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Food Truck Profit Calculator

Enter your average daily sales, food cost percentage, pitch or location fees, daily fuel and vehicle running costs, staff wages per day, and any other daily expenses. The calculator gives you gross profit, daily net profit, monthly net profit, and the daily sales figure you need to break even.

Enter your daily sales, food cost %, and all daily costs to calculate food truck profit.
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Profit projections are estimates based on the figures you enter. Actual results vary with sales, costs, weather, location, and many other factors. This is not financial advice.

How to use this tool

  1. 1Enter your average daily sales - use a realistic recent average, not a best-day figure.
  2. 2Enter your food cost percentage - this is the percentage of each sale that goes to ingredients. Typical food truck food cost is 25-35%.
  3. 3Enter your daily pitch or location fee - market fees, private site hire, or festival fees.
  4. 4Enter daily vehicle and fuel costs - fuel, insurance allocation per day, and any daily maintenance.
  5. 5Enter daily staff wages if you have any employees or pay yourself a wage.
  6. 6Enter any other daily costs and read the net profit and break-even figure.

Formula used

Gross profit = daily sales x (1 - food cost percentage). Net profit = gross profit - pitch fee - vehicle and fuel cost - daily wages - other daily costs. Monthly net profit = daily net profit x trading days. Break-even daily sales = total daily fixed and variable costs / gross margin percentage.

Example

Market: avg daily sales 800, food cost 30%, pitch 80, fuel 25, wages 100

Gross profit: 560. After pitch, fuel, and wages: 355. Net profit per day: 355. 20 trading days: monthly profit 7,100. Break-even daily sales: (80+25+100) / 0.70 = 293. Any day above 293 in sales is profitable - this operator has a comfortable margin.

Festival: daily sales 2,500, food cost 35%, pitch 400, fuel 60, 2 staff at 100 each

Gross profit: 1,625. After costs: 965. Net profit per day: 965. A strong festival day. But if the festival has a minimum guarantee or the weather turns, a bad day at 800 revenue would net only 80 profit - the higher pitch fee compresses margins significantly on lower-revenue days.

Common use cases

  • Evaluating whether a new market pitch or festival is worth attending based on expected sales and fee
  • Calculating the daily sales target needed to make a food truck business financially viable
  • Comparing the profitability of different pitch locations to prioritise where to trade
  • Building a monthly income projection for a business plan or loan application
  • Deciding whether to hire an additional staff member based on the impact on daily profit

Common mistakes

  • Using best-day sales as the average - use a rolling 4-week average for realistic projections.
  • Not including the cost of vehicle loan repayments or the depreciation of a vehicle purchase in daily costs.
  • Forgetting permits, commissary kitchen fees, and equipment maintenance as recurring costs.
  • Not accounting for non-trading days (maintenance, setup, travel to locations) when calculating monthly income.

Frequently asked questions

How much can a food truck make per day?

Average food truck daily sales range from 500-2,500 depending on location, concept, weather, and events. Top-performing trucks at festivals or in high-footfall locations can exceed 5,000 per day. Most food trucks average 600-1,200 on a regular market day. Monthly income of 3,000-8,000 after costs is typical for a one-person or small team operation.

What food cost percentage should a food truck target?

Most food trucks target 25-35% food cost. Simpler menus with fewer ingredients and high volume items achieve the lower end. Complex multi-component dishes run toward 35%. Lower food cost is critical because pitch fees and vehicle costs create a relatively high fixed cost base that must be covered before profit is made.

Is a food truck more profitable than a restaurant?

Food trucks have lower startup costs (typically 30,000-100,000 versus 150,000-500,000 for a restaurant) and no long-term lease commitment. However, revenue is capped by trading hours, weather, and location access. A successful food truck can achieve similar or better net margins than a small restaurant, but revenue ceiling and trading days limit absolute profit. Many operators use a food truck to test a concept before opening a fixed location.

What are the biggest hidden costs for food trucks?

Vehicle maintenance and downtime (a broken truck means no revenue), commissary kitchen rental if required by local health code, permit and license fees that vary widely by city and event, waste disposal fees at markets, and the time cost of travel to and setup at each location. These can add 200-500 per week in costs that are easy to overlook in initial planning.

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