Food truck in Luxembourg: where can I park?

Pol Miller, co-founder of Lëtzeburger, 2018

Where to park a food truck?
There are public and private spots. Private spots are actually very simple, you have to ask whoever owns the property if you can park there. You then have to ask the municipality’s permission to settle the deal. When asking for a public spot you have to fill out a form and sign up for a spot. They have about 15 to 20 spots that you can sign up for. Once that’s done, you have to choose your spot. It usually works on a “first come, first served” basis. Most of the time, we were asked if we wanted to stay on various spots. With private spots owned by a landlord, we were sometimes the ones asking. We have always looked for places where we wanted to set up and asked around the area.
Most of the time, thanks to our network, we gathered contacts and got approval that way. There is no written procedure for this, you have to look around a bit and find a spot.

Do you have to pay for these spots?
You have to pay for public spots.
For the private ones, you talk to through with the owner to settle the deal. In most cases, you are asked to pay a small amount for electricity but that’s about it. It works like a rent. You pay the rent for electricity and water. That’s exactly how it works with these spots. Most of the time, companies don’t ask for payment. It depends on the company and the added value they get from having our food truck on their property. It’s a case by case discussion with the different companies.

Being present at events?
Our business didn’t have much success. It was really bad actually. Our turnover didn’t even allow us to pay our personnel costs. Events really saved us and allowed us to generate a small turnover.

How many people in a food truck?

In the beginning, there were five of us in the food truck and somehow everyone was doing something. It was unnecessary. We now work two people per shift. In the trailer, we can work with four people at a time. It always depends on how much we sell at each spot. Thursdays and Fridays, there are usually three of us in the food truck. You just have to plan for the number of people, otherwise there’s no point in standing there.

Two people minimum?

No, there are also food trucks where you work alone. It always depends on your sales. If you can do it alone… You have to adapt to the amount of customers and the product you’re selling. How many people do you need? If you’re selling sausages, there is no point having three people. One person is enough. When selling something more sophisticated, that requires more work and more people because of the effort you have to put into it, you need more people. You have to adapt to your sales. It always depends.