anyone run / used to run a chip van?

[Boy English]

been offered one at the right money and im curious as I wouldn't mind setting it up for the girlfriend..

 

its not my first dealing with the catering industry but im not familiar with the ins and out cost when it comes to fish and chips and im getting abit stuck for insight / words of wisdom..

 

if anyone can and is happy to share some advice it would be much appreciated, pm if you would rather ?

[Gary Prentice]

Only chips I know about are woodchips........

Sorry !

[peatff]

A friend of mine ran one for about 9 months a long time ago. He gave it up as it was hard work and it cost a lot in fuel, gas, maintenance,was hot and clausterophobic and he always stunk of chips. He was parked up one night and got pulled by the police on the way home, someone had nicked the rear lights off the van. He lost a lot of money on the eventual resale of the van as well.

Edited March 3, 2014 by peatff

[niftysteve]

been offered one at the right money and im curious as I wouldn't mind setting it up for the girlfriend..

 

its not my first dealing with the catering industry but im not familiar with the ins and out cost when it comes to fish and chips and im getting abit stuck for insight / words of wisdom..

 

if anyone can and is happy to share some advice it would be much appreciated, pm if you would rather ?

 

depends if you are planning on doing a weekly round or going onto event sites some of the festival sites can cost upto £10 000 for the event , some sites also try and tell you what you can or cant sell ie a chip van also selling teas coffees

[PeteB]

Get the wench out to work!

 

seriously, as said, event sites are ludicrously expensive and hard to staff. Think of training, certification, insurance, business hours etc....

 

I did once come across a mobile chippy that did rural villages etc and was happy doing thursday evening, friday evening and saturday day in South Notts, East Leicestershire, Rutland and East Lincs. Regular route and steady income! Near to me there is a mobile pizza van with stone lined oven which is wood heated too!

Good luck with your enterprise!

[ArthurBottlesworth]

Saw one in village in limousin last year

Looked very sad/hard way to make a living

 

Probably do better if she sold firewood from a trailer in a laybye .......and bugger all cost involved

 

I've often wondered about getting laybye coffee shop to sell firewood ..... Would seem to fit their business model.....especially if firewood producer delivered logs to their shop.....

 

And very convenient for customers who want couple of nets.....make sure nets well labelled and link to online shop / telephone so they can buy in bulk once they have tried your wood..

[Graham]

I worked on one when I was at school. Thurs and Fri evenings and all day Saturday. I also did the chipping...dustbins full of em. As I remember there was a lot of prep time involved and lots of gas used. The upside was you were never hungry but you always stank of fat. Not much help I know but it could do ok going around villages on Fridays and Saturdays.

[onyx landscaping/fencing]

the local one to me gets towed around by a £70k range rover make of that what you will.............

[harvey b davison]

Theres one that does the village near me, parked up from tea time onwards, but i never really see anyone going to it. Last time i went, they did a cracking pie n peas tho.

 

However,

 

In a laybye near me on a busy road, there is a chap that sells stuff from the back of an old cattle trailer for a farmer. He sells the usual spuds, eggs, carrots etc. I bet he has been in the same place every year for the last twenty years or so. He always has customers at the trailer.

Thats the way i would go if it was me.

 

Have you thought about a flower van, selling flowers.

[Boy English]

cheers for the reply's so far chaps.. this hasn't been a long drawn out plan, I literally bumped into the owner who I haven't seen in a while and he asked if I would be interested in giving his van a makeover inside and out as I used be involved with that sort of thing, I kindly declined but asked if it was for sale as it sits..

 

he has ran them for 24 yrs and was either thinking of selling or revamping, I pretty sure he didn't trade last year due to ill health so his round is now gone..

 

I built a couple of icecream bikes years ago so im familiar with the event costs, h+h and all that goes with it.

 

he has also offered to work in the van for however long it takes at a low wage to train whoever I put in it and establish them a round if wanted, I just thought If I did it (weeks work) then do a village a night say 4:30 - 7:30 ... ive been given some figures but hes dealing with the cheapest stuff about and im not really interested in selling anything that's not tasty..