How to Lease a Food Truck

Food trucks are everywhere you go these days. Have you always thought it would be fun to be a food truck owner, but are unsure of the expense?

While your financial situation and how much money you can invest into a food truck business does matter, luckily today there are different options available to make it easier to fulfill your dream of running your own food truck business.

The first step to becoming a food truck owner is of course getting a food truck. Buying or renting are the usual options available to you, but leasing a food truck is also becoming a more popular option.

Here is what you need to know about how to lease a food truck.

Leasing a food truck instead of buying or renting will give you the best of both worlds. It gives you a more affordable way to get your food truck out on the road than buying it out right, but at the same time, the lease unlike renting allows you to pay into eventually owning the truck yourself. This is perfect for people who have the money for starting their business, but just can’t afford the lump sum needed for buying the truck or don’t have the credit rating to get a bank loan for it. For most bank loans, you need to put down 20% in cash for a down payment.

Overall with leasing there is less financial risk and you will have more time to build up your business before taking the big jump into food truck ownership. And by leasing, your monthly payments go to helping you pay off the vehicle.

To find the best lease program for your particular situation, be sure to do extensive research and talk to current food truck owners about the pros and cons of buying, renting or leasing. Some of the most popular leasing programs out there include Roaming Hunger, Prestige Food Trucks, Mobi Munch or directly through a franchisor like Zac’s Burgers.

Roaming Hunger

Roaming Hunger recently partnered with Prestige Trucks to offer a special lease to own program for food truck owners. With this program you can own your food truck outright after 36 months of on-time lease payments. They even offer a 3 year warranty to cover the truck repairs that sometimes sideline a food truck business.

This is a good opportunity if you are going into the food truck business on your own. The program also offers a professional food truck wrap and will send you one catering opportunity minimum per month.

Requirements for enrolling in the program include a credit score of 675 or higher and you will need to submit a food truck business and operations plan. For more information, click here.

Mobi Munch

With Mobi Munch, you have a choice between renting one of their types of food trucks for your own business or you can become a licensee for an already established food truck business. For more information, click here.

Prestige Food Trucks

Prestige Food Trucks is a custom food truck and trailer builder/manufacturer that also offers financing and leasing through third party lenders. All loans require at least 10% to 50% down. For more information, click here.

Zac’s Burgers

If you are a big fan of Zac’s Burgers, you can also license one of their burger buses. By choosing a Zac’s food truck instead of building your own business, you get the advantage of lower startup costs and operating expenses while still being your own boss. Other benefits include a proven business model for success, minimal operating expenses, access to a commissary and two weeks paid, personalized training. For more information on how to lease a food truck with Zac’s Burgers, click here.

No matter which lease program you decide to join, make sure that you have a plan for when your lease runs out. Will you be able to renew the lease or purchase your truck? After spending several years building your business with this particular truck, you don’t want to have to start back to square one again.

Other must haves to get on the road

While the food truck itself is of course a big part of your business, there are other important elements you also need to have in place before you hit the road.

Choose point-of-sale options. While many food trucks just accept cash, as our society is becoming more credit based and a lot of people don’t carry cash around as much, you might want to consider giving your customers more options. If money is tight in the beginning, start with just a simple cash box, but then later offer a credit card paying option.

Set up a commissary. All food trucks are required to have an off-site kitchen where they can prep food, clean all their equipment and store food properly. Find one that is in a good location and has all the tools you will need at a reasonable rent.

Get your food safety certification. Your food truck is required to have a food safety certified employee on board at all time so make sure you and all your employees have been certified before you hit the road.

You will probably be surprised by all the paperwork that goes into getting your food truck on the road. The first thing you need to do is find out all the food truck laws in the area you want to operate in and fill out the application with your local health department to get all the necessary licenses and permits. A health inspector will also come out to inspect your food truck and your commissary.

The food truck industry is still growing and so constantly evolving and different cities and counties have different regulations and zoning ordinances that you will need to follow. This can get tricky if you cross county or even state lines with your food truck so it is important that you always know where you are allowed to park, how long you can stay there and what rules you have to follow while there. For example, in some places you can’t park near a restaurant and if you are going to be in one place for more than a couple of hours then you need to be situated near a bathroom.

If you are taking your food truck to an event, there are also rules and regulations for that too so always know exactly what licensing and permits you need and what regulations you need to follow before you set up shop at any location.

For more information about food truck leasing and Zac’s Burgers and their burger bus program, call them today.

Zac's Burgers is presently not selling franchises and does not have a certified franchise disclosure document.  Zac's is offering licensing opportunities, however, potential licensees must meet all federal and state requirements.