A food truck is the harshest POS environment there is: spotty internet, no counter space, a line that has to move, and a battery that has to last a shift. Here's what matters and what we recommend.
What a truck actually needs
- Speed at the window — tap-to-pay and tips on one screen, no second device
- Connectivity that survives a parking lot — 4G/LTE with offline fallback
- All-day battery — or a handheld that charges in its cradle between rushes
- Simple menu edits — 86 an item from the line in seconds
The full-service pick: SkyTab by Shift4
A restaurant-grade handheld with pay-at-the-window, commission-free online ordering and QR pay. If your truck runs like a restaurant — modifiers, combos, a real kitchen flow — this is the one. Plan for a couple of weeks of setup: menu build, install and training are included and worth doing right.
The simple picks: Square and SumUp
Square Mobile is the classic first-truck setup: an app, a reader, running in an afternoon. SumUp is the budget champion — a $54 reader or the $249 palm-size Terminal with built-in printer and no monthly software fee, with a full register bundle at $499 when you're ready.
Don't forget the terminal option
Plenty of trucks skip the POS entirely and run a smart terminal — a PAX A920 Pro or Dejavoo QD4 handheld takes cards anywhere, prints receipts, and doubles as a backup when the main system (or the venue Wi-Fi) goes down.
Bottom line
Full menu and real volume: SkyTab. First season or simple menu: Square or SumUp. Either way, add a handheld terminal as backup — the day the internet dies at a festival, it pays for itself.