Weekly Food Truck Programs for Cities
Would you like to request a weekly rotation of reliable & reputable food trucks? *Must be at least 1-food truck, per week, for a least 3-months. Annual/seasonal/pilot programs are available.
Weekly Food Truck or Seasonal Program
We can book and schedule food trucks up to seven-days a week, at varying times of the day, depending on your needs and the availability of food trucks in your area. We will schedule the trucks for your location and provide a site-specific URL with your administration contact, that can be found in our website. Here’s an example of a location schedule that we will create, showing which food truck(s) will be at your location: wafoodtrucks.org/alaskaair
We will confirm that all the vendors have their: County health permit, fire permit, state & city business license, site-specific insurance, and are following all of the state and local laws regarding mobile food vending. In addition, we can set very specific parameters per your location that include cuisine type preferences, the frequency of any one vendor, etc. We will also create marketing flyers that can be coordinated with any city media contacts and help to promote.
Some of the locations we have activated include: Vancouver’s Turtle Place Transit Park, Port of Tacoma, Port of Everett “Food Truck Fridays”, Everett Parks, Port of Seattle/Seatac airport, Port of Bellingham, Space Needle Park at Kiro 7, the SeaTac Office Center, South, North & Central Seattle Colleges, Tacoma & Highline Community College, Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Issaquah’s Rowley Properties, Wright Runstad properties, WIG properties, DOT’s street vending pilot program in Bellevue, pilot program in Des Moines, and dozens more.
Why have us manage your location?
Finding high quality food trucks, assuring that they are properly vetted, maintaining an online calendar and booking system, rescheduling and finding last-minute substitute vendors, fixing permitting and licensing problems, adjusting the type, cost, and time of service, marketing via social media, press release and local flyers, and insuring a rotation of great food vendors takes a lot of work. We do this, so you don’t have to.
There are a few businesses, some local and some national, that manage food truck pod/lots in our state, and generally we support any effort to increase the number of quality vending locations. However, most food truck booking services are not local and some of these companies exist solely to take advantage of food truck operators by charging excessive booking fees and/or forcing vendors to sign very restrictive non-compete agreements.
The Washington State Food Truck Association charges very minimal booking fees to the vendors (usually around $15 - $35), which is often less than a third of what these other pod/lot management companies are charging. Our mission is to protect, promote, and grow the mobile food industry in WA. The booking fees collected by the WSFTA are used to fund our numerous state and local advocacy projects. The other pod/lot management companies are simply interested in revenue and have no interest in helping these local small business owners whatsoever.
Food trucks, like other food service businesses, often operate on very thin margins, which makes them very sensitive to even the smallest costs and fees. Some food trucks will refuse to vend at locations where they feel they are simply being used or exploited. Having the wrong pod/lot management company handle the bookings at your location could result in a very limited number of food trucks willing to serve at your location and could also result in the cost of food being raised to offset unreasonably high booking fees.
Please keep in mind that most food trucks need a minimum of ($800 gross sales per 3-hr. service) or (60+ customers per 3-hr. service) just to cover all their costs. Your location must have enough customers to be a viable vending location.
Something else that’s unique to the way we manage our food truck locations is the way we track and monitor each vending location, and each vendor. We collect ticket sales information from each vendor, each day. This information allows us to see which trucks are doing better than others, and why. It allows us to determine if the location needs an additional truck, or different kinds of trucks. We welcome and encourage feedback from customers and venue hosts regarding food options, pricing, optimal vending times, etc…. Our goal is to maximize the success of the location for the customers and for the vendors.
Sometimes issues can arise with local government regarding permitting, fire code, proximity to restrooms, etc…. We work with state and local government officials every day regarding these issues and we are very well qualified and prepared to help resolve them. Other pod/lot management companies, some of whom are not even based in WA, often have little understanding of state and local regulations, much less ways to resolve these issues. How do we know this? Because they usually call us for help.
Vendors who participate at our managed locations are required to follow specific terms & conditions found here.
Let us know if you need to hire us for consulting on a city pilot program so we can include the details of our new program launch task list for coordination efforts.
“We enjoy working with Lori Johnson and the Washington State Food Truck Association. We have found the vendors to all be very professional and customer-service oriented. The food is delicious and we value the diversity of flavors the WA State Food Truck Assoc provides. The vendors are very self-sufficient and leave the space they use here in great condition. Lori Johnson provides an incredible value in ensuring all the “behind the scenes” requirements are met and provided as needed. She is a true advocate for the vendors and keeps our best interests in the forefront of the plans she arranges. We appreciate the service and product the Washington State Food Truck Association provides and are looking forward to continuing to work together with them.” - Robin Eidem, Wright Runstad & Company, The Spring District, Bellevue
And a very important point!
Your decision to work with the Washington State Food Truck Association will show that you support our state food truck industry and that you care about these amazing, and very hard working, local small business owners.
WARNING: Without properly vetting mobile food vendors for: WA State Labor & Industries insignia, county health permit, city business license, fire permit, and (daily) site-specific liability insurance, property owners and property managers could be exposing their tenants to health & safety risks, and exposing themselves to legal liability.
