The nuts and bolts of building a food truck

In the Hindi movie Chef, starring Saif Ali Khan, an old and dusty van is transformed into a souped-up food truck, complete with sliding doors and new windows. It soon emerges as a star in its own right, even as our hero travels across India, dishing out versions of sandwiches and discovering his true calling. The movie tanked at the box office; however, it did bring food trucks into focus. Not those dingy vans selling oily Chinese-Indian fare, but in their new avatar, complete with lighter bodies, foldable doors, and serving up everything from chaat and biryani to continental food, even ice cream. Each has a speciality, much like independent restaurants do.

What goes behind the making of a food truck. What are the modifications that they entail? Are regular vehicles modified to serve as food trucks? What role do food truck makers play?

Building them up

Bengaluru-based Shiva Reddy, who runs Square Engineering, a firm that manufactures food truck chassis, says, “We take almost a month to modify existing vehicles into food trucks, depending on the demands of the customer. Some of them want collapsible doors, while others want attractive window frames (if they wish to dispense from here) and more space in the truck. There is also demand for open kitchens from many of the newer food trucks,” he says.

The company gets about a 100 orders every week from customers who are clear with their briefs, including which vehicle they want. The most common vehicles used are mini trucks like Tata Ace and Tempo Traveller, and passenger vehicles like Maruti Eeco and Mahindra Supro, because of their compactness, easy maintenance, and affordability.

But it’s not as simple as fitting out a truck and running a business. Varshit Goud, who runs a series of food trucks and is involved in fabrication work in Hyderabad, says, “Speed is an aspect that food trucks have to compromise on. At best, they can manage 15-20 km a day with the food material they carry.” Open kitchens are easier to construct, and Goud uses mostly galvanised iron and a kind of steel, for lightness.

Though promising longevity, iron reduces the speed of a food truck, says Jacinth Paul, who runs Naan-Stop, a popular food truck in Hyderabad. He says, “I got the vehicle from OLX. Some online research helped my fabricator-firm in terms of design references. My interest in 3D-modelling also helped the final design. It can take about 20kg of food raw material, backed by a once-in-a-month fuel refill of 30 litres.”

Far away in Gurugram, Haryana, Ritesh Kumar, who runs NS Outsourcing, a company that fabricates food trucks, works with steel. His models take only 10 days and are lighter. He’s also getting a good response from customers for e-rickshaw food carts, though he modifies Aces too.

Looking within

Modifiers sit with clients to understand all their needs first to maximise cutomisation. “For instance, a truck that has a functional tandoor inside, will be made very differently from a truck that may be dishing out ice creams. We ensure that enough space is given for two people to work inside the truck,” says Kumar.

In Bengaluru, Vishal Gupta, who runs Pop’I, a food truck that focusses on North Indian cuisine and built on a Tata Super Ace Platform, talks of the other challenges: “Once we leave our centralised kitchen, we don’t have any access to electricity until we reach the spot. We have to make sure the temperature is right so the food remains fresh. We have three refrigerators, two stove burners and electrical outlets for our appliances. Even our cupboards have been designed to ensure that dust does not reach our utensils or cutlery. We have substantial storage, including a water tank that we fill up at our base kitchen with RO water.”

Their base kitchen is located in Whitefield, and while basic customisation (to the cabin and chassis) was done by a vendor in Bengaluru, they customised everything else. Recently Shilpa, an entrepreneur who runs a food truck in Mangaluru, was gifted a Bolero Maxi Truck Plus by Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group. The sole breadwinner of the family, Shilpa had single-handedly set up the mobile food joint. Mahindra’s decision to offer Shilpa the truck was prompted by her desire to expand her services.

Talking about Mahindra and its foray into the food truck space, Veejay Nakra, Chief of Sales & Marketing, Automotive Division, M&M Ltd, says, “Mahindra offers myriad options in the mobile food truck segment on its entire range of small commercial vehicles, from entry-level three-wheelers (Alfa Plus) to a big pick-up (Big Bolero Pick-Up).

Mahindra Bolero Maxi Truck and Pick-Up are the most versatile platforms for customised variants. They are already deployed in multiple applications and are ideally suited for the food truck application because of larger cargo size and powerful engine to carry load in city and resort locations.”