So, you want to start a food truck business, and you’ve heard others talk about step vans, but what are they?

Also called “multi-stop trucks,” Chevrolet was the first to refer to them as “step vans,” which is the most widely-used term today. These trucks are most often seen delivering packages, baked goods, snacks, and the like. 

Step vans are a fantastic option for a mobile food truck. They’re tall enough to allow you to stand and move around in, and you have ample space for essential equipment. Since they’re usually only a couple steps up, they sit low and are easy to enter and exit. 

Keep reading to learn more about step vans and whether one is the right fit for your food truck business. 

Why Step Vans Are a Perfect Fit for Foodservice

1. Proven Track Record

Step vans and foodservice have a long history together. 

Since the 1930s, they’ve been used as forward-control food trucks to deliver milk and baked goods. Today, many entrepreneurs turn them into food trucks that offer everything from classic ice cream to gourmet dishes. Mobile food trucks are a significant trend across the US.  

In 2015, the food truck industry was valued at nearly $857 million. 

2. Ample Space to Work

If you’re in the foodservice industry already, you know that having space to move around and work is paramount, especially when there’s more than one person in the kitchen. Step vans offer quick passage and sufficient storage options.

Having the room for more equipment means you can get specialty appliances such as pizza ovens or espresso machines to help take your truck to the next level.

3. Customization

Step vans are also highly-customizable, allowing you to maximize efficiency and stand out. You can experiment with accessories such as TVs, security systems, speakers, retractable awnings, service stations, and more.

Size is another important thing to consider. With step vans ranging in length from 12 to 30 feet, there is a large range of sizes to suit your needs. Whether you’re operating a small ice cream truck or a massive stadium food truck, you can find a step van to meet your needs.

4. Mobility

With a mobile food truck, you can take your business to the customers. You can travel to events and festivals, as well as go on tours for higher earning potential. Explore new markets easily by packing up and driving to the next area of interest, as long as you’ve got the proper permits first. 

You can do all of this and more without committing to the substantial investment involved in purchasing and maintaining a brick-and-mortar establishment. 

Financing a Food Truck

While it may not cost as much as opening a restaurant on a street corner, starting a food truck business is still a business, and will require some investment to get started. 

Finance your food truck through investors, use your savings, or search for business loans to meet your needs. Just be sure to create a business plan, as it’s an essential document required to apply for the various types of loans available.

Where Will Your New Food Truck Take You?

With a fully-capable, customizable, mobile kitchen you can take your business anywhere! 

If you’ve on a step van for your food truck, you’ve just opened up the opportunity for extraordinary earning potential. Take your new food truck to festivals, events, and new street corners throughout your community.

Ready to learn more about our mobile-kitchen solutions? Contact us today for a quote on custom step vans!

Want more food truck advice? Check out more blog posts here!

Thinking about starting a food truck? Request a free custom quote and one of our food truck specialists will help you design the truck of your dreams.

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The post What Makes Step Vans So Popular as Food Trucks? appeared first on Custom Concessions.

Photo by Anthony Fomin on Unsplash

You can have the sweetest menu on the street and a fantastic team to serve it, but if you don’t have the right equipment, you risk the success of your business. 

Maybe the food truck of your dreams looms in your mind, but you wonder if it’s too much truck.

Your food truck business model should help you determine whether a small mobile kitchen will serve your needs now and in the future as your business grows. Whether you’re new to the food truck business, or you’re considering an upgrade, size does matter.

Explore a few benefits of smaller food trucks in today’s post.

Food Truck Dimensions

Choose your truck based on whether it’s big enough to support your staff, storage needs, and kitchen layout. Many mobile kitchen manufacturers work with smaller vehicles such as sprinter vans, passenger vans, and even recreational vehicles, aside from the ever popular step van configuration.

When working with step van dimensions, the average width is 7 feet, but it’s the length of the truck that determines your kitchen space. Food truck sizes typically range from 14 up to 34 feet, but you can have one built as small as 10 feet.

You can do a lot of business from a 10- to 14-foot truck—just ask the ice cream man!

Financial Benefits of a Smaller Truck

If you’re considering a food truck vs. a food trailer, in the category of upfront price, the trailer will likely win. However, when you invest in food vending equipment, price isn’t the only factor.

Think about the depreciation of food trucks and trailers over time. Food trailers generally retain value at a lower rate per year than food trucks do, which makes the truck a better investment.

You can start with a smaller truck, and when you’re ready to upgrade in a few years, it should have a higher resale value than a trailer.

Take Your Food to the People

One of the most significant benefits of operating a food truck business is portability. You can take your menu wherever, whenever. A small truck gives you a distinct advantage over the business owner with the 26-foot vehicle.

Small food trucks can fit in a broader range of public spaces. That means you can park on a side street, set up at a festival, or take your food to a private house party.

Let your imagination go wild! Small trucks can navigate narrow mountain roads, sandy beaches, and other places large trucks can’t go.

Opportunity to Tighten Your Menu

Out of all the types of food trucks, the small truck may force you to minimize what you serve. With a little creativity, you can turn the smaller prep, cooking, and serving space into an opportunity.

Decide on a few specialty items rather than a full-blown lunch menu. For example, specialize in chili dogs rather than dogs, burgers, and chicken sandwiches.

Smaller menus make it easier to control costs, which can increase your profitability.

Ready to Order Your Small Food Truck?

Whether you’re attracted to the financial or the practical benefits of buying a small food truck, we can help you select the ideal model for your business.

Contact our team and let’s put your truck together!

Want more food truck advice? Check out more blog posts here!

Thinking about starting a food truck? Request a free custom quote and one of our food truck specialists will help you design the truck of your dreams.

Stay up to date on everything Custom Concessions has to offer! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The post Does Size Matter? The Benefits of a Small Food Truck appeared first on Custom Concessions.

Photo by Alvin Mahmudov on Unsplash

Choosing your daily driver usually means spending a few hours at the dealership taking test drives, negotiating upgrades, and applying for financing. If everything works in your favor, you drive home in a new car.

Investing in a food truck requires more time, more research, and more money.

If you’re starting a mobile food business or considering adding a truck to an existing business, you’ve come to the right place. Before you take another step (or another drive), read our guide to the different types of food trucks.

Whether you’re considering a food van or your business model requires something more extensive, this post should help you narrow down your choices.

Know Your Needs Before You Shop

Your business model determines the food truck you buy.

A bakery, a mobile food vendor, and a non-profit meal delivery service each requires a different truck type and layout. Food businesses don’t all have the same equipment needs, size requirements, or budgets. Add to that the different state and local health regulations, and it’s no wonder things often get confusing when deciding which truck makes the ideal fit.

When you work with a food truck manufacturer, you’ll first answer several questions about your business and your needs. This helps you and the manufacturer determine which truck design will best serve your needs.

There’s no need to look at 24’ trucks if a cargo van makes a better fit for your unique business. And if you know you’ll need all the room that a step van affords, likewise there’s no need to look at box trucks.

The Cargo Van

Don’t let the word van make you think only small size businesses use this type of food truck.

Food vans come in a range of sizes, but it’s what’s inside that counts. Are you running a small bakery delivery service? Then you probably don’t need onboard baking facilities, and a small cargo van may work just fine. Grocery stores with at-home delivery services often use cargo vans.

Even a smaller nutrition service company could have a cargo van converted to accommodate their need to keep food at the proper temperature. Vans are so popular in the mobile food vending industry you’ll see a wide range of van conversion configurations.

Depending on size, food vans can hold:

• Drink and/or Food Preparation Counter
• Refrigerated Display Cabinets
• Lighting
• Independent Water System
• Built-In Generator
• Compartment for Cooking Gas System
• Fryer
• Grill/Griddle

While you can’t say the sky’s the limit, you get a wide range of options when you buy a food van. You’ll get even more options when you buy a step van, which we’ll cover next.

Step Vans as Food Trucks

If you’ve ever noticed the vehicles driven by bread, linen, or parcel delivery services companies, you’ve likely seen a step van in action. Remember the milk delivery trucks from the good old days? Food truck builders also enjoy using step vans and here’s why.

A food delivery service or a mobile food vending company needs one significant thing the step van offers. Space! Converting a step van to a food truck means you get abundant space, including headspace, as step vans have much higher roofs than cargo or compact vans.

You can configure a step van to meet your needs for workspace, storage space, ventilation, and any advanced cooking equipment you plan to use. Step vans range in length from 12 to 30 feet.

The Box Truck

The name says it all—this type of food truck is a rectangular shaped box with a separate cab. This is in contrast to the step van, where instead the cab and body are usually only separated by a sliding door.

If your business model includes frozen, refrigerated, or heated foods in large quantities, a box truck might just work best!

Box trucks can carry more weight than most other types of trucks used for food trucks. That means you can deliver or store more food and you can also install more (and heavier) cooking equipment.

Like the step van, a food truck company can convert a box truck into a full-service kitchen. A box truck, an innovative design, and an attractive wrapping all work together to create one fantastic food truck!

The Pickup Truck Body

The ever-popular pickup truck isn’t relegated to ranches, construction sites, or moving friends and their belongings. Look closely next time you see a mobile food business and you may recognize a pickup truck chassis under the food business wrap.

While you likely wouldn’t choose this style if your business model includes preparing entire meals, they make the perfect partners for a food service business that offers pre-made food and drinks. You’ll see them on job sites and in parking lots all over the country.

Need More Information About Types of Food Trucks?

If you’ve decided to start a food truck business, you’re in good company. With a projected value in 2020 of a little over 996 million dollars, the food truck business remains if not a popular endeavor, a successful venture.

With the different types of food trucks available to food business entrepreneurs today, you can find one to fit any food business model. And that’s the key to buying the right truck—matching the truck type to the type of business you want to operate.

Whether you go with a small cargo van, step van, box truck, or a design mounted on a pickup truck or cutaway van, you’ll have plenty of options to help meet your business needs.

If you’re ready to take the next step in the food business and want to choose your truck, contact us today. We’ve served the food industry for over 30 years and stand by our reputation as the experts in designing and producing food trucks.

Want more food truck advice? Check out more blog posts here!

Thinking about starting a food truck? Request a free custom quote and one of our food truck specialists will help you design the truck of your dreams.

Stay up to date on everything Custom Concessions has to offer! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The post Your Complete Guide to the Different Types of Food Trucks Available appeared first on Custom Concessions.