01 Overview
What Lunchtruck is built to solve.
Lunchtruck is a food truck-specific mobile and web application designed to reduce wait times for customers and streamline order management for vendors. Unlike general food delivery apps, Lunchtruck focuses exclusively on the food truck ecosystem.
Problem Statement
Customer Pain Points
Long wait times during peak lunch hours reduce the time customers can spend eating and socializing. Existing delivery apps aren't tailored to the mobile nature of food trucks.
Vendor Pain Points
Unpredictable order volumes lead to inefficiencies, missed revenue, and challenges managing inventory and staffing. No dedicated platform exists to optimize vendor operations.
Market Gap
No food truck-specific app exists to streamline ordering, pickup, and vendor operations while enhancing the customer experience with ratings, recommendations, and rewards.
Objectives
Customer-first ordering
Provide a user-friendly app to browse food trucks, place orders, and pick up food with minimal wait times.
Vendor workflow optimization
Develop a vendor app that simplifies order acceptance, preparation tracking, and customer communication.
99% platform uptime
Achieve 99% uptime for reliable service during peak lunch hours with cloud hosting and redundancy.
Rewards & incentives
Introduce a customer rewards program to encourage pre-ordering and a vendor incentive system to maximize earnings.
Ratings & recommendations
Include a "best food" section with community ratings to surface top dishes and vendors.
02 Functional Requirements
Two apps. One ecosystem.
Lunchtruck is built as a dual-app platform — a customer-facing ordering experience and a vendor-facing operations dashboard — connected by a real-time data layer.
User App Features
Browse Food Trucks
View nearby trucks with filters for cuisine type, ratings, distance, and estimated wait times.
Menu Access
Browse real-time menus with prices, descriptions, and dietary tags (vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.).
Order Placement
Place orders with customizable options, specify pickup times, and receive confirmation with estimated windows.
Real-Time Tracking
Track order status (received → preparing → ready) and the food truck's live location.
Ratings & Reviews
Rate food trucks and specific dishes, with a "best food" section highlighting top-rated items.
Payments
Credit/debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and in-app wallet. Seamless, hardware-free transactions.
Vendor App Features
Order Dashboard
Real-time view of incoming orders with customer name, items, pickup time, and special requests.
Order Management
Accept, reject, or update order status with estimated preparation times communicated to customers.
Menu Management
Update menus, prices, and availability in real time. Mark items as sold out instantly.
Customer Communication
Send automated or manual notifications — order ready confirmations, delay alerts, and more.
Analytics Dashboard
View order volume, revenue, peak times, and customer ratings to optimize daily operations.
Payment Tracking
Monitor payments received, pending amounts, and processing fees with weekly/monthly payout summaries.
03 Non-Functional Requirements
Payments, rewards, and reliability.
The systems that run beneath the surface — keeping vendors paid, customers engaged, and the platform running at scale.
Vendor Payment & Incentive System
Payment Processing
Funds held in escrow until order completion. Weekly or monthly ACH/Stripe payouts, minus a 5–10% platform fee (TBD).
Volume Bonus
Vendors completing 100+ orders per week receive a $50 bonus. Rewards high-throughput operations.
Speed Bonus
Average prep time under 10 minutes during peak hours earns an extra $0.50 per order.
Rating Bonus
Vendors maintaining a 4.5+ star rating over a month receive a 2% bonus on their total monthly payouts.
Featured Listings
High-performing vendors — ranked by volume, speed, and ratings — are prioritized in the "best food" section of the customer app, driving organic order growth.
Customer Rewards Program
| Tier | Points Range | Multiplier | Perks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 0 – 500 pts | 1x | Standard rewards. 1 pt per $1 spent on pre-orders. |
| Silver | 501 – 1,000 pts | 1.5x | 1.5x points on all orders. |
| Gold | 1,001+ pts | 2x | 2x points + priority pickup slots. |
Points Redemption
100 points = $5 off any order. 200 points = a free side item. Bonus 10 pts for orders placed 24+ hours in advance.
Gamification
Badges for milestones ("First Order", "Lunchtruck Regular" at 10 orders). Monthly challenges for ordering from 5 different trucks earn bonus points.
Performance & Security
99%
Platform uptime via AWS load balancing and redundancy
99.9%
Order accuracy through input validation and confirmation workflows
<200ms
API response time for all order updates and notifications
10K
Concurrent users supported during peak lunch hours (12–2 PM)
AES-256
Encryption for all customer, vendor, and payment data at rest
PCI-DSS
Full compliance for all payment processing. OAuth 2.0 + MFA for auth.
04 Technology Stack
Built to scale from day one.
A modern, cloud-native stack chosen for reliability, developer velocity, and the ability to handle real-time order traffic at scale.
Frontend
React with JSX for a single-page web application. Tailwind CSS for consistent design. WCAG 2.1 compliant for inclusive access.
Backend
Node.js + Express for RESTful APIs. Socket.IO WebSockets for real-time order updates. RabbitMQ message queue for zero order loss.
Database
MongoDB for flexible storage of user profiles, vendor data, menus, orders, and rewards history.
Infrastructure
AWS EC2 for compute, S3 for static assets, Elastic Load Balancer for peak traffic. CloudWatch for uptime monitoring.
Payments
Stripe API for secure customer payments and automated vendor payouts. Full PCI-DSS compliance.
Geolocation
Google Maps API for live food truck location tracking, distance calculations, and pickup navigation.
05 Communication Workflow
How an order flows through the system.
Every order moves through a deterministic pipeline — from the customer's phone to the vendor's dashboard to pickup confirmation — with no single point of failure.
1
Order Creation
User submits order via the React app. Validated client-side, sent to Node.js backend via REST API. Backend stores in MongoDB and queues in RabbitMQ. WebSocket pushes order to vendor dashboard instantly.
2
Order Acceptance
Vendor accepts or rejects via the vendor app. MongoDB is updated via REST API. WebSocket notifies the customer app of the status change in real time.
3
Status Updates
Vendor updates order status (preparing → ready). WebSocket pushes updates to the customer. RabbitMQ ensures no status updates are lost during connectivity issues.
4
Pickup Confirmation
Customer confirms pickup in the app, closing the order loop in MongoDB. Vendor receives confirmation and payment is released (minus platform fee) via Stripe.
Reliability guarantee
RabbitMQ message queuing ensures no orders are lost even during network disruptions — supporting the platform's 99% uptime commitment during peak hours.
06 Success Metrics
How we measure what matters.
Concrete targets across three dimensions — customer experience, vendor performance, and platform health.
Customer Metrics
<5min
Target average wait time after app adoption
80%
Orders placed 15+ minutes in advance
4.5★
Average app store rating target
Vendor Metrics
+20%
Increase in daily order volume within 3 months
90%
Vendors maintaining 4+ star ratings
95%
Payout completion rate without disputes
Platform Metrics
99%
Uptime during peak hours
10K
Active users within 6 months of launch
50%
Users enrolled in rewards program within 3 months
07 Future Considerations
Where Lunchtruck goes next.
Phase one establishes the core ordering and vendor platform. These are the expansion vectors on the roadmap once product-market fit is confirmed.
Delivery Option
Partner with third-party couriers to offer food truck delivery in select markets, expanding beyond pickup-only to capture a wider customer base.
Event Integration
Allow food truck festivals and events to integrate with Lunchtruck for pre-ordering, crowd management, and vendor coordination at scale.
Loyalty Partnerships
Collaborate with local businesses for cross-promotional rewards — extending the Lunchtruck points ecosystem beyond food trucks.
AI Recommendations
Use machine learning to personalize food truck and menu suggestions based on order history, location patterns, and user preferences.