Effect of Location on Food Truck Revenue Given
Demographics and Human Geography
Liudi Yang & Christian Siason
Introduction
Food trucks have recently made an appearance in the
cultural scene of large cities in America, and they differ
by the type of food they serve: meals or snacks/desserts.
There are currently 58 food trucks that are members of
the NYC Food Truck Association, some with multiple
trucks citywide (citation).
Data
Revenue of the food trucks were taken from observations of
their earnings over a half an hour interval. The times for data
collections were all the same, and on weekdays. The revenue
in the graphs below reflect those earnings times two.
Mass Transit Density:
After analyzing our data, we have found that there is a strong
positive correlation between mass transit density and food truck
revenue.
On the other hand, however, the other part of our hypothesis
did not hold true. There is no perceptible correlation between
the tourism data and food truck revenue.
The recent popularity is understandable since food trucks
offer dishes created by notable chefs at low prices and
reasonable wait times. As is the case with many small
businesses, location is crucial for a food trucks’ success.
Note: This equation was created with consideration of frequency of rides. The number of each
transit type corresponds to a 0.25 mile radius around the location.
Mass Transit Density vs. Revenue (Wafels and Dinges)
Revenue (dollars/hour)
The purpose of this project is to see if there is a
correlation between the revenue of the trucks and the
human geography of that area. The larger goal is to
predict where to place food trucks so that they will make
the most profit.
Results and Conclusion
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Mass Transit Density
Mass Transit Density vs. Revenue (Korilla BBQ)
Revenue (dollars/hour)
Methodology
We found food truck revenue through observation of the
trucks’ activity over a period of half an hour: we watched
as people went to the food trucks to purchase food.
Taking into account menu prices, we were able to
translate the amount of customers into actual sales
numbers. We selected the Korilla BBQ and Wafels and
Dinges trucks to get an overall view of the two types of
food trucks.
We found tourism rankings by looking in that same ¼
mile radius of the trucks and finding tourist attractions
that fell within it, if there were any. We then ranked them
according to how many visitors each attraction gets
annually, on average.
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References
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Revenue
http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/Ridership/2013-q1-ridership-APTA.pdf
http://www.mta.info/nyct/facts/ridership/#atGlance_b
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/infrastructure/brooklyn-bridge.shtml
http://www.radiocity.com/about/history.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/lincoln-center-for-the-performing-arts-inc
http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/general-info/faq/
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Mass Transit Density
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Tourism Ranking vs. Revenue (Korilla BBQ)
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Tourism Ranking vs. Revenue (Wafels and Dinges)
Revenue
We found mass transit statistics by counting the subway,
bus, and LIRR stations that were located within a ¼ mile
radius of the trucks and we took the amount of annual
riders and taking into consideration the fact that each
type of transit had a different amount of riders, we
assigned a constant to each type of transit in order to
reflect this. We then analyzed our findings to see if there
was a correlation between mass transit density and food
truck revenue.
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Acknowledgments
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Ranking
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