For food trucks and trailers
Food cost software for food trucks
Smooth Ops is food cost software built for food trucks: cost every plate down to the fry boat and napkins, scan supplier invoices and club store receipts from your phone in the commissary lot, and see which menu items slipped past your target. It is one back-office app that runs from a phone, with a Square integration that imports your sales and cash automatically. Built by operators with 14+ years of operations across 20+ locations. Try it for 30 days free, no credit card.
Why food cost is harder on a truck than in a restaurant
Most food cost tools assume a walk-in cooler, a broadline distributor, and a manager with office hours. A truck has none of those, and the gap shows up in the numbers in five specific ways.
- Tiny storage forces small, frequent buys at retail prices. With a fraction of a restaurant's cold and dry storage, you shop every day or two at grocery and club stores instead of taking case-quantity distributor pricing, so plate costs drift up invisibly.
- Commissary fees never make it into the recipe math. Many cities require trucks to prep and park at a licensed commissary, which runs $250 to $1,000 a month for basic access and $1,000 to $3,000 for full service (The Food Corridor, as of July 2026). Almost nobody loads that back into plate costs, so plates look more profitable than they are.
- No back office and no laptop time. Costing happens, if at all, on a phone in a parking lot between services, while paper invoices from three suppliers pile up in the glovebox. Nobody notices when the bun case quietly goes up 12%.
- A short menu concentrates price risk. Most trucks run 5 to 10 items, so a spike in one core ingredient moves the food cost of the whole business at once. A restaurant can steer guests to other dishes; a smash burger truck cannot.
- Prep is committed before demand is known. Quantities are decided the night before, then weather and foot traffic decide sales. Unsold prep often cannot be re-served, so true plate cost including waste runs higher than the recipe card says.
The food truck numbers that set your targets
$2.9 billion
Expected US food truck industry revenue in 2026. In 2026 alone, revenue is expected to decline 1.1% as higher tariffs force most vendors to raise prices. IBISWorld, as of July 2026.
28 to 35%
The healthy food cost range as a share of sales for restaurants, the benchmark trucks are measured against, with 30% a common target. Toast, as of July 2026.
$50,000 to $200,000
Typical food truck startup cost in 2025, with permits and licenses averaging $1,864 across major US cities. Square, as of July 2026.
Read together: margins are under pressure from the cost side, the healthy band is narrow, and most trucks start life with borrowed capital to protect. That is why the plate math below matters more per item on a truck than almost anywhere else in food.
What a double smash burger plate actually costs
Here is a full plate costing for a double smash burger with fries, packaging included. Beef and cheese use BLS US city average retail prices for May 2026, which is roughly what a truck pays shopping retail; the remaining line items are typical wholesale prices and are labeled as estimates.
| Line item | Portion | Basis | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground beef, two 2.5 oz patties | 5 oz | $6.75/lb (BLS, May 2026) | $2.11 |
| Cheese, 2 slices | 1.5 oz | $5.69/lb (BLS cheddar, May 2026) | $0.53 |
| Potato bun | 1 each | est. $9.00 per 24-count wholesale case | $0.38 |
| Grilled onions | 1 oz | estimate | $0.10 |
| Pickle chips | 4 chips | estimate | $0.08 |
| Burger sauce | 1 oz | estimate (mayo and ketchup base) | $0.15 |
| Frozen fries | 5 oz | est. $32 per 30 lb case | $0.33 |
| Fry oil, absorbed and portioned | per serve | estimate | $0.08 |
| Packaging: tray, fry boat, wrap, napkins | 1 set | estimate | $0.30 |
| Total plate cost | $4.06 |
At a $14.00 menu price, that is a 29.0% food cost and $9.94 gross profit per plate, inside the healthy 28 to 35% band (Toast, as of July 2026) but with little cushion. If beef rises 75 cents a pound, plate cost climbs about 23 cents and food cost hits 30.7%. Add a festival taking 10% of sales and the margin this plate protects shrinks by another $1.40. Smooth Ops keeps this whole table live in the Food Cost module, repriced automatically as your invoices come in. Want a quick gut check on one of your own plates first? Use the free food cost calculator.
A week on a burger truck (an illustrative example, not a real customer)
Picture a two-person smash burger truck paying $800 a month for commissary access and serving about 2,000 plates a month. In Smooth Ops they load that fee into recipe math as 40 cents a plate, next to the 30 cents of packaging most costing spreadsheets skip. The $4.06 burger plate above is really a $4.46 plate, and at $14.00 that is a 31.9% food cost, not the 29.0% the recipe card suggested. Knowing that, they price the festival menu a dollar higher instead of guessing.
Midweek, they snap the bakery invoice at the commissary before heading out. The AI reads the lines and flags that the bun case moved from $9.00 to $10.08, a 12% jump worth about 4 cents a bun. Every burger on the menu re-costs itself the moment they approve the change, and they adjust prices before the weekend rush instead of finding the drift in a month-end spreadsheet. This scenario is illustrative, built from the worked example above, and does not describe a real customer.
One app, nine modules, start with one
Smooth Ops is one back-office app with nine modules: Food Cost, Invoices, Sourcing, Payments, Cash, Inventory, Tips, and Tasks. Each module is $25 a month per location, everything together is $99 a month per location, and Sourcing comes free with Food Cost and Invoices. Month to month, no contract. Start with one module, add more later. Everything works from a phone, which on a truck is the whole back office.
Food Cost: every plate costed, packaging included
Build each menu item once, including trays, boats, wraps, and a per-plate commissary allocation, and watch plate cost update as prices move. Details on the Food Cost module page.
Invoices: snap receipts in the lot, not at a desk
Photograph club store receipts and supplier invoices from your phone between services. The AI reads every line and flags any price that moved. See the Invoices module.
Cash: close out the window from your phone
Count the drawer after service and reconcile against imported Square sales before you leave the pitch. More on the Cash module.
Sourcing and Tasks: the between-service admin
Sourcing, free with Food Cost and Invoices, compares what you paid across club store runs and suppliers. Tasks holds the repeating checklist: propane, commissary cleaning log, permit renewals.
If your truck rings up sales on Square, sales, cash, and inventory import automatically, and the QuickBooks P&L import ties commissary rent, fuel, and event fees into the same picture. There is more on how the Square side works on the food cost software for Square restaurants page.
Food truck food cost, answered
What is a good food cost percentage for a food truck?+
A healthy food cost percentage for restaurants generally falls between 28% and 35% of sales, with 30% a common benchmark (Toast, as of July 2026). Food trucks should usually aim for the lower end because they also absorb commissary fees, event commissions, fuel, and propane that restaurants do not. Concepts built on cheap staples like tacos or grilled cheese can run in the low 20s, while meat-heavy menus like BBQ often run above 35%.
How do I price a food truck menu item?+
Cost the full plate first: every ingredient at the price you actually pay, plus packaging like trays, boats, napkins, and wraps. Then divide by your target food cost percentage. For example, a plate that costs $4.06 to serve priced at $14.00 runs a 29% food cost. Recheck the math whenever a key ingredient price moves, not just once a year.
How much does it cost to start a food truck?+
Square's 2025 guide puts typical startup costs between $50,000 and $200,000, with the truck itself running $40,000 to $150,000 and starting inventory around $2,000 to $3,000 (Square, as of July 2026). Permits and licenses average $1,864 across major US cities but reach $17,066 in Boston. Because starting capital is tight, controlling food cost from day one matters more for trucks than almost any other food business.
Do food trucks need a commissary kitchen, and what does it cost?+
Many US cities require food trucks to prep, clean, and park overnight at a licensed commissary. Basic shared kitchen access typically runs $250 to $1,000 per month, and full-service commissaries with parking and storage run $1,000 to $3,000 per month (The Food Corridor, as of July 2026). Treat that fee as part of your cost of goods when setting menu prices, since it scales with how much prep you do.
Why are my food truck profits shrinking even though sales are up?+
The usual culprit is quiet cost creep: ingredient prices, packaging, fuel, and event fees all rise a little at a time while menu prices stay flat. IBISWorld reported that tariff-driven cost increases were forcing most food truck vendors to raise prices in 2026 (IBISWorld, as of July 2026). Recosting your recipes monthly, or automatically with food cost software, shows exactly which items slipped out of your target range so you can reprice or reportion them.
Sources and notes
Every external number on this page comes from the sources below and is reviewed quarterly. If anything here is out of date, tell us at team@smoothopsapp.com and we will fix it.
- US food truck industry revenue is expected to reach $2.9 billion in 2026, and in 2026 alone revenue is expected to decline 1.1% as higher tariffs force most food truck vendors to raise prices. Source: IBISWorld Food Trucks in the US industry report, as of July 2026.
- A healthy food cost percentage typically falls between 28 and 35% of sales, with 30% a common benchmark. Source: Toast, How to Calculate Food Cost, as of July 2026.
- Food truck startup costs typically range from $50,000 to $200,000, with the truck itself $40,000 to $150,000 and permits and licenses averaging $1,864 across major US cities, from $590 in Indianapolis to $17,066 in Boston. Source: Square, How Much Does A Food Truck Cost, as of July 2026.
- Ground beef averaged $6.75 per pound at US city average retail in May 2026, rounded from $6.745. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED, series APU0000703112, as of July 2026.
- Cheddar cheese averaged $5.69 per pound at US city average retail in May 2026, rounded from $5.685 and used as a proxy for sliced cheese. Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED, series APU0000710212, as of July 2026.
- Commissary kitchen access typically runs $250 to $1,000 per month for basic shared kitchen access and $1,000 to $3,000 per month for full service with parking and storage. Source: The Food Corridor, Your Guide to a Food Truck Commissary, as of July 2026.
- Worked-example prices for the bun, onions, pickles, sauce, fries, oil, and packaging are our estimates of typical wholesale prices as of July 2026 and are labeled as estimates in the table. The burger truck scenario is illustrative and does not describe a real customer.
Cost every plate before the next service
Start with one module at $25 a month per location. Month to month, no contract.
30 days free, no credit card