Food trucks have come a long way from days of the chuck wagons. Also known as field kitchens, chuck wagons were used to transport perishables and kitchen equipment to men working in the field or far from home. The modern chuck wagon is the automated food truck and boy, have we come a long way! Look at what you can automate in your food truck to increase your productivity and sales.
Point-of-Sale (POS)
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POS is more than just a cash register. It is a system that allows you to keep track of your inventory, sales, employee timecards, CRM, your finances. For food trucks, you can even incorporate calorie information, offer coupon discounts and promotional vouchers, and provide information about your business to your customers and suppliers.
Moreover, the POS will help you speed up every transaction and decrease the paperwork that will have to be done at the end of the day. If you are interested, you could even start offering credit or debit payment options which is very convenient for many customers. The advantage of this additional payment system is that it also secures your sales since your truck will have less cash-on-hand.
Artificial Intelligence
Robots are slowly becoming mainstream. There is now a robot that can construct a hamburger every 10 seconds. While robots may not yet be something you find in a food truck, it isn’t exactly an impossibility. According to Momentum Machines, the company that manufactures these robots, artificial intelligence is not meant to take away jobs from humans but help humans do their jobs better and improve the bottom line with fewer mistakes. In fact, Domino’s Pizza (New Zealand) has a plan to test the robots which they say will be able to deliver pizzas for them as they will have a customized heated compartment for a maximum of 10 pizzas and can self-drive for up to 12.5 miles.
iPads and Avatars
Instead of having a person take the orders, you can have iPads and other similar gadgets for customers to use to place their orders. The gadgets could be link straight to the cook who can monitor all orders. The software to be used can also be customized to have avatars to entertain customers while they order and wait. It could also show a short video on how your food truck concept came about, the preparations that goes into creating your specialty food, and other marketing promos.
There is no limit to how technology can impact your food truck business. All you need to do is be open to all possibilities.