What is a food truck, and why open one?
A food truck is a mobile catering business run out of a fitted-out van or trailer. The kitchen travels with you, service happens at the hatch, and the sales point moves depending on the day of the week. It's a restaurant without a dining room.
"Why open a food truck" comes up constantly, and the answer boils down to three points. The cost of entry is far lower than taking on premises: expect to pay three to five times less than buying an existing town-centre business. There's no commercial lease and no fixed rent. And you go to where your customers already are, instead of waiting for them to walk through your door.
The trade-off is real. You drive, you cook, you sell, you clean, you handle the paperwork. The hours are long and the work is physical. This isn't a project to take on half-heartedly.
Before you buy anything, do proper market research. Scout out office districts, industrial estates, weekly markets, university campuses, building sites. Count the lunchtime footfall, note what the competition already sells and at what average price. A concept too close to what's already there sells badly, however well you execute it.
- Business parks and office districts: steady weekday lunchtime trade
- Markets and village squares: weekend trade, permission via the local council
- Events, festivals, weddings: concentrated takings, heavily seasonal
- Companies and private sites: direct agreement with the landowner
What budget do you need to open a food truck?
This is the first question nearly every founder asks. The budget hinges mostly on one trade-off: a new or second-hand vehicle, and how well you kit out the kitchen. Here are the ballpark figures seen in France in 2025.
| Item | Entry level | Comfortable setup |
|---|---|---|
| Fitted van (purchase) | €20,000 to €35,000 | €60,000 to €90,000 |
| Kitchen and refrigeration equipment | Included in the fit-out | €8,000 to €15,000 |
| Food hygiene training | €250 to €500 | €250 to €500 |
| Setting up the business and mobile trader card | €150 to €400 | €500 to €1,200 |
| Insurance, pitch fees, opening stock | €2,000 to €4,000 | €5,000 to €8,000 |
| Total to budget for | €25,000 to €45,000 | €75,000 to €115,000 |
Add a cash buffer covering three months of overheads. The first few weeks go on finding your pitches and your customer base: revenue rarely settles in under a quarter. The running costs, on the other hand, land from month one.
Recurring costs not to forget: fuel and gas, pitch fees, business insurance, vehicle servicing, ingredients, social security contributions, roadworthiness testing. On a business that's up and running, stock purchases typically account for 28 to 35% of revenue.
The vehicle: buying new or second-hand
The vehicle is the biggest line item. It shapes everything else in the project, so deal with it last, once the concept is locked down. A pizza van, a burger truck and a juice truck don't need the same worktop or the same electrical setup.
New, second-hand or rental
A new fit-out on a recent van costs a lot, but you get a warranty, compliance with regulations and a kitchen layout designed around your menu. A second-hand vehicle halves the bill, provided you have a professional check the refrigeration unit, the gas installation and the alternator. A healthy engine tells you nothing about the state of the kitchen.
Long-term rental, still fairly uncommon, lets you test the business over a season without tying up €40,000. It's a good way to validate a concept before committing to a purchase.
Safety and compliance
The van must comply with EC Regulation 852/2004 on hygiene: washable surfaces, pressurised drinking water, hot water, separation of clean and dirty areas, waste water tanks. The gas installation requires a compliance certificate renewed every year. Electrical safety and the fire extinguisher are checked during inspections.
Of ten businesses that fail in their first year, most didn't get the food wrong: they underestimated how long it takes to land regular pitches.
What training do you need to open a food truck?
No qualification is required to launch a food truck. You can open one with no diploma and no catering qualification. Only one course is genuinely mandatory, and it covers hygiene.
HACCP food hygiene training
As soon as you serve food to eat in or take away, at least one member of the team must have completed the 14-hour food hygiene course, known as HACCP. It costs between €250 and €500 and runs over two days. It covers the cold chain, traceability, the cleaning schedule and storage temperatures.
You're exempt if you hold a cooking or catering qualification (from vocational certificate to advanced diploma level), or if you can prove three years' experience as a manager or operator in the food sector.
The pre-start-up course
This course is no longer mandatory since the PACTE law. It's still offered by the chambers of trade and the chamber of commerce, and it remains useful: management, financial forecasting, tax, supplier relations. Allow a week and a few hundred euros.
Do you need an alcohol licence?
Yes, if you serve alcoholic drinks. Serving alcohol to be drunk on site falls under a Class III or IV licence, while off-sales require a small off-licence or a full off-licence. Either way you need an operating permit: that's a 20-hour course, cut to 6 hours if you have more than ten years' experience. You file the declaration with the local council where you trade.
Which legal structure should you choose?
You register the business online through the single formalities portal. Running a food truck is a commercial activity, not a craft trade, unless you produce processed goods yourself: in that case you also register with the trades register.
Sole trader, micro-entrepreneur or company
Opening a food truck as a micro-entrepreneur works when you're starting out alone, with contributions calculated on what you take in. Watch out for the €188,700 revenue ceiling for selling food to eat on site, and above all for the fact that you can't deduct the cost of the van. If you're investing €40,000, the micro scheme quickly becomes a bad deal.
A sole trader on the standard tax regime or a single-shareholder simplified company (SASU) both let you depreciate the vehicle and reclaim VAT on the purchase. The SASU puts you under the general social security scheme and makes it easier to bring in a partner later. The formalities are close to those of a conventional restaurant: our guide to the steps to open a restaurant covers the ground they share.
The mobile trader card
Any activity carried out outside the council area where the business is registered requires a mobile trader card. You apply for it through the relevant formalities centre, it costs around €30 and lasts four years. You must be able to produce it at every inspection, along with the vehicle registration document.
Pitches, permits and regulations
A great van with nowhere to park is worth nothing. This is the point that decides whether the project works, and the one that takes the longest.
Getting permission to trade on public land
To park on a square, a municipal car park or a market, you need permission from the council. It's known as a temporary occupation permit for public land, or a street trading permit. You file the application with the town hall, usually with the public land department or the municipal police. It's chargeable, personal to you and revocable.
- A file with your company registration document, trader card, insurance certificate and photos of the van
- A fee calculated per linear metre, from €5 to €40 a day depending on the town
- Processing times of 2 weeks to 3 months, longer in big cities
Private land and events
On a supermarket car park, a business park or company grounds, a written agreement from the owner is all you need. It's quicker, often more profitable, and plenty of trucks build their week this way. Some councils still require a prior declaration.
Opening a food truck in Belgium
In Belgium the principle is similar but the paperwork goes elsewhere. You need registration with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises, an itinerant trading authorisation issued by an accredited business counter, an FASFC registration for food hygiene and the council's approval for your pitch. The Belgian itinerant trader card costs around €150 and lasts six years.
Display, payment and service
Prices and allergens must be clearly displayed before the customer orders. On a service hatch, space is tight: many operators move the menu to a QR code menu for food trucks, which handles allergen information, out-of-stock items and daily menu changes in one go. You update it from your phone, between services.
Opening a food truck with no capital, and getting to profitability
"How to open a food truck with no money" is a common search, and the honest answer is that you need a minimum. Opening one without a large amount of your own capital, though, is perfectly possible.
Funding options
- A bank loan secured against the van: banks often finance 70% of the purchase
- A professional microloan from Adie, up to €12,000, available with no capital of your own
- The ACRE and ARCE schemes from France Travail, which convert part of your benefits into capital
- Interest-free, unsecured honour loans from Initiative France or Réseau Entreprendre
- Hire purchase on the vehicle, spreading the investment over 36 to 60 months
A solid application beats a big deposit. A three-year forecast, pitches already agreed in writing, a costed menu with its margins: that's what gets the bank to say yes.
Food truck profitability
A truck that's doing well serves between 80 and 150 covers per service, with an average spend of €10 to €14. On that basis, annual revenue of €90,000 to €150,000 is achievable working five to six services a week. Gross margin sits at around 65 to 70%, but the bottom line depends on fuel, pitch fees and seasonality.
Break-even usually comes somewhere between month twelve and month eighteen. The trucks that get there are the ones that have locked in regular pitches and built loyalty: social media to announce where they are that day, pre-ordering, a short menu that's quick to produce. An online menu accessible by QR code cuts the wait at the hatch, and that's extra revenue on a two-hour service.
The steps to launch your project
In order: validate the concept and the market research, build the financial forecast, take the hygiene course, choose your legal structure and register the business, apply for the mobile trader card, buy the vehicle new or second-hand, get the gas and electrics checked, secure your pitch permits, insure the business, then open. Allow four to eight months between the first idea and the first service.