A good general rule of thumb is that if there isn't a flushing toilet or anywhere for them to wash their hands, they might not take plastic.
I try not to use plastic at small local venues like food trucks/shacks. They have enough struggles without having to lose another 4% of the transaction to merchant processing fees. Consider paying cash to be an additional gratuity.
I realize this isn't exactly related to food trucks... but.... I don't know what the laws are here, but when I lived in Oregon back in the 90's the law was that if a customer paid with plastic, the restaurant was required to automatically withhold a minimum 5% (the exact figure might have been different... it was a long time ago) of the receipt gross from the server for taxes, under the assumption that some patrons pay in plastic and tip in cash, and Caesar gets his due. It might have encouraged fair income reporting, but it also meant that if a patron didn't leave any tip, the server paid the tax man 5% for the pleasure of waiting on the deadbeat. They needed a minimum 5% tip to "work for free". At the time restaurants were allowed to pay tipped staff less than $4/hour, so they weren't making up the % with an hourly wage. At a restaurant that had good tips, the server paychecks were usually zero because the taxes were more than the hourly wages.
But, I didn't cry for them because they could make $100/hour with tips, and I was working in the kitchen for about $8/hour. The free food and beer didn't exactly make up for that.
I try not to use plastic at small local venues like food trucks/shacks. They have enough struggles without having to lose another 4% of the transaction to merchant processing fees. Consider paying cash to be an additional gratuity.
I realize this isn't exactly related to food trucks... but.... I don't know what the laws are here, but when I lived in Oregon back in the 90's the law was that if a customer paid with plastic, the restaurant was required to automatically withhold a minimum 5% (the exact figure might have been different... it was a long time ago) of the receipt gross from the server for taxes, under the assumption that some patrons pay in plastic and tip in cash, and Caesar gets his due. It might have encouraged fair income reporting, but it also meant that if a patron didn't leave any tip, the server paid the tax man 5% for the pleasure of waiting on the deadbeat. They needed a minimum 5% tip to "work for free". At the time restaurants were allowed to pay tipped staff less than $4/hour, so they weren't making up the % with an hourly wage. At a restaurant that had good tips, the server paychecks were usually zero because the taxes were more than the hourly wages.
But, I didn't cry for them because they could make $100/hour with tips, and I was working in the kitchen for about $8/hour. The free food and beer didn't exactly make up for that.