As the world slowly and tentatively re-opens in the wake of the coronavirus lock-downs, restaurants continue to be among the hardest-hit businesses. Closed for months to “slow the spread,” even as they get back into business they suffer from painful restrictions, including reduced capacities to conform to distancing mandates, extra sanitation and the costs associated with it, and tighter scrutiny than ever from local health departments.
That gives a boost for what’s always been a fairly minor competitor to brick-and-mortar restaurants: food trucks and trailers. “Restaurants would need three or four times as much space to accommodate their old customer numbers,” said Angel Gonzalez, General Manager of Quality Trailers Inc. in Portland, Oregon. “A trailer can serve as many customers as the operator wants to come through the line, and the trailer is organized to handle. It’s built to be easily sanitized, and there’s a barrier between the customer and the servers.”
Quality Trailers is a family-owned business that was originally founded in 2001 to serve the construction industry, building flatbeds, dump trailers, goosenecks and car haulers. When the economic downturn of 2008 happened, the construction industry faltered, so the company shifted gears. Since Portland is a city renowned for its food carts, Quality began building custom trailers for food concessions. They’ve never looked back. They remain a small company, with ten employees, and they rely on independent contractors for a good portion of their work… Click Here to Read the Forbes Article