It's Damien for marketing food online. So I'm going to dive into a subscriber's question about food trucks. It was actually a question in regards to buying a trailer and retrofitting it and building it out. Or would it be better off just to simply buy a used food truck? We're going to dive into that right now.
So, as I mentioned in the introduction, I had a subscribers question that I wanted to dive into on this specific video. And if I, if I say this game correctly, it is Sara. I apologize if I say that incorrectly, but her question really quick was my, my question is can I buy a cargo trailer and converted into a private commercial kitchen? So what she was looking for is she's going to be doing some research in her city and state, which I definitely recommend, but she has an idea for a food truck, but wants to know if she can actually kind of build out a cargo trailer as a private commercial kitchen. Okay. Now there's a few things you need to kind of think about. And of course, questions you need to ask your city in regards to the licensing, the permitting and the type of food truck that you can actually build out from a cargo trailer.
Now, can you do this? Yes. And potentially, no, it's going to be dependent upon what is the regulations in your city and the County that you live in now? Also the health department would have to inspect the actual trailer itself and would potentially need some type of plan as to where the equipment will be. What type of equipment you will put on it, the amount of weight of the equipment. You've got to also think about that as well. When you're dealing with cargo trailers, of course, like anything else, they have a weight maximum. So you cannot exceed that weight maximum on the trailer. There's also going to be a lot of retrofitting and customization. If you have to have additional vintage ventilation, if you have to have additional generators, if you need any type of grease disposal, waste disposal or water disposal, that's going to be a huge investment, but potentially yes, you could potentially build out a cargo trailer.
Now the flip side to that would be why don't you look into simply buying a used food truck, because that's going to be a lot cheaper if it already has the built-in equipment, if it's in great running shape, if it doesn't have a lot of miles on the engine as well, look at the wear and tear on the actual food truck. One of the most important things is to find out specifically the type of menu that you're going to be making. What are the items you're going to cook or serve? And here's why I say that is that most food trucks have a specific type of equipment already built into it if you're buying a used one. So if you happen to be doing baked goods, obviously deep fryers and other things, other equipments that are used for cooking chicken or hamburgers or grills, that's not necessarily going to be good for obviously baked goods.
Website Design Services : https://bit.ly/35XnxK4
Food Business Books: https://bit.ly/3kP5oV3
Commercial Food Products: https://bit.ly/325gNsg
Nutritional Labels: https://bit.ly/343tTaZ
Social Media Help https://bit.ly/3k3aRqX
Mobile Food Business: https://bit.ly/2TMo4J6
FREE VIDEOS: https://bit.ly/2HMSx7z
Catering Business: https://bit.ly/35VBGY7
Food Truck Business: https://bit.ly/3kPGYuD
Spice Business: https://bit.ly/34TBR7b
Co Packers: https://bit.ly/381TjIv
Food Business Consulting: https://bit.ly/3kQOZzn
So find out specifically what it is you're going to make that will dictate the type of equipment you want to look for in a used food truck, or if you happen to build out the actual cargo trailer itself. That again, is that you'll have to find out specifically the type of equipment that you'll need to put in it and the type of ventilation and other technical sides of it that you may have to build out and have it drawn out and have it specifically built to your specifications. Okay. So as far as just having an empty trailer and throwing a bunch of stuff in it and driving around, that's not exactly how it would work. And of course you have to go through the health department and they would need to inspect. And even some cities and counties are, as you're building it out along the way, they would have to see the progress of that being built.
There's also a fire department inspections and the health department will inspect you very much similar to how they inspect a restaurant. Most of the guidelines and laws, when we operated our bakery in our sandwich shop, the the USDA, actually the department of agriculture was inspecting us. And a lot of times those same expectations for food trailers, fruit trucks, or even vending mobile food vendors falls in line with restaurants, cafes, or sandwiched businesses. So keep that in mind, much of what they're going to expect from you is going to be along those same lines. So having the idea to use a cargo trailer sounds good. And it's obviously a lot of space to work with, which sounds even better, but you want to make sure that you're following those guidelines. Okay? And every step of the way you may have to kind of basically show them where you're at or potentially at the end of it, they're going to do a walkthrough and inspection of that as well.
So what kind of permits and licenses do you need?
So depending on the equipment that you need, this cargo trailer may be a great idea. And it may, it may take a lot of time though, and a lot of money to build out. Now, there is a website I'm going to go into give you, you can check the link down below. It's not some affiliate link. I'm not getting paid for it at all. It's just an additional link. But down in the description, you need to check out a website. I actually pulled it up here specifically for your question called used vending.com. And I'll actually do a video review of this website. I'll show you how this website works. This is a fantastic website. It's called used vending.com and they have a ton of everything you can think of. They have used food trucks, mobile kitchens, concession trailers. It's basically kind of like a classified or an ads website where you can go on there and take a look at trucks near you, potentially trucks that you can buy within your state that you don't have to bring in from another state.
Because in some cases, if you bring in a food truck from another state, the licensing and the inspections and the insurance, that all changes when it comes from another state into your state. So check out this website, this may actually help you and could save you a lot of money. Not having to actually build something from scratch. So my recommendation is yes, the food food, food ideas sounds great inside of a large trailer, but take a look at what's already out there, maybe something that's already existing, it could save you a lot of money in headaches because it has a lot of what you already need built into it. So I hope that answers your question. If you have any questions about food businesses, food trucks, or mobile food businesses down below, let me know in the comments and we'll try to get a video up for your question. Thank you. I'll see you.
Thanks for watching marketing food online. And if you are looking to create your own food truck, start a home-based food business under the cottage food law franchise, a food operation start a packaged food business, private label, your own food product, sell on Amazon. Get your own online store or sell food online. Remember to subscribe and check out these videos for more resources, take care.
Listen to "How to start a Food truck business Should you Rent or Lease a food truck" on Spreaker.