A food truck website that says where you are this week
Fans of a food truck ask one question more than any other: where are you today? Event organisers ask a second: can we hire you? A food truck website should answer the first at the top of the page, kept current every week, and make the second a quick enquiry with the details you need to quote.
Why a site as well as social media
Most trucks post their week on social media, and that works for followers. It doesn't work for someone who searched the truck's name after a friend mentioned it, or an office manager looking for a caterer for a summer party. Posts scroll away; a page with this week's pitches stays where search engines and new customers can find it. The website is also the one place you control, with your menu, your hire details and your own address.
The schedule is the homepage
Put the week's locations above everything else, as a simple list rather than a map that takes seconds to load on a phone signal in a car park. For each stop give:
- The day and serving hours.
- The place, as people would describe it ("the brewery yard on Mill Lane"), with a postcode or a map link.
- Whether it's a public pitch, a market or a private event that isn't open to the public.
- Any change from the usual, such as a sold-out notice or a weather cancellation.
Keep the stops in an Anticode CMS collection with fields for date, times, place, map link and a note. The collection gets its own page on the site (such as /stops/), linked from the top of the homepage; you edit the list from the dashboard on Sunday night and that page shows the new week. If you prefer, ask for the change in a sentence ("replace Thursday's stop with the hospital car park, 11 to 2") and the page updates.
A menu that matches the hatch
Keep the online menu the same as the board on the truck, in the same order and with the same names, so people can decide in the queue. Mark vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options clearly and give allergen information in line with the rules where you trade; if the menu changes at events, say which dishes are always on. A menu kept in a CMS collection can be changed in a minute when a dish sells out for the season.
Private hire and events
Hire bookings are usually where a truck makes its steadiest money: weddings, festivals, office parties, film sets. Organisers need to know a few facts before they enquire, and you need a few facts back before you quote.
| Put on the hire page | Ask in the enquiry |
|---|---|
| Kinds of event you do and the areas you travel to | Event type, date and location |
| Minimum spend or guest numbers, described in words | Expected guest count and serving times |
| Space, power and access the truck needs | Whether there's hard standing, power and vehicle access |
| Menu options for events and dietary choices | Dietary needs and any other caterers on site |
| Licences and food hygiene rating where you have one | Contact name, email and phone |
The right-hand column can sit as prompts above the contact form's message box, or as separate fields in a custom form tied to a site function or an app build; both reach you through Anticode's form pipeline. Enquiries are saved, sealed at rest, and can be emailed to you or sent on to Telegram, Slack or Discord. With a connector to Telegram on your phone, you see a hire enquiry while you're still serving.
On customers' phones
Every site Anticode publishes can be installed on a phone like an app, with its own icon and an offline fallback page. Regulars who follow you around town can add it to their home screen and check the week's stops in one tap. Put a short line on the site telling them they can.
Mistakes street food sites make
- A schedule that's three weeks out of date, which is worse than none.
- An embedded social feed as the only source of locations. It loads slowly and breaks when the platform changes.
- Gourmet restaurant copy for a burger truck. Write how you talk at the hatch.
- No hire details, so every organiser has to message to ask the basics.
Building it with Anticode
Start with a sentence: "a Korean fried chicken truck in Manchester with a weekly schedule, menu and private hire enquiries". The Architect asks up to three questions and shows a plan, typically one page with the week's stops, the menu and a hire section, or a separate Contact page. Playful (Fredoka) or Brutalist (Archivo) suit most trucks; pick one action colour that matches your paintwork. Published pages contain no scripts, so the schedule loads quickly on a weak signal.
Limits
- No live location. Published pages don't fetch live data, so there's no GPS dot on a map. The schedule is what you type in.
- No ordering ahead or payment for food. There's no cart; customers order at the hatch.
- No event calendar of your availability for hire. Organisers enquire and you check your diary.
Questions people ask
How do I keep the food truck schedule up to date?
Keep it in a CMS collection and edit the week's stops from the dashboard, or ask for the change in a sentence. Dashboard edits change the collection page directly; a change request updates the page in the builder for you to publish.
Can customers order online before they arrive?
Not with Anticode. There's no cart or ordering system on published sites; link to an ordering service if you use one.
Can people install the site on their phone?
Yes. Every published Anticode site can be installed on phones and desktops, with an icon and an offline fallback.