Food trucks: festivals, offices and social

A food truck earns money in three very different markets: public festivals, office and corporate lunches, and private events. Learn how to compare their economics, build a season calendar that balances them, sell private bookings with clear minimums and use social media to say where you are.

Read the transcript

Food trucks: festivals, offices and social.

A food truck is a restaurant that has to find its dining room every day.

Some days that dining room is a festival with thirty thousand people; some days it is an office park with four hundred hungry staff; some days it is a backyard wedding at eleven at night.

Three markets, three kinds of money.

Festivals bring the biggest single days and the most exposure.

Private events bring the most reliable profit.

Worked example: comparing a festival with a private booking.

The figures here are illustrative.

Brass Kettle, a fictional bao truck in Hamilton, is offered two bookings on the same Saturday in July.

Building a season calendar.

Plan the whole season in January, when festival applications open and couples are booking wedding vendors.

Mark the anchor festivals. List the festivals that performed well last year, with application deadlines, fees and dates.

Selling private bookings.

Private hosts want to know three things quickly: are you free, how much will it cost, and what will guests get?

Publish packages that answer all three.

Winning office lunches.

The buyer is often a property manager, an office manager or a workplace experience team, not the hungry staff.

They want an easy, reliable amenity that staff appreciate and that causes no complaints from neighbouring businesses.

That is the lesson. The worksheet and the quiz are just below this video.

What you will be able to do

• Compare festival, office and private booking income using revenue, fees and guaranteed minimums
• Build a season calendar that mixes high-risk festival days with guaranteed bookings
• Write private booking packages and location posts that bring in reliable revenue

A food truck is a restaurant that has to find its dining room every day. Some days that dining room is a festival with thirty thousand people; some days it is an office park with four hundred hungry staff; some days it is a backyard wedding at eleven at night. Each pays differently, carries different risks and needs different marketing. The trucks that last plan the mix on purpose.

Three markets, three kinds of money

Festivals bring the biggest single days and the most exposure. Private events bring the most reliable profit. Office lunches fill the weekdays between. A truck that depends on festivals alone is one wet summer away from trouble.

Worked example: comparing a festival with a private booking

The figures here are illustrative. Brass Kettle, a fictional bao truck in Hamilton, is offered two bookings on the same Saturday in July.

Option A: a two-day downtown festival. The organizer charges a $900 vendor fee plus 15 percent of sales. On a good weekend, Brass Kettle sells 1,100 orders at an average of $15, or $16,500. The percentage fee is $2,475, so fees total $3,375. Food and packaging at 32 percent of sales cost $5,280. Staff for two long days cost $2,400. Contribution before truck costs: $16,500 minus $3,375, $5,280 and $2,400, which is $5,445. In a rainy weekend, sales might fall by half to $8,250, the percentage fee to about $1,238, and food costs to $2,640, leaving about $1,072 after the same vendor fee and staff costs.

Option B: a private wedding late-night service. The couple pays a minimum of $2,800 plus HST for up to 150 guests over two hours. Food costs about $900 and staff about $400. Contribution: $1,500, regardless of weather.

The festival can earn more than three times as much, or less than the wedding. The wedding earns a predictable $1,500 on one day. Most trucks should take both kinds of booking across a season, and hold a few prime Saturdays for private events booked months ahead, when the risk-free money is worth more than the festival gamble.

Building a season calendar

Plan the whole season in January, when festival applications open and couples are booking wedding vendors.

1. Mark the anchor festivals. List the festivals that performed well last year, with application deadlines, fees and dates.
2. Reserve private dates. Decide how many Saturdays you will hold for private bookings and publish your availability.
3. Fill weekdays with office lunches. Aim for regular weekly or fortnightly slots at office parks, campuses, hospitals and industrial employers.
4. Leave recovery days. Trucks and people need maintenance. A breakdown on a festival weekend costs far more than a quiet Monday in the shop.
5. Review every month. Record revenue, fees and costs for each event, and decide which ones earn a place on next year’s calendar.

Selling private bookings

Private hosts want to know three things quickly: are you free, how much will it cost, and what will guests get? Publish packages that answer all three.

• Minimum spend. A set amount the host pays even if guests order less, such as $2,800 for a Saturday evening in summer, with a lower minimum on weekdays.
• Per-person packages. A fixed price per guest for a set menu, such as two bao and a side for each guest, with a minimum guest count.
• Service window. Two or three hours of service, with set-up and travel included in the price for your home area.
• Optional extras. A custom menu item named after the couple, branded napkins for a corporate client, extra hours.

Late-night food at weddings, staff appreciation days, film and television crew meals, school events, community festivals and corporate summer parties are all strong private markets. Add a booking page that shows your packages, a short form and your availability calendar.

Winning office lunches

The buyer is often a property manager, an office manager or a workplace experience team, not the hungry staff. They want an easy, reliable amenity that staff appreciate and that causes no complaints from neighbouring businesses.

A short pitch you can adapt: We run a licensed, inspected bao truck that serves about 150 people in 90 minutes. We can visit your site every second Thursday, from 11:30 to 1:30, with a rotating menu and vegetarian options. Staff pay individually, so there is no cost to you, or we can offer a subsidized lunch for team events. We carry liability insurance and can send the certificate today.

Telling people where you are

Your regulars need to know where to find you, every day. Post the week’s schedule every Monday on your main social platform and your website, then a short location post each morning with the address, hours and the day’s special. Pin the weekly schedule to the top of your profile. Ask festival organizers and office managers to share your post, and share theirs. Keep the truck’s name, colours and handle visible on the truck itself, so that people who photograph the line tag you.

When plans change, say so early. A breakdown, a cancelled festival day or a sold-out menu should go up as a post and a story the moment you know, with an apology and where you will be next. Regulars forgive a cancelled stop; they do not forgive driving across town to an empty parking lot. Keep an email or text list of people who have asked to hear about new locations and private booking dates, with their consent, because a platform’s reach can change overnight and your list stays yours.

In Canada and the GTA

Licensing in Toronto. The City of Toronto requires a motorized refreshment vehicle owner licence, and a separate mobile food vending permit to sell on public roads. On public roads, trucks must stay at least 30 linear metres from an open and operating restaurant, no more than two food trucks may operate on a block, and a truck may stay for a maximum of 12 hours at a time. Trucks may operate on private property and commercial parking lots with the owner’s permission, in areas where zoning allows. The City also requires a Proof of Health Inspection Letter from Toronto Public Health, proof of inspection by a certified technician if the truck has a propane or natural gas appliance, and proof of $2,000,000 in commercial general liability insurance. Details are on the City’s food truck page, which was last updated in September 2026. Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Hamilton and other municipalities each have their own rules, so check every city you plan to work in before you accept a booking there.

Food safety. Under Ontario’s Food Premises Regulation, food service premises must have at least one certified food handler on site during all hours of operation, and the same food safety discipline applies on a truck as in any kitchen. Festival organizers and office managers often ask for your certification and your most recent inspection, so keep copies ready to send.

Google Business Profile. Google says a business is eligible for a profile only if it has a location customers can visit or travels to customers. Service-area businesses should hide their address and set a service area that does not extend beyond about two hours of driving. Businesses tied to alcohol cannot be service-area-only businesses without a storefront, which matters for mobile bars. Check Google’s eligibility guidelines before you create or edit a truck’s profile, and use your real trading name without added keywords.

Pitching office and property managers. A property manager’s business email published on a building’s website, without a statement refusing commercial messages, can be relied on under CASL when your message relates to their role; a food amenity for tenants fits the role of a property or office manager. Your message still needs your identification and an unsubscribe link. Contacts who hand you a business card at an industry event can also support implied consent.

Prices on your booking page. Since June 23, 2022, the Competition Act has treated drip pricing as a false or misleading representation. If your private booking packages include a mandatory travel, service or set-up fee, build it into the advertised price. Only HST, at 13 percent in Ontario, may be added on top.

The Ontario season. The outdoor season in the GTA runs roughly from May to October, with festival weekends concentrated from June to September, from street festivals and cultural celebrations to waterfront and food events. Winter work exists, but it is different: indoor markets, film and television crew catering, holiday markets, corporate events in heated tents or loading bays, and catering from a commissary kitchen. Plan winter marketing around private and corporate catering, and use the quiet months to apply for next summer’s festivals, which often open applications in winter and fill quickly.

Cultural calendars. Many of the GTA’s busiest food events follow the cultural calendar, including Caribbean, South Asian, East Asian, Latin American and Middle Eastern celebrations through the summer, and Ramadan night markets in some years. A truck whose food fits a community’s celebration can build a loyal following there.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the official source or a lawyer for your own situation.

Worksheet

Download the worksheet and complete it for your own business, using Lantern & Lane as the model where it helps. Keep it with your marketing plan. It takes about 10 minutes.

Download the worksheet (PDF)