LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With gas prices and inflation continuing to rise, Kentucky food truckers are struggling to turn a profit while trying to keep prices low.
While just about every driver feels the pain at the pump, higher gas prices are forcing food truck owners like chef Jarrod Prince to pass along the increasing costs to customers.
Prince tells Spectrum News 1, “With gas prices going up, your kind of like ‘Are we at that max?’ like can we raise them a little bit more to try to offset the cost of gas?”
Chef Jarrod, who owns a restaurant on wheels called Copper Kitchen Food Truck, notices the increase every time he refuels.
“It’s giving me a lot of restless nights. I’ve been up many nights trying to figure out how we’re going to do this. How are we going to do that,” explains Prince.
Prince, whose business relies on gas to operate, says it used to cost about $40 dollars to fill the food truck up with gas and that’s recently doubled.
“We travel. That’s what we do. Like we move from point A to point B. So, you can’t escape it. I mean, just like people going to work and stuff, you’ve got to put gas in your car,” adds Prince.
The rising gas prices are putting pressure on food truck operators.
“You have to get creative. I mean, a lot of times you know that’s what separates business from making it to going bankrupt,” suggests Prince.
The Texas native says the cost of gas is making his supplies cost more, forcing the entrepreneur to bump up menu prices.
“Fuel costs rising, produce increase, protein increases and stuff like that. So, all the stuff that we go on the truck everything is going up. Like it’s not going down for us. We’re not raising it to be more greedy and to make more money,” explains Prince.
With no guarantee on how many people will show up to an event, the mobile food business owner says the rise has caused him to implement minimums.
The small business is also saving money by limiting where they go and have recently added a traveling fee for people wanting prince to drive a longer distance.
“You want more guarantees before you move because you don’t want to take your truck out on the road or your trailer out on the road and not have anything to show for it. Like showing up for a $100 or $200 day that’s not going to work,” said Prince.
Despite the setbacks, Prince remains eager to cook it up.
“Bad times are often preceded by good times, so it’s one of those things where you know that’s way life rolls,” adds Prince.
You can visit Copper Kitchen Food Truck Thursday at the Hanover Trace Neighborhood in Louisville from 5 p-m to 7 p-m.