Food Truck Opening Hours: How to Optimise Them to Maximise Your Sales

The Myth of "More Hours = More Revenue"

Many food truckers start out with the same conviction: be present as many hours as possible to maximise revenue. This is a classic mistake that can be costly.

In reality, every hour of opening has a cost. Gas or electricity to keep equipment at temperature, equipment wear, labour time (yours or your staff's), fuel to stay on location. If your hourly revenue doesn't cover these costs, you're losing money by staying open.

The real question isn't "when can I open?" but "which slots allow me to sell enough to be profitable?"

Food Truck Time Slots: An Analysis by Type

Lunchtime: The King Peak (11:30am–2pm)

The lunch service is, in the vast majority of locations, the most profitable slot of the day. Demand is concentrated, the average transaction is predictable, and customer turnover is rapid.

Strengths:

• High customer density in a short time
• Stable average transaction (lunch plate)
• Ideal for office locations, industrial zones, outdoor markets

Limitations:

• Short slot (often 90 effective minutes)
• Production pressure: you need to be ready before 11:30am
• High competition for the best spots

Golden rule: if your lunchtime location doesn't generate at least 80% of your daily revenue target within 2 hours, question it.

Morning: An Underexploited Slot (7am–9:30am)

Breakfast and coffee are often neglected by food trucks, but can represent an interesting additional revenue stream in the right contexts:

• Industrial or logistics business zones (workers starting early)
• Morning producer markets
• Train stations or transit corridors

This slot rarely works alone: it ideally pairs with a lunchtime service at the same or nearby location.

Afternoon: Generally to Avoid (2pm–6pm)

The afternoon lull is the classic trap. Except in specific cases (beaches, shopping centres, tourist spots), food demand is low between 2pm and 6pm.

Staying open during this slot out of habit or "just in case" generates costs without corresponding revenue. Better to close, prepare for the evening service, and let the team rest.

Exception: if you're positioned at a high-footfall tourist area or student campus, analyse your data before deciding.

Evening: The Second Wind (6:30pm–9pm)

The evening service is the second major peak, particularly profitable for:

• Residential spots (families looking for a restaurant alternative)
• Festive locations (beach-side food trucks, esplanades, cultural events)
• Night-time venues (parties, concerts, night markets)

The average evening transaction is often higher than at lunchtime: customers take more time, order drinks, and sometimes share multiple dishes.

Important: evening service often requires mobilising your team late. Factor night-time labour costs into your profitability calculation.

How to Analyse Your Current Opening Hours

Step 1: Segment Your Sales by Hour

For each service over the past week, calculate:

• Revenue generated per hourly block (e.g. 11am–12pm, 12pm–1pm, 1pm–2pm)
• Number of tickets per block
• Average transaction per block

This often reveals surprises. Many food truckers discover that 80% of their revenue concentrates into 2 hours of a 4-hour service.

Step 2: Calculate Your Hourly Breakeven

Take your monthly fixed costs (storage unit rent, insurance, vehicle depreciation, subscriptions, etc.) and divide by your monthly opening hours. Add your average hourly food cost (based on usual sales).

You get your minimum hourly revenue threshold. Below this threshold, every hour of opening costs you money.

Example:

• Fixed costs: €2,400/month
• Opening hours: 120 hours/month
• Fixed cost/hour: €20
• Average food cost: 35% of revenue
• Breakeven threshold: €20 ÷ (1 - 0.35) = ~€31 revenue/hour minimum

If a time block generates less than €31, it's loss-making.

Step 3: Compare Location by Location

A location may be highly profitable at Tuesday lunchtime but poor on Thursday morning. Don't generalise: analyse each location × slot × day combination.

This is where a tool like FoodTracks becomes essential. By cross-referencing your SumUp sales data with your locations and opening hours, you can visualise exactly which slots are worth keeping, expanding, or cutting.

The Most Common Opening Hour Mistakes

Opening Out of Habit

You've been at that location on Wednesday mornings for 6 months. But have you actually verified whether that slot is profitable? Many food truckers maintain loss-making slots through inertia or fear of "missing out".

Solution: review your hours every month using the previous month's data.

Not Adapting Hours to the Season

In summer, certain evening slots become very strong thanks to long summer nights. In winter, the lunch service dominates even more. Your optimal hours in January are not your optimal hours in July.

Build a seasonal schedule, not a fixed annual one.

Ignoring Local Events

A concert, a special market, a football match: these events can transform a normally average slot into an exceptional day — or conversely empty a normally good location. Track the local agenda and adjust your hours accordingly.

Optimise Progressively, Not Brutally

Changing your hours abruptly can disrupt regular customers and cause revenue to drop. The right approach is gradual:

• Identify the 2–3 worst-performing slots over the past 4 weeks
• Test dropping one slot for 2 weeks while monitoring the overall impact
• Reinvest that time in preparation, location prospecting, or rest
• Measure the profitability delta before moving to the next slot

In general, removing 10% of the least profitable hours improves overall profitability by 15–20% — not by selling more, but by spending less energy on low-yield slots.

Using FoodTracks to Manage Your Opening Hours

FoodTracks lets you visualise your sales hour by hour, location by location by cross-referencing your SumUp data and service notes. You identify:

• The slots where your hourly revenue exceeds your breakeven threshold
• High-potential locations not yet fully exploited
• The days of the week where your services are most efficient

After a few weeks of use, you have a complete map of your slots. You can build an optimised weekly schedule — based not on gut feeling, but on the reality of your sales.

Conclusion

Food truck opening hours are not a question of availability, but of profitability strategy. Less but better: focus on slots where demand is strong, hourly revenue is high, and your energy is well invested.

Start by analysing your last 4 weeks of sales hour by hour. Identify your loss-making slots. Cut one, measure the impact, and iterate. Your profitability will increase without having to sell a single extra dish.

Also read: Food Truck Weekly Schedule: Organise Your Services to Maximise Profitability · Find the Best Food Truck Locations · Food Truck KPI Dashboard