Copyright: zhukovsky / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: zhukovsky / 123RF Stock Photo

The food truck industry is still hot and doesn’t appear to be slowing down.  The Four Seasons (yes, that Four Seasons) just recently begun a 9 city tour with its food truck offering its own upscale Philadelphia inspired menu including a “Victory Root Beer Phloat” with Tastycake Butterscotch Krimpet Ice Cream for dessert.   But is this continued craze translating to more food truck franchises?The Philadelphia Business Journal recently published an interesting article about the hurdles food trucks face in the city of Philadelphia.  The article delves into two big issues facing food trucks.  First, that city and county’s vending laws are often antiquated and fail to property represent today’s gourmet food truck movement.  Often the definition of a “mobile vendor” under these laws does not represent how modern food trucks operate resulting in onerous restrictions on where and when trucks may operate.   Or, in the case of the city of Houston, food trucks operating in the city cannot use industry standard propane and must operate within 500 feet of a flushable toilet.

Second, food trucks are facing competition from established brick and mortar restaurants using food trucks to give away free samples as part of marketing and advertising campaigns which can put an obvious cramp on businesses looking for paying customers.

My thoughts turned to franchising and whether there are many franchise systems out there having success with the food truck model.   The answer, for the time being, appears to be no.   Eric Silverstein, owner and operator of the Peach Tortilla food truck concept in Austin, Texas, wrote an interesting blog on food truck franchising last year.  He figured that lower start-up costs, the limited menu and easy to replicate concepts should work in favor of franchising.  However, like the Philadelphia Business Journal he also cites changing and non-uniform city laws as a major impediment to any serious growth in food truck franchising.

This is not to say that concepts are not trying. Many existing brands are having success adding trucks or mobile units as an additional option to prospective franchisees.  Franchise Hudson’s Coffee recently added a mobile food truck to its franchise offerings.   Although again, many of these brands use company owned food trucks initially only as a way to test markets and promote their brands.  There are not too many success stories of start-up concepts utilizing a purely mobile unit option.  However, this may change as outdated local laws are modernized to make it easier for food trucks to operate.  For now it appears that unclear laws and other factors will continue to thwart any significant growth of new mobile truck concepts.