Start your mobile catering business. The Smart Way.
Practical UK guidance covering licences, equipment, startup costs and finding your first pitch. Created to help new mobile caterers avoid costly mistakes and get started with confidence.
No hype. No jargon. Just straightforward advice that works.
Everything we wish we'd known when we started.
Starting a mobile catering business can feel overwhelming. From licences and insurance to equipment, power requirements and choosing the right setup, there's a lot to learn before you invest your time and money. MobCater was created to make that journey easier. Through practical guides, industry knowledge and straightforward advice, our goal is to help you avoid common mistakes and make informed decisions.
Practical UK Guidance
Every guide is written from David's actual time on the road — vans, trailers, pitches, gas, generators and busy event days.
Straightforward Advice
The trade wasn't welcoming when David started. MobCater gives newcomers the straight answers he never got handed.
Free Resources & Tools
Every article on the site is free. The 12-step app guide is free too — add trading tools and the LPG engineer directory only when you're ready.
Your step-by-step roadmap
Six guides that take you from "is this for me?" to your first day of trading — in the order that actually makes sense.
What it really costs
David started with a £750 trailer. A realistic budget breakdown so you know exactly what you're getting into — no surprises.
Startup costsThe licence you need
Street trading consent, EHO registration, food hygiene certificates — every legal box explained in plain English.
Licences & registrationWhere you'll trade
Pitch costs from £0 to £300 a week, where to actually look, and how to approach landowners with confidence.
Finding a pitchKitting out your van
The four essentials, gas safety, generator specs — and the equipment mistakes that quietly cost you money.
Equipment guideCover that protects you
Public liability, van and trailer cover — what you genuinely must have in place before you serve a single customer.
Insurance explainedStill got questions?
Hundreds of real questions from new caterers, answered with David's experience and the MobCater team's research.
Questions & answers100s of real questions, answered honestly
Browse the Q&A library by topic. Real questions from UK caterers, answered with David's experience and the MobCater team's research.
Start & run your mobile catering business
Far more than the 12-step guide. The MobCater app gives you David's whole body of work — his book in audio, the 50+ pre-launch checklist, daily-trading tools and a helpful UK Nationwide LPG engineer directory. Start free, upgrade when you're ready to trade.
- 12-step UK startup guide & equipment checklist FREE
- The full book in audio — Start Mobile Catering UK, all 12 chapters narrated
- Interactive 50+ pre-launch checklist — tick it off as you go
- Daily sales tracker + temperature logger (EHO-ready PDFs)
- 6 planning calculators + equipment & gas safety guides
- 50+ UK LPG engineer directory + document wallet to store all your important docs.
Free to start · Business Toolkit £5.99/mo · Business-Ready £11.99/mo · Annual £99/yr
David Hinton
Mobile Catering Experience- Author of Start Mobile Catering UK
- 124K-View Getting Started
Meet David Hinton
David's first day of trading nearly didn't happen. He'd driven four hours to Liverpool to look at a beaten-up catering van, bought it anyway, painted it up with his family, loaded the griddle — then stood inside on his pitch with the hatch closed, terrified to open it.
"My first day of business was actually terrifying," he says. He plucked up the courage, opened the shutter, and by lunchtime had a steady flow of bacon sandwiches and coffees going out. "From that point it got a lot easier. The fear just sort of vanished."
Since then, David has bought and sold trailers (one went from £750 to £8,500), traded industrial estates, retail parks, building sites and football clubs, and written the whole story down in his book Start Mobile Catering UK: Avoid the Pitfalls & Succeed. MobCater exists so you don't have to learn the way he did — the hard way.
Real questions, straight answers
The latest questions from people starting out — answered in full on the site.
Can I put wastage down as an expense on my mobile catering accounts?
"Hi, I've been trading for 6 months now and really enjoy it. My question is — can I put wastage down as an expense on the accounts? Some days I have hardly..."
Read the answer QuestionDo I need a street trading licence on private land?
"Hi, I have a burger van situated on a private road to a yard on an industrial estate. I have permission from the owner to trade from there..."
Read the answer QuestionHow much does a mobile catering pitch cost?
"How much is the average pitch fee for a catering van?" — with real ranges from £0 a week up to £300+, and how to negotiate.
Read the answer QuestionWhat generator do I need for a coffee van?
Sizing the generator, petrol vs diesel vs LPG, real-world running costs and the noise considerations for events.
Read the answerYour first trading day is closer than you think
Start free today with the 12-step guide — and skip the trial and error David had to learn the hard way.
Start the free guide