This Hollygrove Lenders article explains how an existing restaurant in Fort Pierce, Florida funds a food truck: financing it as equipment, what the truck costs beyond the vehicle, loan versus lease versus term loan, working capital for the first weeks, licensing before financing closes, St. Lucie County, FL restaurant counts, a worked truck package, avoiding overextension and why startup trucks are different.
The Short Answer: Fund the Truck as Equipment Backed by an Existing Kitchen
A food truck is a kitchen on wheels, and it can be financed like any other equipment: the partner lends against the vehicle and its cooking line, and holds a lien until the last payment. What makes the request work is the restaurant behind it. Its menu, customers and deposits show that the truck's payment has a source.
Equipment financing covers the truck. Working capital covers the costs a truck creates before it earns: opening stock, wages, event fees.
What a Food Truck Costs Beyond the Vehicle
- The vehicle or trailer itself, new or used.
- The kitchen build: line equipment, hood, refrigeration, sinks, tanks.
- Fire suppression and extinguishers for the cooking line.
- A generator or power system sized to the equipment.
- Wrap and signage.
- Licensing, plan review, inspections and the county receipt.
- Opening stock, paper goods and a point-of-sale terminal.
Get a builder's quote that lists each item. Items on the quote can be financed; items off it are paid from cash.
Equipment Loan, Lease or Term Loan for the Truck
An equipment loan makes the restaurant the truck's owner from the start. A lease leaves ownership with the lessor and may end with a buyout. A term loan can cover costs that are not equipment, such as the build-out labor or a commissary fit-out, but it is not secured by the truck in the same way.
Many owners use an equipment loan for the truck and its kitchen, and keep a line of credit for stock and wages. Compare the total cost of each structure before choosing.
Working Capital for the First Weeks of Events
A truck's first weeks bring costs before steady income: stock, staff training, event and lot fees, and the restaurant's own staff stretched across two kitchens. Revenue builds as the truck finds its locations and events.
A working capital loan or a line of credit sized to those weeks keeps the restaurant's operating account from carrying the truck. Partners read the restaurant's deposits to see how much strain it can absorb.
Licensing Before the Financing Closes
In Florida, mobile food dispensing vehicles are licensed by the Division of Hotels and Restaurants within the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and plan review questions come before a build. The county business tax receipt follows the state license. The Florida food truck license guide lists the agencies and the questions to ask.
Settle licensing questions before the financing closes. A partner funding a truck that cannot be licensed as built is funding a problem.
St. Lucie County, FL Kitchens With Paid Staff
County Business Patterns counted 211 full-service and 181 limited-service restaurants with paid staff in St. Lucie County, FL in 2023, 392 in all and 8,429 employees (our arithmetic, adding the two codes; County Business Patterns 2023). Those are the kitchens with the records a partner reads when one of them adds a truck.
The restaurant page covers the kitchen side: hoods, walk-ins and payroll between card settlements.
A Restaurant's Truck Package With Invented Prices
Illustration only, invented prices: a restaurant prices a truck at $52,000 for a used step van, $46,000 for the kitchen build, $8,400 for a generator, $5,200 for fire suppression and $3,900 for the wrap, $115,500 in all (our arithmetic). The restaurant brings $17,325 of its own money and finances the other $98,175 over 72 months, at an invented 11% annual rate.
That invented loan costs about $1,869 a month and about $151,869 in total with the down payment (our arithmetic). Licensing, opening stock and wages come on top of that invented figure.
Overextending: Testing the Payment Against the Weakest Month
Overextending means taking on a payment the business can carry only in good months. Test the truck's payment against the restaurant's weakest month of deposits in the past year, assuming the truck earns nothing at first. If the restaurant can carry it then, the truck has room to grow into its payment.
If it cannot, a smaller truck, a trailer instead of a step van, or a larger down payment brings the payment down. Waiting until the restaurant's records are stronger is also an answer.
Startup Trucks Without a Kitchen Behind Them
A truck with no restaurant or catering business behind it has no deposits for a partner to read, and startups are outside the partners' scope here. A cook planning a first truck may find a used truck with a seller willing to carry a note, or start by catering from a licensed kitchen and build records first.
Call (772) 314-3260 or send the online form with the builder's quote. Fort Pierce, FL figures and the other articles are nearby.
By Hollygrove Lenders · Updated
