Scorecard · Portland, OR
Food truck parked at breweries
49/100
How much does it cost to start a food truck in Portland? $55,000–$95,000 in Portland, OR, on the figures below.
- Profit
- B
- Portland trucks take $900–$2,100 on a service day at a $14 average ticket. Food cost runs 28–32% and there is no rent on a brewery pad, only a $200–$500 weekly fee.
- Difficulty
- C
- Multnomah County commissary agreement, mobile unit plan review and a fire marshal hood inspection. Six to ten weeks if the truck is already built.
- Capital
- D$55,000–$95,000
- A built-out used truck is $45,000–$70,000, wrap and signage $3,500, first inventory $4,000, and the county wants the commissary contract signed before it inspects.
Break-even
- The number that has to be true
- 64 tickets a day at $14, five days a week
- Fixed costs a month
- $7,400
- The assumption
- A brewery pad with its own evening footfall, at a flat weekly fee.
Opening for less
All three together take $51,800 off: $95,000 becomes $43,200.
Lease a permitted truck monthly for the first season instead of buying
−$38,000
Costs you: $2,600 a month that never becomes an asset you can sell
Run a single menu of six items on two burners
−$9,000
Costs you: No fryer, which rules out the highest-margin items on most truck menus
Share a commissary kitchen slot with another operator
−$4,800
Costs you: Prep happens at 5am on the days you are given
How you’d do it
What you need
- Multnomah County mobile food unit licence and a signed commissary agreement
- A truck that passes fire marshal inspection with a Type 1 hood
- Two brewery or lot agreements, so one cancellation does not empty the week
- $7,400 a month covered while the queue is still short
First 3 moves
- 1Stand at three brewery pads on a Friday at 6pm and count people holding food.
- 2Get a written weekly fee from two lot owners before you look at trucks.
- 3Cost your six-item menu at Portland wholesale prices and check the 30% food cost holds.
The hardest part
Weather. Four wet months cut service days, and the truck payment does not care.
This card is graded on the published scale: how each grade is worked out. Every idea on every board is measured the same way, which is what makes two ideas comparable.
Put your own idea on a board
Your city, your one line. The capital range lands free in seconds. $9 scores 5 ideas and ranks them against each other.
Scored nearby