Food Truck Startup Cost Calculator

This calculator sums the real line items a food truck launch actually requires, then adds a working capital cushion and an optional loan payment estimate. Hard costs are the truck itself, kitchen build-out, equipment, a vehicle wrap (fixed at $3,500), POS and technology setup (fixed at $1,500), initial marketing (fixed at $2,000), starting food inventory, and permits/licenses — all added together. One adjustment happens automatically: if you select a used truck, build-out cost is discounted to 70% of what you entered, reflecting that new trucks are typically custom-fitted and cost 30-50% more to outfit than a used truck that may already have some kitchen infrastructure in place. On top of hard costs, working capital is calculated from a fixed $4,000-per-month operating-expense assumption (covering food, fuel, commissary rent, and insurance) times however many months of reserve you choose — this monthly figure is a planning estimate baked into the code, not pulled from your actual costs, so treat it as a starting point to refine with your own numbers.

Finally, if you were to finance the total through an SBA-style loan, the calculator estimates a monthly payment using a standard amortization formula at a 7% annual rate over a 5-year (60-month) term. The output is meant to answer "how much do I actually need to raise," not just equipment pricing. Because branding, POS, and initial marketing are fixed assumptions rather than inputs, your real costs for those items could run higher or lower — use the total as a planning baseline and adjust upward if your market requires more marketing spend or a pricier POS system. Three to six months of working capital is the generally recommended range; going below three months leaves little room to survive a slow ramp-up period.