If you’re considering hiring a food truck for a corporate event, don’t feel like a cheapskate. That said, you can save money. These days food trucks offer delicious, healthy, even gourmet cuisine that your employees or customers will savor.
Hiring a food truck for your corporate event is one of the most straightforward catering options. A food truck drives up to the venue, takes a few minutes to set up equipment, opens the window, and starts serving people.
After the event, you won’t have to deal with dirty dishes or left-over food. Mobility and speed are key benefits of hiring a food truck, and the food truck operator and their staff will do almost all of the work for you.
Like all other businesses, most food trucks need unique selling points to differentiate themselves from their competition. The result is that you will be able to find a food truck that offers unique dishes in addition to traditional meals.
On top of meeting a wide range of culinary demands and making life easier for you, food trucks are also typically more affordable than traditional caterers. Food trucks generally have lower overheads than catering companies since they don’t have to purchase or hire equipment or rent kitchen space. The result is a low input cost per unit and an affordable catering service.
Key Considerations When Hiring a Food Truck
Though they’re an effective catering solution for events, there are things you should consider before hiring a food truck.
Number of People
One food truck can serve around 100 to 125 people per hour. To determine if one food truck will be sufficient, consider the number of guests and the serving window. For example, if the time window is from 18:00 to 20:00, and you have 200 guests, one food truck will be able to cater for your party.
If you have, say, 300 guests and a two-hour serving window, simplifying the menu can make it easier for the food truck to serve all the guests.
If you need catering for 400 people or more, consider getting more food trucks to provide more catering options, keep the lines shorter, and to ensure that everyone gets to eat at the party.
Type of Food
Another consideration is the type of food that you want to serve the guests. When it comes to food trucks, you have a lot of options, including among others sandwiches, sushi, burgers, sliders, Asian, Indian, Mexican, tacos, and pizza.
One of the things you can do is to get several food truck menus beforehand and send them out with a company email to find out what your colleagues prefer.
Contract Minimums
Some food trucks require guaranteed minimums. Depending on the food truck’s average sales per event, these minimums can vary from about $700 to $1,300. Considering the contract minimum is especially important if you less than 60 guests.
If the company doesn’t mind paying the balance at the end of the event, or if the contract minimum is less than the cost of hiring a traditional caterer, it may still be worth hiring a food truck for a smaller company party.
Food Truck Experience
A food truck that has been in business for one year or more will typically be able to cope with a more extensive menu and more guests. Depending on the privacy of your event, you may also want to ensure that the food truck has a license for the city where the party takes place.
If you are hosting a small company party on, say, the commercial property’s parking lot, chances are that you won’t have to deal with code compliance officers, however.
The food truck you choose should have backup equipment and power sources in case of a power outage, or if it breaks down before your event. Head over to Truckster to find popular food trucks that can cater for your company party.