A food truck breaks the one thing payroll assumes: a fixed address. WageTime pays the crew by where each punch actually happened, from commissary prep to the out-of-town festival, wage floor and local tax included.
None of these is a tip problem, which is what generic restaurant payroll is built for. They’re the standing conditions of paying a crew whose workplace changes by the day, and each one is either the owner’s late-night math or a wage-and-hour claim waiting on a slow month.
Sixty-six cities and counties set their own minimum wage above the federal $7.25, and the floor follows where the work happens, not where the truck is registered. Work three towns in a metro this week and one crew member can be owed three different minimums, each due on the same check.
Almost 5,000 jurisdictions in 17 states levy a local income or wage tax, and Pennsylvania alone has 2,506 municipalities that do. A truck that crosses municipal lines in a single week can owe withholding in several of them for one employee, keyed by hand off a mess of stop addresses.
Nearly every state makes a truck prep from a licensed commissary, so the crew clocks base-kitchen prep hours in one place and mobile service hours in another, often at two different rates. Overtime that ignores the split comes out wrong, and nobody knows which booking actually cleared its labor.
A truck lives on weather and events, so a cold Friday or a scrapped festival cancels service after the crew has driven in and clocked on. In several states that means reporting-time pay is owed, and figuring the show-up hours by hand is one more thing at the end of a lost day.
Most trucks are the owner plus a handful of people, and the owner is also the payroll clerk between the prep list and the lunch rush. Generic payroll priced and built for a fifty-seat dining room is the wrong tool for a four-person crew that moves every day.
WageTime resolves the pay rules by where each shift happened, not by one company address: every punch carries a GPS stamp, and each stop settles against its own wage floor and local tax on one check.
| Stop | Paid rate | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Millbrook brewery lot Monfloor $15.00 · no local tax | $16.00 | Above floor |
| Center City curb Wedfloor $16.50 · 1.5% withheld | $16.50 | At floor |
| Riverside market Frifloor $17.25 · 1.0% withheld | $16.50 | $0.75 under |
| Fairview festival Satfloor $15.00 · no local tax | $16.00 | Above floor |
Replaces the spreadsheet of town-by-town wage rates and local taxes the owner updates from memory, and the underpayment nobody catches until the truck works a higher-floor town.
Commissary prep and curbside service run as two rates in WageTime, tracked by location, so a week past 40 hours computes overtime on the weighted-average of both rather than picking one.
Replaces the flat overtime rate that ignored the prep-versus-service split, and the guess about whether last weekend’s festival actually paid for itself.
Where your state owes it, yes: WageTime carries reporting-time pay, also called show-up pay, as a flat-amount pay code, so a rained-out service doesn’t become end-of-day arithmetic. You decide when it’s owed; the check carries it with the right taxes.
Replaces the show-up-hours math the owner does in the truck after a lost lunch, and the reporting-time premium that gets skipped because nobody remembered it was owed.
Per diem and mileage run in WageTime as non-taxable earning types and a festival day rate as a custom pay code, all on the same check as wages, so a weekend two states away doesn’t spill onto an expense app.
| Crew | Code | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Sofia R.3 days, Riverbend Fest | PER-DIEM | $210.00 |
| Sofia R.220 mi round trip | MILEAGE | $154.00 |
| Diego M.3 days, Riverbend Fest | PER-DIEM | $210.00 |
| Alex T. event hireSat festival day | DAY-RATE | $180.00 |
Replaces the shoebox of gas receipts and per-diem IOUs, and the day-rate festival hire who waits until the next regular run to get paid.
One WageTime login runs the fleet while each LLC files under its own EIN, deposits included: the second truck or the catering arm is another company in the same login, not another payroll vendor.
| Entity | People paid | Filings |
|---|---|---|
| Rolling Bistro Truck LLCEIN ••-•••5120 · fed + state | 6 | Filed |
| Harbor Cart LLCEIN ••-•••7744 · fed + state | 5 | Filed |
| Rolling Bistro Catering LLCEIN ••-•••2098 · fed + state | 9 | Filed |
Replaces a payroll account per LLC, three sets of year-end filings, and the spreadsheet that tries to see the trucks and the catering arm together.
Full-service payroll is $10 a month per person paid that month, plus $50 a month per company, with unlimited runs. No long-term contracts, no per-run charges.
Off-cycle runs and bonuses cost nothing extra. No long-term contracts; cancel anytime.
Example: 50 people paid × $10 + $50 company = $550 for the month
HR & hiring, onboarding, PTO, time tracking, benefits, and workers’ comp are optional add-ons, priced separately when you’re ready.
See a demoEvery punch on the mobile time clock is GPS-stamped, so WageTime knows the stop behind each shift. Minimum-wage processing runs at federal, state, and local levels, and local taxes resolve across 11,000+ jurisdictions by where the work happened. Tell us your usual route on the demo and we’ll confirm the setup.
WageTime tracks hours by location and rate, so commissary prep and mobile service stay split, and overtime computes on the weighted-average regular rate across both. Job costing carries the labor behind each event, so you can see which festival cleared its crew cost. Bring a real two-rate week to the demo.
Yes. Reporting-time or show-up pay is a flat-amount pay code, so it posts on the run with the right taxes. Some states require it when a worker reports and is sent home; California, for one, owes half the scheduled shift, two to four hours at the regular rate. You set when it’s owed. This is a mechanism, not legal advice.
Yes. Per diem and mileage reimbursement are configurable as non-taxable earning types paid on the same check as wages, and a festival day rate is a custom pay code. It’s a payroll mechanism, so bring your travel-pay setup to the demo; we don’t promise a tax outcome, we put the codes on the run.
No. Pricing is $50 per month per company plus $10 per month per person paid, so a single truck paying six people is $110 for the month. No long-term contracts, cancel anytime. Runs are unlimited, so off-cycle final checks and bonuses cost nothing extra, and the crew self-onboards from a phone.
One login covers all three. Each LLC files under its own EIN with its own federal, state, and local returns, deposits included, and you pull results per entity or combined. 1099 event help pays alongside W-2 crew. The three-entity group above, 20 people paid, is $350 for the month: $150 in company bases plus $200 in per-person fees.
The three towns you parked in, the commissary prep hours, and the Friday that got rained out. Twenty minutes with a payroll specialist on a live demo truck: you’ll watch a stop settle against its local floor, a two-rate week blend for overtime, and a show-up premium land as a pay code.
Book a 20-minute demo