums, increasing your per person cost. Some trucks will have minimums below this amount while others will be higher, but this is the general ballpark to expect when planning your order.

But Why Am I Bound To Cover A Minimum Food Truck Rental Cost?

A food truck minimum is the cost you have to pay to get the truck on site and make the job financially beneficial to cover a truck's operating costs regardless of the number of eaters that show up. Food truck operation is expensive and the truck's responsibility lies in making great food for your guests and not in promotion of said event. If people do not show up and trucks eat the set-up costs, they won't stay in business. Hence, the minimum cost to rent a food truck for a party ensures all base costs are covered. Staffing, food costs, fuel costs, automotive maintenance, thorough truck cleanings, etc., are just a few expenses that go into rental food truck operation.

Factors That Affect Food Truck Rental Prices

There's a lot that goes into the rental cost, determined by the specifics of your party. Let's get started!

• Type of Event: The anticipated number of guests and the event's theme will both play a role in determining how much it will cost to rent a food truck for a party. Since corporate clients typically book multiple food truck rentals for events, the price per person would rise for corporate events. Prices for private events (birthday parties, wedding receptions, etc.) would be lower than the prices for a corporate event due to the lower number of guests and the trend of hiring a single food truck for such events.
• Variety of Cuisines: When catering to a larger crowd, such as at a wedding or an office party, the host may opt for a more diverse menu to provide guests with additional dining options. This implies more food trucks to hire for parties, raising the cost per person.
• Power Cost: You need to take into account the cost of power supply which you would be providing for each food truck coming to your event. Food truck rentals use power to operate their mobile kitchen, this includes working with ovens, microwaves, refrigerators for desserts and more.
• Travel Cost To Reach Your Event: Food trucks do not usually travel long distances to cater an event, but if they do, most food truck owners would expect an extra travel fee if your party location is farther away. This cost even depends on whether or not your city permits food trucks operations, or has certain restrictions on food trucks catering parties. Another factor that affects travel cost includes the cuisine type, for instance common food trucks catering tacos and bbq are relatively cheaper to rent than a fusion or any fine cuisine food truck.

In a nutshell, if you are calculating the cost of renting a food truck the first thing to consider is what you want to serve and how many people are going to attend your event. While there are other considerations, these two are responsible for the majority of the bottom line.

You've done the hard work spending your invaluable time conducting extensive and effective research, so that's why you're here at Best Food Trucks, your Best Partner to assist you in any and all facets of renting a food truck for your event!

• Catering - I want the Best Food Truck for my private and/or corporate event! [Hotlink Jump - Food Truck Catering] 
• Marketplace Solutions - I want the Best Food Trucks for a short- or long-term rental or lease. [Hotlink Jump - Food Truck Marketplace]
• Marketing Activation - I want to create the Best Food Truck experiential marketing activation. [Hotlink Jump - Food Truck Marketing]

Best Food Trucks: The Industry Leader In Food Truck Catering, Food Truck Rentals, & Event Booking

As the industry leader in all facets of food truck logistics, alongside the regulatory and legal expertise of our partners in the National Food Truck Association, helping people engage with food trucks across all potential avenues is what we do. With collectively over 25+ years in the food truck game working with over 20K individual food trucks, we have helped facilitate hundreds of thousands of food truck interactions and impressions across not just the United States but the world. Our competence is unrivaled in the industry as it's not just about quantity at Best Food Trucks, it's about quality, and it's that kind of mastery of every facet of the food truck industry—from consumer to provider to regulator to legislator—that has facilitated such widespread success and experience to rent a food truck in Los Angeles.

Applying for catering opportunities is fast and easy through BFT. However, booking those events takes a little more time and effort. You can quickly and easily look at all your opportunities in your catering dashboard. The three biggest factors to booking food catering trucks for parties and other events through BFT are:

• Great Pictures
• Great Descriptions
• Speed of Application

Great Pictures: Insta-Worthy Event Catering With Food Trucks

The average Instagram poster can take great pictures of their dinner, so you must be able to do the same or better. Great-looking pictires should focus on the food, have great lighting, and be clear. Maravilla Latin Cuisine has done a fantastic job taking great pics.

Great Descriptions: Surprise And Delight Customers With Your Delectable Food Truck Menu

Great descriptions of your food are a must if you want to book great catering events consistently. Menus of food catering trucks that say "choose a protein" or just list their menu items will not book many catering events. People are looking for descriptive language. Use descriptive adjectives to make the ingredients of your dish sound even better. For example, don't just say "tomatoes"; say "fresh tomatoes." Use other adjectives like "homemade," "freshly baked," "crispy," and "hand-cut." Your job is to describe your amazing food truck menu in a way that excites customers.

Speed Of Application: Cater To Consumers' Demands With Our Accelerated Food Truck Booking App

Most of the customers using BFT to book a food truck, want quick results. Even if their event is three months from now, they want to lock in their food options quickly so they can move on to other things. Once BFT receives five to seven submissions, we send those to the client. Clients typically choose one of the first five to seven submissions, even when others are submitted later. So, get your food truck menu on our food truck booking app as soon as possible to increase your chances of being hired for an event near you.

We're excited to launch the BFT Point of Sale.

• The Best Food Trucks Point of Sale was created to work seamlessly with our BFT online ordering system. Once activated, the POS will appear on the BFT app.
• Having all of your orders on one screen will simplify the process of managing walk ups and online orders. Currently, only online customers are alerted via email when a truck is scheduled at one of our locations. With our new POS, we’ll also alert walk up customers that share their phone number or email for notifications. People are incentivized to share their phone number so they can be alerted when their food is ready.
• Our introductory POS processing fee is 2.5% + .05 (for the first 6 months then 2.6% + .05). We have also built in incentives for POS use. If you do $300 in credit card payments, you’ll receive a $3 credit towards booking dates.
• If you refer a food truck to the POS you'll receive $100 through Stripe after they hit $2,000 in credit card payments through the BFT POS. 

If you’re interested in using our POS reach out to [email protected] and please let us know what address to send the credit card reader (free) to and when you’d like to start.  If you're already using our POS and want to be a BFT ambassador to generate revenue for yourself, please email [email protected] . It's easy to connect the credit card reader and get started: https://app.typestudio.co/share/W3aZ9ZliRJpxTcdTxAde

Beach Eats - Where Food and Fun Unites!

Fun and vibrant, Marina Del Rey is known for its outdoor events. From fun activities to the best food trucks in LA County serving up gourmet grubs, Marina Del Rey has it all. Beach Eats is another such weekly food truck event at Marina Beach more commonly known as Mother’s Beach. The event happens every week on summer Thursdays from 5 to 9pm, May through October. So, whether you’re a local or new in town, if you’re looking for fun things to do around Marina, we have good news. Beach Eats is coming back to Marina Del Rey soon. So put on your stretchy pants, don your napkins and head out to Beach Eats!

Calling all LA County Food Trucks: Beach Eats is coming back soon

BFT is bringing back LA County fair food trucks to the Beach Eats in Marina Del Rey

Beach Eats is entering the 12th year and it's going to be better than ever! Food Trucks always have great shifts here. If you're a food truck in LA county, you'll need the LA County Business License. 

Everyone scheduled for Beach Eats or any County Event, and those who would like to book Beach Eats must get a LA County food truck inspection and have a COUNTY Business License. This is not the LA County Health Permit, It's not a City of LA business license and it's not the LA Tax Cert, since it comes under all the LA County food trucks requirements.

The LA County Business License can be obtained at  225 N. Hill Street Los Angeles, CA 90012, INFO -Toll-Free No.: (888) 807-2111 Email: [email protected] http://ttc.lacounty.gov/ (under business license)

What To Expect At The Beach Eats Festival?
No one knows how to celebrate food better than us Americans. Whether your favorite food is a simple grilled cheese sandwich or a gourmet style lobster, Beach Eats celebrates it in a big way. Wondering what to expect at Beach Eats? 

• From American classic to Asian-fusion, Beach Eats has it all. It's a full-on food truck fare!
• You can have a picnic by the beach. Roll out that blank and enjoy your food by the waves.
• You can even bring your fur friends. Dogs are welcome at the Beach Eats festival.

Have you ever been to a festival with food trucks and wondered, “How on earth is my burger, fries and a drink over $20?” Answer: it is not the food truck. Event organizers are now charging up to 40% of a food truck’s gross sales to participate in their event. Participation fees for food trucks catering at parties used to be 10%.

Food truck rental for parties, like many restaurants, operates on very small margins. After catering for parties, the food truck owner pays for food, employees, food truck and commissary rent, propane, gas, insurance and incidentals; they're typically left with about 10-15% profit. Well attended events with big sales numbers will increase the margins a bit, but not enough to justify a 40% fee. So what happens? Food trucks must pass along a portion of the participation fee to the customer so they don’t lose money on every order. The public, understandably, sees these higher prices and mistakenly assumes the food truck is taking advantage of the customer’s attendance. We’ve seen terrible Yelp reviews that start off with: “I used to like this truck, but then they overcharged me at an event and now I won’t go back…”

Reducing A Truckload of Trouble for Food Truck Owners

Customers who are already paying the high costs for a ticket shouldn’t have to pay exorbitant prices for a food truck meal while enjoying an event. Food trucks for festivals provide a great outdoor service. The eclectic food options and the ability to serve anywhere makes them the perfect choice for large scale events. But the food truck industry is successful because food trucks bring great meals to the public at reasonable prices. Unfortunately, when food truck owners are forced to pay 40% to be part of an event they have to raise their prices to a level that most food truck owners find unacceptable. The question I hear most often is, “why don’t food truck owners just skip the high fee events?” Food trucks have to get out and do business. They can’t pass up events, especially in the areas that have a short season. Food truck owners have to get while the getting is good. They would most definitely prefer to offer food trucks  catering for special events and charge their normal prices.

So what can the public do? If you find food trucks catering for festivals, why not try asking the organizers via social media how much they’re charging food trucks to attend? Currently, organizers aren’t blamed for the high cost of food because it’s not clear how much they’re charging the trucks. Instead, the blame for high prices falls directly on the food truck owners. If the public joined with food truck owners and demanded that organizers lower their fees, food trucks could charge their normal (or close to normal) prices. Let’s bring down the price for food this upcoming event season.

Outsource Your Catering Needs Today!

BFT is your best choice to find yourself the perfect rental party food truck for all your catering needs, whether you're interested in booking food trucks for your special events or you're searching for a food truck to come to your office or neighborhood every week. Give us a ring right now and we'll have you set up with one of our finest mobile eateries.

The Challenges Operating Food trucks Faced

Food trucks are one of the many businesses affected by the epidemic, but because of their mobility, they provide better flexibility than traditional restaurants. Yet, during the epidemic, the food truck industry struggled to turn a profit, far less sales. 

Because of the strict restrictions imposed on social distancing measures during the pandemic, the cash stream provided by catering events for food truck operators was hampered. This caused the food truck vendors to get off the streets since there were no hungry mouths to feed on the streets. 

And despite the restrictions being lifted post-covid, less people were interested in eating at food trucks and other mobile vendors due to concerns about food contamination. Moreover, staying in quarantine caused people to adjust their diets, moving away from fast food and towards more balanced, nourishing meals spaced out throughout the day. As a result, several low-key mobile eateries failed.

Food Trucks Adapting to the Post-Covid World

Now even though people are finally returning to the offices, many will continue to work remotely. Even when the limitations were lifted following the pandemic, there was a decline in the demand for street food due to food safety concerns. Being quarantined for such a prolonged period even changed the eating habits of people, a shift from eating unhealthy fast food to eating healthy nutritious meals throughout the day. This caused many modest food truck businesses to run out of business. Decisions on how to adapt in this post-Covid world will be a critical factor in the success of operating food trucks and brands moving forward. 

Two of the bigger changes that affect both the food truck operations and customers might be here to stay. Despite office buildings slowly filling back up, the demand may be limited with more workers now contributing efforts from home. With more people working from home, the demand for food truck catering services has continued to expand out to neighborhoods and large apartment complexes with some food trucks moving towards food delivery options. We are now witnessing the traditional ways of getting food truck operating systems to expand to include virtual world customers looking for food trucks, and food trucks looking to find homebound customers.

Considering how much the industry may change from this point on, the technological bridge becomes even more important. Luckily food truck technology has developed at the perfect time for food truck operators who need to adapt to different ways of attracting business. With innovative food truck operational plans, food truck booking and online ordering platform companies are now paving the way in connecting operators with clients and vice versa. 

Be a VIP at Your Party; Book BFT's Mobile Kitchens for Your Next Big Event

The largest online food truck booking and ordering platform company in the industry, BestFoodTrucks.com, has a simple goal. BFT wants to handle the logistics so operators can focus on the food. BFT assists in everything from lot booking to location management (food trucks at offices and neighborhood) to exclusive order ahead technology in food trucks and easy to navigate catering events. If you’re interested in a smooth catering service for your next event, get in touch with us right away and let us find you the perfect food truck to turn your event into a memorable experience.

We've got some great new services and features to help food trucks using BFT bring in more money each week. If you own a food truck and make a weekly income with BFT, you'll love our brand new features and services. Try our cutting-edge new tool to get new customers and retain the ones you already have. Gaining and keeping customers is now a breeze. Contact us at [email protected] if you have any further inquiries or require assistance.

The New and Improved Catering Requests Application

Apply for catering requests by going to https://trucks.bestfoodtrucks.com/catering-requests. Food Truck Catering requests have increased dramatically in 2022. Applying for catering requests takes 10-15 seconds once you have your food truck catering menu set up. Some of the local food trucks for catering did over $40,000 in 2022. Now you can request a higher budget by clicking “reject" and asking for a budget increase.

Minimum Pre-Order Guarantee Before Catering For Events

Now you can require your customers to hit a pre-order guarantee before confirming your shift. Customers will be able to track orders on your order page to ensure everyone is ordering. To create a minimum pre-order guarantee shift go to “schedule customer shift” in the BFT app and select "Minimum Guarantee '' section.

Simplify Your Food Truck Operations With BFT's Point-of-Sale

The Best Food Trucks Point of Sale was created to work seamlessly with our BFT online ordering system. Once activated, the POS will appear on the BFT app.

• Having all of the food truck catering orders on one screen will simplify the process of managing walk ups and online orders. Currently, only the online customers are alerted via email when the  food trucks available for catering are scheduled at one of our locations, with our new POS, we’ll also alert walk up customers that share their phone number or email for notifications. People are incentivized to share their phone number, so they can be alerted when their food is ready.
• Our introductory POS processing fee at 2.5% + .05 (for the first 6 months then 2.6% + .05). We have also built in incentives for POS use. If you do $200 in credit card payments, you’ll receive a $5 credit towards booking dates.
• If you refer a food truck to the POS you'll receive $100 through Stripe after they hit $2,000 in credit card payments through BFT POS.

If you’re interested in using our POS, reach out to [email protected] and please let us know where to send the credit card reader (free) and let us know when you’d like to start catering via food trucks for events.

BFT is now scheduling food trucks in neighborhoods and offices in Los Angeles County. We know you’re tired of delivery food and the fees! 45 minutes is way too long to wait for a hamburger and fries. Now you can schedule a weekly or daily food truck with freshly made meals straight to your neighborhood or office complex! With online ordering we make ordering simple, safe and easy.

Receive a $50 Meal Credit if you help us successfully launch a food truck program for your neighborhood or office building.

If you'd like to book food trucks directly by using our automated submission form: CLICK HERE to get started. Or if you'd like someone from our team to walk you through the process, please reply to this email or send an email to [email protected] and tell us where you're located and what you'd like food trucks for.

We can't wait to serve you again you soon!

Corporate catering is changing. As people head back to offices (slowly) employers are reexamining how to provide subsidized meals to employees. Pre-Pandemic scoop and serve trough-style catering was the accepted way to feed a department quickly and easily. Of course there were always going to be some people left out, vegans, celiac etc, but the majority would get a quick meal and be back to work. The open-trough feeding just seems unsanitary now. Do I really want to touch utensils everyone else has had their hands on? Do I really want the 20 people in front of me breathing, sneezing and coughing on my food before I get in to scoop? Nope! Not after two years of masking up to protect myself against invisible pathogens. 

Benefits of Hiring Food Trucks Post-Pandemic

Let's talk about why it makes sense to hire a food truck. We can all agree that after being hit by a pandemic, the first thing we want to do is eat something delicious. Here are a few advantages to ponder about renting a food truck: 

1. Budget-Friendly Service: Compared to restaurants, food trucks fit inside your limited budget. Plus all sizes of food trucks are available, so you need not worry about your guests going hungry.
2. Mobile Kitchen Catering Service: Serve your guests in style by renting a food truck to serve your backyard gathering or an outdoor business event. By hiring a food truck, you can save more than fifty percent compared to traditional catering services or an exclusive restaurant.
3. Safety Concerns: Living in the post-covid era, the customers are extremely concerned about hygiene and other safety precautions. However, with a food truck such concerns are nullified since the food is prepared right before your eyes.
4. Clean Kitchen: Due to the modest size of these mobile food trucks, it is simple to maintain a clean kitchen at all times, as seen by their inspection reports.
5. Specific Orders to Customer’s Needs: Besides offering a wide selection of foods, many food truck caterers will also accommodate dietary restrictions and preferences for your guests.

New feelings about sanitary conditions are why food trucks have become such a desired alternative to the troughs. Employers can now provide meal benefits for employees with BFTs meal plans. Additionally, the Best Food Trucks platform allows employees to put in online orders days before their catered lunch so they’re not rushing to get it done on the day of the meal service. Each employee can put in special instructions to ensure that they get a meal they can eat and enjoy.

Book Weekly Food Trucks To Arrange Onsite Meals For Employees 

In a bid to bring employees back to the workplace, employers are offering subsidized food meals from trusted sources to keep employees happy and content. We’ve seen a rush on employer-provided meals for employees. The two most popular are full catered lunches where employees simply walk up or order online from a limited menu. The bill is covered by the employer. These catered events are less frequent and typically fall on special days.  Gaining popularity is the employer subsidized meal plan that sees a food truck come more regularly with the employer issuing online coupons to employees. Employees can quickly order online with a coupon issued by their company. We’ve seen coupons from $3-$15. Employees get a great order email with a small ticket price. 

Let Us Take Care of the Catering So You Can Focus on What Truly Matters!

Whatever the meal service, Best Food Trucks can find a meal plan that benefits your employees in a sanitary, less wasteful way. Made to order meals from a food truck are hot and prepared onsite, with less waste than traditional trough style catering. So what are you waiting for? Call us right away for a smooth catering experience. We pick out the perfect food truck for your catering needs and have happy employees with boosted morale!

We get it. You’re sick of going to the same three restaurants over and over. Delivery food comes lukewarm at best, meaning say goodbye to crispy french fries, and get used to using words like “soggy” and “stale”. Catering trays where you have little choice, and 25% of that food is likely going into the trash.

That’s where food trucks come in. Neighborhood food truck catering  and the office food trucks are the best possible solutions to bring a professional chef and a fully equipped kitchen delivered right to your house or office. These mobile kitchens offer an eco-friendly catering solution with minimal food waste, and all of your guests are served freshly prepared cuisines of their choosing. No soggy fries. There are no lengthy wait times.

 Order Your Food in Advance With BFT & Never Wait In Line Again

Best Food Trucks (BFT) provides an online ordering system for all its mobile office food trucks

so your employees never have to wait in line. Additionally, the employees can pre-order up to three days in advance to ensure that your order will be ready at the office food truck. When the food is ready, a text message is received so they can come grab it fresh. No lines means you can get more work done, relax more, or just enjoy extra time.

This is why we see a lot of offices starting to use food trucks for office lunch a lot more than traditional catering dishes. You get all the convenience of online ordering with the freshest possible food made right outside your doorstep. Unlike traditional catering, food trucks offer a large variety of options on their food truck menus. Serve your guests with sumptuous cuisines with the help of our professional food truck caterers. 

Rely on BFT for a Stress-Free Catering Experience

We take care of the catering so you can focus on what truly matters! Typically, offices and neighborhoods would have to manage the whole catering process themselves, once they are done searching the internet for queries like, “food trucks in my area.” They then have to negotiate minimums, check certifications and licenses, track booking, manage and track payouts, and routing customer feedback to the truck. Sounds fun, right?

BFT does all of this, for FREE. We want to make sure you’re happy with your meal options, so with our unique software approach along with our decade of relationships with food trucks in your area, you won’t have to dread the “Where to find a catering food truck in the neighborhood” question anymore, or browse for “food trucks in my neighborhood”. Contact BFT to book a food truck to your office or neighborhood.

Different Types of Events We Can Cater For

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly catering service to rock your special event, BFT is the way to go! Besides catering for your neighborhood or offices, we can help you with your other celebrations too. Be the best host to your parties with BFT handling all the catering for you. 

To give you an idea, here are a few examples of the types of events you can hire our food trucks for: 

• Birthday parties in your garden with refreshments served by our food truck are the most budget-friendly way to give your children the greatest birthday surprise ever.

• Graduation parties are worthy of a grand celebration. Gather your friends and family in your garden or on your terrace to indulge in our sizzling grills and grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Anniversary surprise for your significant other with the most adorable flowers in the backyard, and let us handle all the catering hassle. We are responsible for all your catering needs.
• Ethnic and art festivals to celebrate cultural heritage events and support art events by providing the finest cuisines and a streamlined catering process for your guests.

Let us know if you are interested in trying us out by clicking the link below. We’ll get back to you ASAP and try to help you become your office hero.