How Many Food Trucks Do I Need? (For My Big Event)

When it comes to food truck catering, nailing the right number of food trucks to book can be a deceptively difficult mission. How many food trucks are needed for an event? Generally, one food truck for every 200-300 people is standard. Below, we’ll provide a detailed breakdown of how many people trucks can serve depending on your specific circumstances.

Make sure to add on more if all your guests are eating at the same time, or if you’re looking to cap their night with dessert (or both), you’ll be able to have a good gauge on exactly how many food trucks to book for your next party.  

Obviously, food trucks run a wide gamut of styles, preparation times and capacities to serve.  But there are still standard formulas out there to help you figure out how many to book; ensuring you won’t run over your budget and your guests’ hunger won’t run over their limits (while they wait in line for perceptive eternities).

There’s a few things to consider when booking the number of food trucks for your event, so make sure to run down the list before investigating.  And when you’re ready, click the button below to book your trucks.

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1. How Many Guests Are You Expecting at Your Event?

Guest count is obviously the top element effecting the number of food trucks that should attend the event: often many mobile food vendors will recommend you have one food truck per every 200 to 300 attendees (if the event is focused around eating).  Any less than this and one food truck is all you’ll need; any more and a MINIMUM of two will be crucial.  

2. What Kind of Event Are You Throwing?

Like we hinted at above, the nature of your event will definitely effect how many food trucks you’ll need to book.  If there are activities to draw your guests away from eating, you may need less food trucks to serve – letting guests choose their own time to eat.  

An opening or a  premiere party, for instance, is likely to have games, a bar, and plenty of other distractions to (temporarily) draw guests away from the food truck line, helping you stagger service.  But a wedding, or any kind of focused, sit-down dinner will require feeding many at once, meaning you’ll really have to stick to that “one truck for every 200-300 attendees” formula.

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3. How Sweet Do You Want Your Event?

Food trucks make for a great dinner, but dessert is where they shine brightest.  From cereal-topped doughnuts to ice cream and waffles, there’s no shortage of sweet surprises on the road these days.  

So when planning how many food trucks to book, make sure to factor in dessert.   Of course, the good news here is unless your event is completely massive, one food truck should do the trick just fine.  

Dessert takes a fraction of the time to prepare, and not everyone who’s eating dinner will feel the need to indulge.  But a dessert truck remains a great way to push your event from great to outstanding, and send everyone home on a high note.  If you’re looking for a quick guarantee that your event will be memorable (for all the right reasons), add one to your tally.

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In Conclusion

Food truck catering can make your event run a whole lot smoother than other catering options, but to maximize the benefits, make sure you’ve got enough booked to handle all your guests.  On their time table.  If you do it correctly, your event will be driving straight to big success before you’ve even opened the doors.