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90 tickets at $14 grosses $30,240/mo — but the net is before your own wage, and breakeven is the number to know cold.
Food trucks fail on prime cost, not food quality. The math: a $14 ticket across 90 tickets a day, 24 days a month, grosses $30,240 — and after 32% food cost, one paid helper, the truck payment, commissary, permits, and fuel, $15,583 remains BEFORE the owner's own wage. This calculator runs your menu economics, shows the prime-cost percentage that separates trucks from expensive jobs, and names the breakeven tickets per day you must beat every single service.
Truck owners use it before signing the note: 90 tickets at $14 nets $15.6k/mo BEFORE your wage — prime cost under 65% and 62 breakeven tickets/day decide if the truck pays you or owns you.
The range is enormous because the inputs are: well-run trucks net 10–20% after EVERYTHING including a market wage for the owner; the median struggling truck nets the owner a stressful below-market wage. The discipline numbers: prime cost (food + labor) must stay under 60–65% — over that line you are buying yourself a job with a fryer. The example's $15,583/mo net is BEFORE the owner's wage — the single most common pro-forma lie in the industry is presenting that number as profit. What separates earners: location arbitrage (the same truck grosses $400 at a weak lunch spot and $1,400 at a brewery with no kitchen — recurring spots beat event chasing), menu speed (5–7 items, under 6 minutes of ticket time — rush throughput is the capacity constraint), and catering/private events (a booked 2-hour private at $1,200 guaranteed beats hoping for 90 walk-ups). The used-truck decision matters more than most first-timers think: $40–80k used versus $100–175k new build is $600–900/mo of payment difference — 60+ tickets a month of breakeven, every month, for years.
The honest stack: the truck itself ($40–80k for a solid used build, $100–175k new), commissary kitchen fees ($400–800/mo — required in most states for prep and storage), permits and licenses ($1,000–2,500/yr stacked: health permit, fire inspection, business license, mobile vendor permits per city), insurance ($2,000–4,000/yr — vehicle plus liability), initial inventory and smallwares ($3,000–5,000), and a POS system. Total realistic launch: $60,000–120,000 used-truck path. The costs that ambush first-year operators: generator and propane (fuel plus maintenance), event fees ($50–500 per rally), the truck's mechanical life (it is a commercial vehicle AND a kitchen — budget both), and the slow-season cash trough — winter weeks at 40% of summer volume while fixed costs run at 100%. The pre-launch discipline: know your breakeven tickets/day cold (this calculator) and validate the number with a popup or tent operation BEFORE signing the truck note — a $500 market-booth weekend proves the menu and the demand for 1% of the truck's price.
The hierarchy: recurring anchor spots first — breweries and taprooms without kitchens (the classic symbiosis: they sell more beer when food exists, you get a built-in crowd), office parks at lunch, farmers markets, and industrial areas at shift change. Event chasing (festivals, rallies) is the sugar high — big days, big fees, no reliability; build the week around anchors and treat events as upside. The pitch to venues is mutual revenue: walk in with photos, your health permit, insurance certificate, and the offer — "I bring dinner traffic to your taproom every Thursday" is an easy yes. Booking platforms (Roaming Hunger, local food-truck associations) fill gaps but take fees; direct venue relationships are the asset. The location math that matters: tickets per service is the metric — track it per spot for a month, rank your spots, and ruthlessly drop the bottom quartile for new tests; a spot doing 40 tickets when your breakeven is 62 is a hobby location, however friendly the owner. Seasonality defense: the event calendar (weddings, corporate catering, holiday markets) and brewery anchors with indoor seating carry winter — model your year in the calculator at both volumes before believing the summer months.