Only one third of small business owners (including prospective food truck owners) were able to obtain all of the credit that their businesses need, a recent National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) survey shows. The survey’s finding is not surprising. Many economists, policy makers and food truck advocacy groups have long explained that food truck loans are harder to obtain than restaurant loans (their larger counterparts). When it comes to accessing capital, size definitely matters.

Even among food truck businesses, the smaller the company, the lower the odds that it has a loan or a line of credit. Only 15.7 percent of businesses with one or fewer employees have a business loan. Only 33.7 percent have a line of credit, the NFIB survey shows. By contrast, 56.8 percent of businesses with between 50 and 250 workers have a business loan and 65.4 percent has a line of credit.

Rather than reveal some sinister motives among bankers, however, these patterns simply reflect the economics of business credit. Fewer small businesses have access to credit than larger companies because lending to them is riskier and more expensive than extending credit to larger companies.

Reasons For Difficulties For Food Truck Loans

Default risk is higher in the mobile food business loan market. Small businesses fail at higher rates than big businesses. Changes in the business cycle have a larger impact on their profits. Because lenders cannot always charge interest rates that are commensurate with a borrower’s default risk, the most risky small business borrowers are often unable to get credit.

Lending to a food truck business is more expensive than lending to big companies. Part of the problem is the fixed cost of making food truck loans. Some costs are the same whether you make a $50,000 loan or a $5 million loan. Therefore, profit margins are higher on bigger loans. Of course, larger companies are more likely to need bigger loans than a food trucks. This leads lenders to focus on larger customers.

Additionally, evaluating applications for food truck loans is often expensive. Little publicly available information on the financial condition of food trucks exists. Because of this mobile food business owners rarely have financial statements that are very detailed. Food truck owners’ personal finances are sometimes intermingled with those of their businesses. The very large variety of mobile food businesses and the way they use borrowed funds make it tough to apply general lending standards.

Finally, monitoring the financial condition of mobile food businesses often requires lenders to build personal relationships with the food truck owners.

RELATED: Start-up Capital For Your Food Truck

The Bottom Line

These economic principles have important implications for those seeking to boost small businesses’ access to credit. Encouraging more lending will require policies that take into account the greater cost and risk of lending to food trucks. Ultimately, this is why these mobile food small businesses have trouble getting credit.

Do you have any tips for vendors looking for food truck loans? We’d love to hear your advice. Share your thoughts in the comment section, our food truck forum or social media. Twitter | Facebook