Food Truck & Mobile Vendor calculators

FDA Food Code (current edition) commissary requirements for mobile food units

Commissary vs Private Kitchen ROI Calculator

Screen the build-or-rent decision for a food-truck commissary kitchen. Most U.S. jurisdictions require licensed mobile vendors to be commissioned out of a commercial kitchen — operators choose between renting space at a commissary kitchen ($400 to $1,200 per month plus markups) or building a private commercial kitchen ($40,000 to $250,000 capital). This calculator models monthly net cost under each option (rent including operator-time opportunity cost, build including debt service and utilities), the breakeven build-out cost over a 5-year planning horizon, and an approximate 5-year IRR on the build decision. The recommendation flags build, rent, or borderline based on a 10% monthly-savings buffer.

Standard menu-engineering framework (Kasavana and Smith

Food Truck Menu Price Optimization Calculator

Run menu engineering on a high-volume mobile food operation: compute contribution margin per item, throughput-constrained total event CM, and recommended price increases on plowhorse items (high volume, low margin) using the standard menu-engineering quadrant framework. Inputs the menu list (food cost, sell price, units per event for each item), the throughput cap in orders per hour, event service hours, and the operator's target food cost percentage (industry typical 28% to 32%). Outputs per-item contribution margin, food cost percentage, target sell price at the operator's target, total event CM, throughput utilization, blended food cost percentage, and the recommended CM uplift from moving flagged items to the target price.

U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center generator efficiency tables

Food Truck Fuel and Route Calculator

Compute operating cost per event from the three sources of fuel burn on a mobile food operation: round-trip drive fuel (miles ÷ MPG × price), on-site generator runtime (hours × gallons-per-hour × price), and propane consumption (gallons × price). Inputs round-trip miles, truck MPG (food-truck average 8 to 14), generator runtime hours, generator fuel rate (0.5 to 1.5 GPH typical), propane gallons, and current fuel and propane prices. Outputs the three components separately, total fuel cost per event, breakeven revenue, cost per cover, fuel as percentage of typical event revenue, and a benchmark assessment (efficient / typical / high / warning) against the 1-5% industry-typical fuel cost-to-revenue ratio.

Sample of U.S. municipal health-department and mobile-vendor permit fee schedules (urban

Food Truck Permit Cost and Compliance Calculator

Estimate the total annual compliance-cost stack for a U.S. food-truck operation: health-department food-establishment permit (urban $400-$800, suburban $200-$500, rural $50-$250), mobile-vendor city permit (urban $500-$2,000, suburban $150-$600, rural $25-$200), commissary letter or annual fee ($0-$400 depending on tier), general liability insurance ($750-$3,000), workers' compensation insurance for operators with employees (typically $2-$4 per $100 of payroll under class code 9082 food service), plus per-event venue permits ($0-$100 depending on event type). Outputs the midpoint annual compliance cost, low-to-high range for triangulation, per-event amortized cost, and the cost as a percentage of typical event revenue.