Food truck business
Food truck profit.
Enter sales per day, operating days, food cost, fees, labour and fixed costs. See monthly profit and what you must sell each day to break even.
Profit = sales - food cost - card fees - labour - fixed costs. At $1,500 a day for 20 days the example earns $6,360 a month and breaks even at $1,010.77 a day.
Your numbers
Result
Worked example
A truck sells $1,500 on each of 20 days, so $30,000 a month. Food cost at 32% is $9,600 and card fees at 3% are $900. Labour is 24 hours a day at $18, or $432 a day and $8,640 a month, and fixed costs are $4,500. Profit is $6,360 a month, 21.20% of sales and $318 per operating day. Each sales dollar leaves 65 cents after food and fees, and a day costs $432 of labour plus $225 of fixed costs, so break-even is $657 / 0.65 = $1,010.77 a day. At a $14 average ticket that is 73 customers, against about 107 at the planned sales.
How it works
Break-even sales per day = (labour per day + fixed costs per day) / (1 - food cost % - fee %). Fixed costs per day are the monthly figure divided by operating days. Labour is treated as a cost of every operating day.
Put your own time in at a wage you would accept; otherwise a truck can show a profit while paying you nothing. The tool assumes the same food cost and sales every day, so run it at a cautious sales figure and a good one. It does not include income tax, sales tax collected, loan principal or one-off costs.
Sources and basis (checked 2026-10-08): Arithmetic on your inputs only. No sales level, food cost percentage or wage is assumed; every figure is yours. This is a planning estimate, not legal, licensing, tax or financial advice.
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FAQ
How do I work out food truck break-even?
Divide your daily labour and fixed costs by the share of each sales dollar left after food cost and card fees. The result is the sales you need each operating day.
Should I count my own pay as labour?
Yes. Enter the hours you work at a rate you would accept, so the profit shown is what is left after you are paid.
What food cost percentage should I enter?
Use your own: ingredients and packaging divided by sales from your records or recipe costing. The plate cost calculator can help you work it out per item.
Why is break-even shown as customers per day?
Dividing break-even sales by your average ticket gives a customer count you can compare to how many people you can actually serve in a shift, rounded up to a whole customer.