This so isn't Mumsnet.... i will however still ask. I want to set my son up in a burger van business, if you know anyone or work for a council or any tiny tiny bit of advice please for the love of god <sob> tell me !

[MrsBrendaDyson]

so far i have ]licensing restrictions in certain areas of town

food hygeine certificte - this isn't free for a 19 yr old umemployed

there must be some restrictions on the catering trailer apart from healtha nd safety

it needs to be under 750 to to without having to do a trailer test.

shits chance on getting on a car boot sale

am already canvessing the loal garden centres sans cafe to see if they would let it on their car park on a saturday.

the leisure centre where sports events are held says no.

it will remain in this town as he cannot drive - i;m not paying for that or buying another bigger car to tow a bigger trailer as this will add to costs.

so help me think

dont laugh....stop it....i can hear you...nowt wrong with a burger van!

It so IS Mumsnet. Tom Archer has a burger van - you don't get more Mumsnet than that.

Sadly, other than pointing you to the Archers' archive, I can be of no more assistance...

tom archer has a burger van! omg

Well, it might have been a sausage van.

no i just googled it and it came up with 'cut throat world or burger van wars' gulp

oh, how disappointing ....I expected there to be posts about using organic free-range beef or offering quinoa side dishes

On a more constructive note I've noticed that a lot of builders merchants have burger vans in their car parks these days -maybe thats an option?

where are you and what specifically would you like to know.

i have a coffee van,but the laws are similar.

LOL @ Tom Archer reference

No real advice - sorry - except to say that any signage must have NO grammatical errors. A guy at the end of our street has a burger/kebab van and he parks it on his drive.

Every time we walk past we see the immortal phrase along the side...."Denises's burgers & Keybabs - Food for the Sole".............. I have no idea how I've stoppd DP taking a marker pen to it...

When I was at school many, many moons ago, we used to have a chip van that sat outside it at lunchtimes. Doubt it would be allowed these days.

They have burger vans outside B & Q. Or in laybys. Tbh I find the smell quite nauseating but good luck to your ds!

sorry thrifty, had to go to work,

i particularly would liuke to know any laws or legislation

i would like to know the best way of getting pitches

anything else please

thanks thrifty

hi,only just come back to this now,but am off to bed cos i open at 7am. (start at 6am).

laws are quite basic in bucks, no licence required if not in town centre,have to be registered with environmental health and get their go ahead before you start trading. this can take up to a month. best advice is to contact your local environmental health department and ask them what the rules are in your area (as they seem to vary) re licences and stuff.

food hygiene cert is prob essential these days,but i have catering qualification. its a once day course,and although not free, i dont think its expensive.

absolutely essential(but not legally essential iyswim) is liability insurance.

as far as pitching, with a coffee van,its not worth paying to pitch,but for a burger van your turnover would be higher,so a few shows or whatever could see you through the winter,but the initial outlay is high. unless you know someone its unlikely you'll get a privately run car boot sale,but you may get in a council run one. ask around and get in early.
roadside pitching - contact your county council who look after the roads, they will tell you their stance on roadside vendors. BCC tollerate it as long as you dont cause and obstruction and no one complains. other CC's have different rules.
wrt pitching in car parks etc,then you need to contact the land owner and will almost certainly have to pay them,either a fixed rate or a percentage of profits.

hth

off to bed now.

Morning :-)
had some more thoughts...
Have you actually got the trailer yet? If not have a browse on ebay and also check out the caterers club website. Its possible you'd be able buy a van/trailer locally that includes a pitch.

Hi,
no i haven't got the trailer yet. how do i get to go to shows? it all seems like a closed shop so to speak.

i have spoken to the council and they are ok about trading on industrial estates, although they said that as far as they knew all the indistrial estates had a van.

i think i will do a reccy and see where there are vans.

the basic food hygeine certificate is 72 pounds! do you know whether you just need a person to have it, or hether all persons working in the van have to have it iykwim?

thanks for your advice

with a show its normally the showground that organises it, so contact the showground itself and ask for a list of upcoming shows and costs of pitching. Also you could do an internet search if you know of a particular show near you.

hmmm finding a roadside pitch can be trial and error. I pitch on an industrial estate, there is also a cafe and a burger van on the same stretch of road, I do ok because I'm not competing with them.

£72 isn't a lot really, you can offset it against your earnings, so you wont pay tax on it. Environmental health dept will probably insist on it (or at least will make your insurance cheaper), i suspect everyone who works full time on the van will need it.

your son will also need to register as self employed. the tax laws changed this year re initial purchases and you can spend upto £50k a year and no longer have to write it down (for eg the cost of your trailer can be claimed back against tax in year one).

I don't want to pour cold water on your idea,but the burger van business,but it can be very nasty,with certain individuals virtually running who gets what pitch where and they don't take kindly to competition.Not so long ago,people were shot a few miles from me,over who got to stand where.

But I've asked dh,who manages a tourist attraction and has an arrangement with an ice cream van chap to pitch in the car park.He seconded what I said above,but says that your son would have to pay the site owner of the pitch a percentage of the profits as commission.

Horse trials, eventing, pony club events, are all good places, but again you need to be able to drive, and yes anyone who works in the van should have a H&H certificate.

ah I was going to suggest horse shows! it's horrible standing around for hours and hours in the cold without fresh coffee and hot food

Why isn't your son doing all of this?
It's going to be his business, so he needs to start it up I reckon.

Let him go and sort all of this out and then come to you with his proposal...

That'd be how I'd go about it... but my dcs are 5 and 3 so maybe it'll be different later.

Good luck anyway, it must be hard for you all.