A few years ago food trucks were in hot demand with customers tracking them on apps and social media to find out where the trucks would turn up. But the popularity of food trucks has led to a surge in the number of people running food truck businesses with the Australian Mobile Food Vendors Group estimating there are 3000 food trucks in Victoria, up from 1500 two years ago. This has resulted in increased competition and decreased returns for food truck owners. As well as his own food truck, The Little Spring Roll Company, Stern also runs a mobile food industry training course and he says times are tough. "Food truck vendors are reporting drops of up to 50 to 80 per cent of income they made just a year ago," Stern says.

"While food trucks are getting much better at doing really good food, sometimes it turns out there can be too many similar food vendors and they cut each others' throats." With only a limited number of locations to trade at available through councils, food trucks are increasingly reliant on events for income. Stern says "unscrupulous operators" are taking advantage of food truck owners with fees for food trucks to attend events going up substantially, ranging from $100 to $1000 for a day. "There has been a rise in entrepreneurs looking to make easy money out of running pop up food events," Stern says. "Hand in hand with higher fees comes the dreaded line in their terms and conditions 'The fee charged does not represent a reflection of income you make at this event. That fee gets you a spot but you don't have say over who your competition might be. If there are 25 trucks, bad luck. Then there are other factors like a bad weather day." Stern and his partner Terence Li paid $55,000 for their second hand food truck and then spent a further $40,000 refitting it and purchasing insurance.

They also pay a $3500 fee for a regular spot at the Yarraville Gardens in Melbourne. The Little Spring Roll Company's turnover has held steady but it is relatively low at around $80,000 a year. "For us it has been ok," Stern says. "But hindsight is a wonderful thing, in hindsight whilst our business is ok would we have chosen this? Possibly not." At one event The Little Spring Roll company only took $200. Credit:Jason South Selling up

One food truck vendor who has had enough is Peter Katos, who owns the Bread and Meat Co food truck, selling slow cooked meat like pulled pork burgers. After two years of trading Katos is desparately trying to sell his truck. "The events aren't the same, there are too many trucks out there and there is no support," he says. "We go to an event and leave with $380 for the whole day in takings, that's not profit. It hasn't been worth it this year." Katos says turnover has almost halved, falling from $200,000 two years ago to $110,000 last year.

Katos spent $70,000 buying his second hand truck then a further $80,000 fixing it up but he doesn't expect to get back what he spent selling the truck, which has been on the market for two months now. Megna Murali is the founder of Start Your Food Business. "It started off really good but now there are a lot more trucks out there and a lot of dud events which just cost us money," he says. "It's very disappointing and nothing has been done about it." Red tape In New South Wales, the number of food trucks is more limited.

Megna Murali, runs a food truck course Start Your Food Business, and estimates there are around 500 food trucks in Sydney. "Having a food truck is a lot easier in Melbourne," she says. "It's increasingly popular but the red tape around setting up a food truck in Sydney is a lot more expensive. In Sydney, food truck owners have to register through the local council so there is not such a happening place around food trucks in Sydney which is a shame." The nature of business Frank Rusitovski, director of industry body the Australian Mobile Food Vendors Group, says while some food trucks are struggling, many are doing well.

"Obviously the space is expanding and the industry is the biggest it has been, there are more and more trucks coming on a weekly basis," he says. "Not all vendors will succeed, that is the nature of business and obviously it is very competitive out there. My advice to vendors is to do your research and compete. Some events are successful and some are not so much. It's a case of looking at your food products and looking where they work." Follow MySmallBusiness on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.