How to Rent a Food Truck For Your Event
How it Works
If you’re wondering how to rent a food truck in New York, you’ve come to the right place. Our expertise is in event catering and connecting event coordinators with gourmet local food trucks to create rounded and unique catering experiences. Whether it be corporate events, private parties, or large-scale events like weddings and conventions, our streamlined process makes it easy to coordinate feeding your guests.
Give us Details
High-level details are essential, such as the date, time, and number of guests, but we can also provide better assistance if you know some other details like your budget and any other specifics.
Pick Your Cuisines
Select from our roster of over 100 of the best food trucks in New York to perfectly align your and your guests’ tastes with the catering of your event.
Customize Your Experience
We can help you to customize your event down to minor, aesthetic details, such as creating custom menus or adding interactive elements to the event, like a photo booth. Feel free to get creative and our team will help make it a reality!
Sit Back & Relax
This is the easy part. Once we have the details and have worked with you to book food trucks for your event, you can leave the logistics to us.
Tips for Planning a Food Truck Catered Event
Food is one of the most crucial, make-or-break aspects of any gathering, and there are many moving factors in the organizing of an event. When you hire a food truck for your next event, feeding your guests won’t have to be as onerous as other event preparation tasks may be.
This helpful guide will lead you through each step of reserving a food truck in an effort to relieve some of the stress associated with arranging your upcoming event. You can be sure that no one will leave your event hungry by doing the actions listed below (and that you can leave the event feeling at ease).
5 KEY STEPS
FOR PLANNING YOUR FOOD TRUCK EVENT
1. SET YOUR BUDGET
The fact is that most food truck events don’t come with an infinite budget, as lovely as it would be to be able to spend as much as you’d want on feeding your guests. The entire procedure will go more smoothly if you have a clear understanding of the prices associated with hiring a food truck.
There are a few things to consider that will affect how much you will pay when you first start looking into hiring a food truck for an event. Take a look:
Number of Guests: This part is crucial. Understanding the size of your guest list will give you a more realistic expectation of what your costs might be. Bigger crowds mean higher costs for catered events.
Time of Year: Booking food truck catering during peak party seasons or around holidays will typically incur a higher cost simply due to demand. It’s also important to keep in mind the availability of your preferred truck(s) and how that might change during peak party times. Know your event date, and adjust your expectations based on when it may fall.
Event Length: Food truck catering tends to rely on some amount of an operational time frame, so the longer your event is expected to go the more it will cost. This can be mitigated to some extent with careful planning and structure, like switching over to desserts and ice cream after a certain point, but no matter what there will always be a heavier cost associated with longer events.
Cuisine: Some types of food are more expensive than others, so if you’re looking to save, consider opting for cuisines that don’t rely on expensive ingredients like seasonal produce.
Location: On the one hand, holding special events in a big city implies that everything will cost more (including the food). On the other hand, you may anticipate paying extra if you’re holding an event that needs a food truck to travel a significant distance to get there. No matter where you have your event, the venue will affect the cost.
After thinking about your personal spending limit, you should think about each food truck’s price structure. Although every company is unique, the majority calculate expenses using the following metrics:
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Event Minimums
- Mileage
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Parking and Permitting Fees
You’ll save time and effort when considering how to rent a food truck if you have a clear and realistic idea of your budget. In addition to not wanting to deprive your visitors of the finest experience possible by not making the most of your money, you also don’t want to have your heart set on something you can’t afford.
Before moving to the next step, check out our catering calculator to get a basic idea of what you can expect for costs.
2. RESEARCH YOUR EVENT NEEDS
When it comes to event planning, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach. This means that choosing the best food truck in New York that is appropriate for any given type of event requires careful consideration of every aspect. To make things simpler, we’ve compiled a list of inquiries you ought to make when looking for food trucks.
- How formal is the event?
- What kind of dietary restrictions need to be accommodated?
- Does your event require light snacks or a full meal?
- Will guests eat throughout the event or at a set time?
Once you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to find food trucks that fit your preferences! Thankfully, you don’t have to go at this part alone, since NYFTA is always here to help. While doing some internet research or asking around might be beneficial, it is always a good idea to make sure you are working with reputable merchants. You can be confident that when you pick one of our partners, you’ll be working with a group of experts that have a successful track record.
3. FIT YOUR TASTES TO YOUR MENU
It might be a struggle to decide what to offer at your event with so many mouthwatering food truck alternatives available! The good news is that our partnered food truck owners are experienced at feeding large crowds. They are also experts in streamlining menus and preparing inventive food in a portable, easy-to-eat manner. For your catered occasions, there is a New York food truck serving anything from burritos to BBQ and everything in between!
We advise focusing on just one particular culinary style if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities. In contrast to choosing between every food truck in New York, choosing between taco trucks is much simpler if you decide to get tacos. Similar to this, you may quickly remove a sizable number of options if you determine that just dessert will be served by a food truck during your event. No matter what, remember that NYFTA is here to help you figure out how to rent a food truck that fits your specific wants and needs.
4. CONSIDER THE LOGISTICS
By now, you ought to be well on your way to reserving a food truck for your occasion. However, there are a few crucial aspects you need to take into account to make sure everything goes without a hitch before you have everything finished. Be careful to work out the following elements in advance since the last thing you want to be doing on the big day is rushing to solve problems.
Weather: You can never predict what Mother Nature may bring. It’s crucial to have a backup plan in place in case of bad weather if your event will be held outside. Before you reserve a food truck, ask the vendor what kinds of weather they can work in and whether they can relocate inside if required. Keep an eye on the weather on the day of your event and know what the food truck owners you hired can manage.
Accessibility: If you want to keep things organized, consider how your visitors are going to get to the food truck. It is essential that the truck park at a location that is simple for visitors to access, observe, and maneuver around. Try to also keep in mind the common standards for ADA compliance when planning your event.
Dining Areas: A crucial consideration is whether you want designated tables and chairs or whether you want your guests to stand up and eat. Your choice should take into account the sort of cuisine you intend to serve, since certain meals are more appropriate for eating on the road than others. Understanding where your visitors will dine is essential to a successful catering process, whether it be for large-scale corporate events or a smaller private event.
Trash Disposal: You can avoid staying late to clean up by strategically arranging trash cans and recycling bins throughout your event venue. This will keep everything looking neat and presentable.
5. BOOK A TRUCK
Our process is simple, and we’re here to help you every step of the way.
One of the simplest, most effective, and tastiest ways to cater any event is by hiring a food truck. In addition to making your life simpler, doing so will definitely amaze your visitors. The best thing is that you can choose the ideal food truck for every celebration because there are so many amazing alternatives available. The cuisine at your event is sure to be a hit if you follow the above instructions and work with a reputable NYFTA vendor!
Our vendors work so hard to ensure that your event is spectacular in any way. Any tips and gratuity will be greatly appreciated.
You should book your food cart at least a week in advance to allow our vendors to properly prepare, schedule, and execute your event to perfection.
Yes, certain specialty vehicles can serve alcohol at your event, but the event needs to meet certain legal requirements (i.e. take place on private property). You’re more than welcome to discuss the logistics and details of this further with a member of the NYFTA team!
The number of people a truck can serve depends on the menu offerings, but on average, it can serve 100-150 people per hour when cooking and other preparation is involved. If you have a large number of guests in a short time window, we can have trucks pre-package meals to expedite the process significantly and serve a great number of people.
Food trucks come prepared to serve the number of people agreed upon in the contract. Depending on each truck’s storage capability, our members typically bring 10% more product to serve additional portions at an additional per person cost, which is specified at the time of booking.
On our website, you can see our individual members’ pages and their menus. For most events, we will need to limit the options to 3-4 main dishes of your choice (sides and drinks are optional and would cost extra per person). This is done in order to expedite service and to limit food waste for the vendors. If you have any special menu requests, please let us know and we will try to accommodate your needs.
Many of our members have trucks and/or carts that can be powered by electric and operate indoors. Check out these members here.
