Wonder how much $ ice cream trucks make?

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Chris142

Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Messages
27,999
Location
Apple Valley, California
We have 3 that come by my work every day. The first guy is a younger guy in a beat up 80's Ford van. Missing the dust caps over the wheel bearings and a loud exhaust leak. Has not been washed in ages and the Uniroyal tiger paw tires are showing cords. Keeps stuff frozen with dry ice.

2nd Is what I assume to be a husband and wife in a 70's Dodge van. This pile is beat up! Everything about the first van plus it stinks so bad that it fumigate's you if you stand near it too long.
They just use ice to keep things cool.

The 3rd guy is an older guy in another 80's Ford van. His is slightly better than the others and he runs a generator mounted on the back to run freezers. He turns the engine off as to not fumigate his customers. I can't imagine this being a very lucrative business.
 
I can't imagine a swans truck, ice cream truck or food truck being something you actively seek for employment.

Most are owner operators

Having run a little traveling business myself these things only work in very specific areas and only if you don't need to do much driving , your income is seasonal and if you divide out the hours worked
under minimum wage despite the occasional high gross on paper. (With other weeksbeing a loss)

My guess is the only time you make almost a living wage is in large cities where you are permitted to set in a specific set of locations .

Very much a "hobby" you would do on the side
 
I had a school friend, late 70's, that decided to stat a snow Cone route. Think ice chests in the back of an El Camino type thing. He would purchase bottles of syrup and blocks of ice plus the ice shaver machine. He said he did "OK" but I never pushed the issue. He did purchase a new set of "Crager" wheels if I remember correctly so it must have been lucrative.
56.gif
 
The Good Humor truck would come to my elementary school as school was letting out. This was the old type where the whole back of the truck was a freezer with dry ice and the Good Humor man would open a door on the side, reach in and get your ice cream. Then later he would go up and down the streets with his chime/bell. I think the cheapest (Jet-sickle) was 10 cents and maybe the most expensive was 25 cents. My favorite was chocolate eclair.

I have seen a few junkyards where there are 10 or 20 of these old trucks all in a bunch. Wonder what they are waiting for?
 
Quote
Wonder how much $ ice cream trucks make?


Not much. There's a reason why they don't have decent equipment. If you want to make extra money there are a lot of ways to do it that will create a much better income than peddling ice cream from a van. Even as a "retirement" job there are better ways.
 
In the 70's we would party at a large sandpit lake in Houston. It was clear-ish water, and they did scuba training there too. There was a couple that had two trucks, and the(cute) woman drove hers topless. She did pretty well. Never had a bad day mixing ice cream with Bud, either.
 
Half of the ones around here are purpose-built "ice cream vehicles" (similar in design to a USPS vehicle). On the one hand, their mark-up will definitely help - they sell items for $3 or so that I guarantee you they're paying under $1 for. I just don't see them getting a lot of customers or business in our neighborhood though. Plus, I rarely ever have cash on me. Lastly, they only come around here when it's between 65-75º F or so. If it's 95ºF out, they're not working/selling. I suspect their equipment can't keep products cool at that temperature.
 
Somewhat OT:

The now BIL and I were running around town a few years ago and saw one run off the road into a rock garden and onto a boulder in front of a Pizza Hut. Lots of police were on the scene and the guy looked very confused.

Years ago dad and I were putting a pier in at the lake. An ice cream van playing pop goes the weasel on his PA speaker decided to stop watch dad and I while we were struggling with a post.. the music was still playing.
 
The ice cream shops that kind of interest me are the small mom and pop independent places. Since we get a fair amount of snow every year these places are only open for 6-8 months out of the year. When they're open the places seem busy most of the time. They re-open every year and it's kind of a signal that good weather is finally here and winter is finally over.
 
Originally Posted by SatinSilver
The ice cream shops that kind of interest me are the small mom and pop independent places. Since we get a fair amount of snow every year these places are only open for 6-8 months out of the year. When they're open the places seem busy most of the time. They re-open every year and it's kind of a signal that good weather is finally here and winter is finally over.


An ice cream truck or food truck can make good bank at well attended fairs, events and festivals that don't rip you off for $10 grand to park there, the cost of business VRS sales for a small business is hard to balance these days.

Everyone eats but most good locations are already under contract so not easy to enter the market and expect to easily make any profit.

No different than vending which in some cases is mob owned
 
My son-in-law used to work at a towing company housed next to an ice cream truck garage. All drivers were Russian, apparently some kind of money laundering business, and had vocabularies consisting of four words "Bomb Pop" and "F@%k You".
 
Originally Posted by Chris142
...beat up 80's Ford van. Missing the dust caps over the wheel bearings and a loud exhaust leak.
........a 70's Dodge van. This pile is beat up! Everything about the first van plus it stinks so bad that it fumigate's you if you stand near it too long.
............. another 80's Ford van. His is slightly better than the others and he runs a generator mounted on the back to run freezers. He turns the engine off as to not fumigate his customers. I can't imagine this being a very lucrative business.


Every single ice cream truck I have ever seen had bad exhaust leaks and misfiring on AT LEAST a cylinder, sometimes two.
 
I have seen some pretty beat up looking ones. Which makes me not want to buy ice cream from one.
 
Originally Posted by Fawteen
Quote
Wonder how much $ ice cream trucks make?


Not much. There's a reason why they don't have decent equipment. If you want to make extra money there are a lot of ways to do it that will create a much better income than peddling ice cream from a van. Even as a "retirement" job there are better ways.

I bet that scooping ice cream at Baskin Robbins or rite aid pays better. At least your not over fueling a 318+ cubic inch engine all day long.
 
Yes. I can remember the produce guy driving thru my neighborhood selling fruits and vegetables followed by the knife sharpener guy working out of the trunk of his car. How did I get so old?.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Z
Remember the Ice Cream man?
2
Replies
33
Views
1K
AZjeff
bbhero
Colonial Parkway cold case solved…
Replies
14
Views
1K
sloinker
GON
For all the fans of “It’s A Wonderful Life” and Jimmy Stewart.
Replies
13
Views
1K
SammyChevelleTypeS3
O
Pickup Truck Winter Tires - Considering Michelin X-Ice Snow SUV
Replies
14
Views
3K
mdocod
John105
My ear can "tell" when the refrigerator starts its defrost mode (long post only for refrigerator geeks)
Replies
8
Views
1K
John105
Back
Top