What does a food truck website need besides a schedule?

The schedule comes first, with days, spots and hours, high on the first screen. After that, a short menu with prices, where you post changes, and a catering request form. Add a photo of the truck so people can spot it, your service area and how you take payment at the window.

Can a food truck website show where we are right now?

Not live. Shingle has no GPS or live tracker. What it gives you is a schedule you keep current, an announcement bar for today's change, and a link to the feed where you post first. Say plainly that it's a schedule and that plans can change, so nobody drives over on a stale promise.

How do I update a food truck schedule each week?

Open your site, switch to edit, change the words and save, then publish your updates. None of that uses credits, and it's usually live in a few minutes. It works from a phone's browser, though there's no app. You can also ask for the change in plain words, which uses 5 credits.

Does a food truck website need a street address?

No. Leave it out of your brief, or turn your address off if you build from your Google listing, then give the area you serve in Details. The site names your area with no map pin. Keep your commissary or home address off the site unless customers really come there.

Can customers order or pay through a food truck website?

No. Orders stay at the window or with a provider you already use, because Shingle takes no orders or payments itself. If you have a preorder link, give it to Shingle and your buttons open it. Say how you take payment at the window, such as card or cash, so nobody gets caught out.

Can people book the food truck for an event through the site?

They can send a request through a form asking for the date, guest count and location. It reaches your inbox and email, and you reply with a quote, because a form doesn't confirm a booking or take a deposit. Say what you need from a host so the request arrives with the right details.

Where are you today?

Your customers ask every day. Answer it somewhere you can change in a few minutes.

What the home page says

Section by section, in the order a visitor reads it.

This week's schedule
The one thing every visitor came for. List days, spots and hours in plain words, high on the first screen, with your regular stops on it. You edit it by hand and publish, which costs nothing and usually goes live in a few minutes. It's a schedule you keep, and never a live tracker.
Today's change
Rain, a flat tire, brisket gone by 1. The announcement bar puts one line across every page, up to 120 characters, with a link if you want one. Give it a last day so yesterday's news takes itself down. It needs a publish, so your feed is still faster.
Where we post first
Tell people where the freshest word lives. “Any change goes on Instagram by 10 a.m.” with a link to your feed sets a habit they can rely on. Only promise a time you'll keep.
Menu
Keep it short enough to read in line at the window: what you serve, what it costs, what sells out first, what works for vegetarians. Shingle is built not to invent items or prices, so the menu holds only what you give it.
Catering
For many trucks, this is the steadier money. Ask for the date, the guest count, the location and if there's power and room to park. It's a request, so say you'll reply with a quote. Each one reaches your inbox and your email.
Host the truck
Breweries, offices and apartment managers look for trucks too. Say what you need from a host, such as space, power and a minimum, and that you carry a permit and insurance if you do. Point them to the same form.

How they search

food trucks near me
food trucks today
bbq food truck near me
food truck catering near me
food truck for a wedding
food truck at brewery tonight
greenville food truck schedule
lunch trucks downtown

What earns their trust

A schedule with the date you last updated it
A photo of the truck, so people can spot it from the street
What you serve and what it costs
How you take payment at the window
Your health permit and insurance, for anyone hiring you
Breweries and offices you've worked with, with their OK

How it gets found

What moves a food truck up in a town's results.

Set up your listing for a truck
Google's guidelines don't name food trucks. The usual route is a service-area profile with your address hidden, which means no map pin. That makes your site the place that says where you are, so check Google's current guidelines before you set it up.
Take the closest category
Type your trade into Google's category field and take the closest match it offers. Mobile caterer is in its list, and you can add your cuisine if Google offers that as a category too.
Name your regular stops in words
“Thursday lunch at the downtown office park” can be found by people who work there. Skip a thin page for every neighborhood. Keep stops on the schedule, and give a page only to a place you're at all the time.
Leave a parked spot out of markup
FoodEstablishment is the closest schema.org type. A truck has no fixed address, so leave a street address off rather than using a commissary or your home. Give your service area in Details, and a published site carries that in its markup instead.

How to sell one

Food truck owners work long days and repeat their schedule all week. They buy a site when they want more catering, because a wedding planner or an office manager wants something better than an Instagram account before hiring a truck.

Radar marks a business with only a social page, so look there first. Build the demo, add their regular stops and show them the announcement bar with today's change in it. Be plain that this is a schedule they keep, because a live tracker isn't something Shingle does.

“I post my location on Instagram every day.”: Keep doing it. The site is for people who don't follow you yet, and for whoever's booking catering. It links to your feed and tells people that's where the day's news goes first.
“Can it show the truck on a map, live?”: No. Shingle has no live tracking, so don't promise it. A schedule they keep current answers the question for most people. If they already use a tracking app, the site can link to it.
“I don't have time to keep a website up.”: Set the regular stops once and touch it only when the week changes. A change is a few words, done by hand from a phone's browser, then a publish. There's no app, so be upfront about that.
“Can people order and pay ahead?”: Shingle takes no orders or payments, so the window keeps working as it does today. If they use a provider for preorders, the site's buttons can link to it.