The initial idea...
Food Truck Pub was launched in the fall of 2018 with one goal in mind - Prevent customers from having to wait in line for food trucks while at the same time, provide a cost-effective and easy solution to food trucks who are already strapped for cash and time. Here is our story and how we came up with the idea.
My cousin and I would regularly attend a weekly fitness class at a YMCA in a nearby town (think P90X and not Sweating to the Oldies)! After the fitness class, like any normal person, we were always starving and it was always later in the evening. We liked to drink and eat away all the calories we lost in the fitness class by going to a local Brew Pub who had food trucks.
So, every week after our class, we would be famished and standing in line waiting to order our food. Then, once our order was in, we waited patiently for the food to be cooked. Meanwhile, the time wasted in line could've been better enjoyed with us sitting at some comfy bar stools and enjoying a few beers.
This is when I had my epiphany! Why couldn't we grab our beers, post up at some bar stools, then submit an order to that food truck over there without having to wait in line, just by using our phones? Or, why couldn't we order ahead of time while on the way over to the brew pub? I floated the concept by a few friends who owned a food truck and they loved the idea. This was the start of Food Truck Pub!
I landed on a free solution for trucks but I knew I would still have bills to pay on my end to keep this system up and running. With this in mind, the system is completely free for trucks and a small convenience fee ($1.25 flat fee) (or $0.60 on the Premium Plan for Square/Paypal and $0.85 on the Premium Plan for Clover) is added onto the order and the customer pays this fee. Quite frankly, customers love not having to waste time in line and waiting for their food, so they don't mind this small fee at all...
--John Kuhn (owner/developer)
Use Cases
The best part about all use cases is that the system by its very nature is Contact-less. There's nothing to download or install and people order and pay from their phones. The truck receive the order notification and it goes directly into their POS system. They cook the food and place it in the window for pickup and click the 'Notify Customer' button. Customer walks over and picks up their food. Easy!
Business Parks / Office Buildings
When you post up for a scheduled event or even a non-scheduled event outside an office building, print off your Food Truck Sign (found under Settings/Advertise). Place this flyer around the area and inside the building. If you are working with someone at the business to help schedule and coordinate the event, give them your direct ordering URL (also found under Settings/Advertise) and they can email it out to all employees. Then, instead of making them wait in a long line at lunch time, they can order it from their desks or even submit pre-orders the day before so you know how much product to bring!
Planned Events
Birthday parties, weddings, festivals or any type of gathering... grab your unique food truck number or direct ordering URL (found under Settings/Advertise). Then, communicate this out to your patrons or even share it on Social Media. Take real-time orders or even future pre-orders for your event so that people can order and pay in advance. People at these events will enjoy not having to wait in line and everything will be faster and smoother from an operations standpoint because you won't have to wait on people in your window and have people chomping at the bit waiting for their food nearby your truck. They can receive an order notification when their food is ready for pickup in your window.
Pre-Orders
Food Truck Pub allows you to take both same-day as well as future pre-orders. Get paid now, for any event scheduled for tomorrow as an example. Configure where and when you will be located so you can even be found on our mapping page to nearby customers. Give your customers a pickup location as well! Customers will be able to select an available timeslot for order pickup.
Fill in Event Gaps
On the days you're not scheduled for a certain event, take future pre-orders from customers and help fill in the gaps in your scheduled events. Use Food Truck Pub to take orders for your non-event days and keep the income going! Just post your direct ordering link on social media and stay busy even during your non-event days. Just post 'where' you will be located when you create your Future Pre-Order event in Food Truck Pub (such as Pickup Food Behind Firehall or Pickup at the parking lot at Corner of Wood & Harold Street).
Daily Orders from Frequent Customers
If people frequent your truck on a regular basis, give them the means to order online from you using Food Truck Pub. This way, they can submit their order for a specific pickup time and swing by and pick it up at that time. Your patrons will appreciate you giving them back some time in their busy life and they will surely not miss standing in line. Imagine all the more orders you could take in if you just had to worry about cooking food instead of waiting on people in your window!
Brew Pubs
This is the exact use case that helped give me the idea that kick-started Food Truck Pub. Brew Pubs love bringing in food trucks. Trucks can display their 'Food Truck Sign' found under Settings/Advertise to people inside the establishment by hanging it up, or leaving it on table cards around the pub. People read the instructions and go to www.foodtruck.pub to order their food. They can continue enjoying their beverages instead of waiting in line.