Food trucks can be a great way for those in the restaurant industry to be able to easily travel around and offer their services to businesses. As much as it’s an art to make the right food, businesses will need to make sure they come up with an optimal layout for their food truck. An optimal layout means that customers are happy with the quality and speed of service.
However, this can be difficult for those that never have worked with their own food truck before. Before you end up purchasing your first food truck, check out these ways you should layout your food truck to be as efficient as possible.
Payments
To receive orders from customers, you’ll have to think about how you’re going to accept payments. A traditional food truck might have a single window in which the person inside will take the order and payment from someone ordering outside. However, this model can become quickly inefficient for food trucks that become more popular.
To deal with expanding business, food trucks should think about having dual windows for their food truck layout. This would make it so that waiting times could be cut in half, meaning fewer people are likely to go somewhere else for food. More popular food trucks should also think about having a mobile payment system in which customers could order their food online so they just have to wait at the end of the truck for their food. Strongly think about how you want to receive payments before building your food truck layout.
Condiments
Whether you’re selling hot dogs or hamburgers, your customers are going to want condiments to put on their food. You’ll have to think carefully about how you’re going to want to set up your condiment station, as you can easily make a messy and inefficient condiment station if you aren’t careful.
First, think about if you are going to offer bulk containers of condiments or single-use packets. With bulk containers, customers will have to wait their turn to put condiments on their food before using the large containers. These containers can save you money, but bulk containers can cause a huge mess from customers that aren’t paying too much attention. On the other hand, customers can quickly grab single-use packets with ease to put on their food elsewhere.
After that, you’ll have to choose a place to put your condiment station. You’re always going to want to put it on the side where someone grabbed their order already but still a good distance away so lines don’t mingle too much. Make sure you properly set up your condiment station when building your first food truck.
Kitchen
After you’ve thought about where customers can serve themselves, you’ll need to think about how your employees are going to make the food. The perfect kitchen can depend on the type of food and how much of that food are you serving to customers.
For example, if you are cooking hamburgers and hot dogs, you’ll want to think about having a wide kitchen that offers two lanes for chefs to work in. This will no doubt be a more expensive venture, but you’ll make the money back you spent on your food truck by more customers willing to stay in your line. Find the right food truck manufacturer that can build the kitchen you need for your next food truck.
