I'll start by saying even though I'm incredibly frustrated with the process of booking food trucks for our neighborhood event, I will still support food trucks.
Our neighborhood is very small--about 70 homes total and new. I'm sure you're not surprised to learn that I decided we needed a Social Committee to build community for our 'hood. We've had a food truck out a couple of times (holla, D&B Food Trucking) who was awesome, punctual and never skipped a beat. He's also a friend of one of the homeowners, so that was helpful.
For our 4th of July event I decided to explore other food truck options (D&B was unavailable). Little did I know the nightmare I was about to embark on. I contacted 30+ trucks and two so-called companies that help arrange trucks for your event. The first company sent me the name of a truck I'd never heard of and I just pictured a beat up Chevy rolling in with a grill in the bed slinging burgers at people. I didn't totally write them off, I attempted to call and email and only got a reply when I finally said I was going to decline the offer to have them out--they seemed surprised and so was I. The company that supposedly arranged this decided to inform me that he "normally charges, but to just include his "logo" on the flyers." Typically customers are made aware of charges before the purchase--again, another WTF is going on moment. Since I didn't use his buddy's truck, I didn't bother including his "logo" on the flyer. I use "logo" loosely because when you steal a Google image with poor quality and call it a "logo" it usually looks shady to customers.
Moving on, most of the food trucks I reached out to didn't bother to even respond. I reached out on website forms, instagram, email, phone calls--N O T H I N G. I felt like there was some passcode or secret location I was supposed to know to book a damn truck. The responsible and respectable trucks that did respond were already booked for the 4th of July--makes sense. The ones that were not booked were very difficult to communicate with for some reason. I felt like I was begging to get them to agree to come out. I understand it's a smaller event, but give me a yes or no. The run around doesn't help anyone. When I'm not a teacher, or having brunch, I also run a small photography business. I would never be like "Well I'm interested in taking your family photos, but let me see what else I might get on my calendar that day that might be bigger and better." TRUST ME, I understand large events are more profitable---duh. But just be courteous enough to say, "we're actually NOT interested in your event and won't be able to make it." I ended up booking 4 trucks and I still feel very wishy washy vibes. Perhaps food is their strong suit and not communication, so that's where the problem lies, I don't know. I don't want to make excuses, but something's got to give.
I'm hopeful our 4th of July event will be a hit and all food trucks will be accounted for! I have ZERO advice for booking food trucks because apparently I haven't been initiated into the Food Truck Club. Maybe I'll try to get more trucks to our neighborhood when it's not a holiday and will have better luck.
RIP to my patience.
