Running a Food Truck: How to Make Sure Your Regulars Always Find You

A truck lives or dies on one question: where are you today?

A restaurant's regulars know where to find it. A truck's regulars have to be told, every single day. The trucks that do well are not always the ones with the best food. They are the ones whose regulars always know where they are.

Post your spot every morning, the same way

Pick a time, say 9am, and post the day's spot every day: the place, the hours, and how to order ahead. Same format every time, so people learn to look for it. Put it where your regulars already are: your Instagram story, your Google profile, a text to your list.

• Be exact: "Mill Ave and 5th, by the park entrance, 11 to 2" beats "downtown today".
• Post the week when you know it: office parks and breweries book ahead; let people plan around you.
• Add the order link: people who order ahead skip the line, and a shorter line sells more.

Fast window, numbered orders

At a truck, every minute of the lunch rush is money. Take the order, give a number, call the number. No tables, no names to spell. A screen or a board that shows which numbers are ready keeps the crowd from asking "is mine up?" every thirty seconds.

Plan for the dead spot

Sooner or later you park where the signal drops. Decide now what happens then: take cash, keep the orders, settle them when the signal is back. The worst plan is finding out at noon with a line of twenty.

Jetsy for food trucks keeps where you park each day on your ordering link with a post ready to share, rings numbered orders in one tap, shows a Now serving screen, and keeps taking cash orders with no signal.