A restaurant has one problem a truck does not: it has to fill the same room every night. A truck has the opposite problem, and it is worse for the web: the single fact a customer needs — where are you right now — is the one fact that changes.
That is why so many trucks live in an Instagram grid, and why that grid keeps failing them. Instagram cannot show a price list, does not answer "open now" and puts a different post at the top every time. Nobody scrolling it at 12:40 on a Tuesday can find out where the truck is at 12:45.
What follows is the whole chain, in the order it breaks.
The one rule: a fixed address, a changing spot
A QR code is a printed URL. Printed things do not change their mind, so the URL has to be the part of your business that never moves — not the location, not the menu, not the schedule. Your own fixed address, pointed at from every printed and posted thing, is the whole trick.
Point the code at a Google Maps pin of Tuesday's spot and the code is dead on Wednesday. Point it at your establishment listing and a customer reads "Permanently closed" over your lunch service, because a truck that moved is indistinguishable from one that shut. Point it at a page like maptosite-app.pages.dev/s/your-truck and only the text inside it changes.
Today — Tue 12 Nov · 41st & Main · 11:30–14:30 · Directions
Tomorrow — Wed 13 Nov · Riverside Market · 17:00–21:00
Menu — Smash burger 9 · Double 13 · Fries 4 · Kimchi fries 6 · Lemonade 3.50
Hours this week — Tue–Fri lunch, Sat market, closed Sun–Mon
Call / text — the number that answers while you are cooking
Catering — a form for the office lunch that pays for the whole week
Six blocks. If a stranger can answer "where, until when, what does it cost, how do I reach you" in one thumb, the page has done its job. The story of the truck, the photographs and the playlist are decoration; they go below, where they cost nothing.
The QR code: size, surface, and the phone that will not scan
Truck windows are the worst reading conditions a code will ever meet: sun on glass, a queue behind the customer, a hand holding a burger. Three numbers make it reliable.
- 30 mm minimum, 40 mm if the code sits inside a serving hatch or in direct sun. At arm's length a phone needs roughly 25 mm; every reflection and every centimetre of separation eats into that margin.
- Dark on white, with a quiet zone. Do not tint the code to match the paintwork and do not crowd it with the logo — a code with a 4-module border reads, one with none does not.
- Print the plain URL underneath. Short, lowercase, no parameters: maptosite-app.pages.dev/s/your-truck. This is the cheapest insurance in the whole build: the customer who will not scan can still type eight words while waiting.
Material: weatherproof vinyl or a laminated card, fixed with something that survives a power wash. Paper taped to the outside of a truck lasts about a week in the rain and longer than you would like with a faded code that half-scans — a half-working code is worse than none, because the customer blames themselves and leaves.
The three-second test, before you print anything: stand where a customer stands, hold your own phone out with mobile data on and the truck's Wi-Fi off, and scan. If the page does not show today's spot and a price within three seconds, the chain is broken — and it is broken for every person in the queue behind you.
The menu: twelve lines, prices at the end
A photographed chalkboard is a beautiful thing on Instagram and a bad menu on a phone: the customer tilts, pinches, gives up, and asks the price of the thing they can see through the window. Text survives every screen.
The format that works, in one line per item, name first and number last:
Double smash 13
Fries 4 · Kimchi fries 6
Buttermilk chicken 11
Lemonade 3.50
Twelve lines is the useful ceiling. Not a platform limit — a human one: a person standing in a queue gives a price list about eight seconds. Keep the twelve things people actually order and let the specials board by the window do the rest.
Two menu habits worth adopting. First, say what is sold out — a dated line at the top ("no chicken today") saves the conversation you are having forty times a shift. Second, price what you sell as a set: "burger + fries + lemonade 13" is one line that raises the average order and shortens the queue.
Maps: the pin that follows the truck, and the one that must not
Two different things share the word "location" and conflating them is where trucks lose customers.
- The pin a customer taps today. Take the Google Maps link for today's spot — the share link from the Maps app is fine — and paste it into the page's Maps field. The button it becomes opens the customer's own maps app with a route from wherever they are, which is the only navigation that matters.
- The thing a customer saves. A Google Business Profile for a mobile business is worth having, but it is not a substitute for the page: the profile shows one address and it will be wrong on most days, and its "hours" cannot say "today only, 11:30–14:30".
If you post your weekly schedule on Instagram, mirror it on the page in the same words. Two sources that disagree are worse than one that is slightly late, because the customer now has to guess which one lies.
What the whole thing costs in 2026
Read from each vendor's own pricing page on the dates in the last column; before tax, annual billing where stated.
| Route | Per month | Year 1 | 3 years | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squarespace Basic (annual) | $19 | $228 | $684 | A real multi-page site, domain year one, an editor to learn |
| Wix Light (yearly plan) | $17 | $204 | $612 | Editor, hosting, domain year one, Wix ads until you pay |
| Linktree Pro (annual) | $14 | $168 | $504 | A list of buttons — no price table, no open-now |
| Toast / Clover | quote | — | — | POS, cards, kitchen printing — not a public page |
| MapToSite Card | $0 | $0 | $0 | One page: today's spot, prices, hours, call, Directions |
| MapToSite turnkey kit | — | $49 once | $49 | The page plus fifteen printed pieces, built for you |
Put the middle column next to a truck's margins. At a $9 burger with maybe a third of it left after food and fuel, $204 a year is sixty burgers — and the plan being bought is an editor, a template library and a blog you will not write, for a page whose only job is to say where you are standing.
Where the subscription is the right answer: if you take pre-orders through a store, publish a blog, sell merch, or want a page per location with staff bios, a hosted builder is the correct tool and $17–$29 a month is what it costs. The comparison here is a floor — the four facts a hungry person needs — not a ceiling. The mistake is paying a monthly fee for a page you have no time to maintain, and then not updating it.
If you want to see the same arithmetic with your own numbers, the three-year calculator takes your monthly fee and puts the one-off next to it.
Not sure what your current setup costs you over three years? Two minutes, no email.
Print once, then keep it true
The paper is where this pays for itself on a truck, because the customer is standing right there with a phone in their hand and no patience.
- A window QR, 40 mm, weatherproof — laminated or vinyl, at eye height for someone at the counter, with the typed URL under it.
- A menu card clipped inside the window, matching the page line for line — the same twelve items, the same prices.
- A card that goes out with the order — "tomorrow: Riverside Market, 17:00" and the same QR. This is the cheapest way a truck turns one lunch into the next one.
- A tent or A5 card for the till at events, where people queue for six minutes and will scan anything in reach.
The reason to have these made from one list rather than four separate designs: the day a price changes, you edit one line and reprint one sheet. Our kits are generated this way — the page, the poster, the menu sheet, the stickers and the table tent all come off the same list, so the paper and the phone cannot disagree.
The twenty-minute version, if you are doing it yourself
- Write today's spot, and the next three days, into a notes app: day, place, times. Keep the format identical each week.
- Write the twelve lines with prices at the end. If something is "market price", either write the number or leave it out.
- Paste today's Google Maps share link into the page — do not retype the address, because a typo becomes a customer driving to the wrong car park.
- Publish the page on a free builder. Ours takes one form and gives you a link plus an edit key: it is here, no card and no account.
- Scan your own screen from a printer's proof, at arm's length, before you pay for the print run.
Then the maintenance, which is the part nobody mentions: ten minutes on a Sunday to rewrite the week's spots, and one line added in the morning when something sells out. That is the entire job. A truck that updates its page on Sunday sells on Tuesday; one that means to update it sells from an empty car park.
Questions we get asked
How do customers find a truck that moves every day?
One address that never changes, with today's spot written on it. The address goes on the window, in the Instagram bio and behind the QR; the spot inside it changes. The Directions button follows today's pin, so a customer standing three streets away gets a route, not a postcode.
Should the QR go to a menu PDF instead?
No. A PDF opens in a viewer, needs pinch-zoom, and nothing in it can be tapped — no call, no Directions. Point the code at text: one item per line, prices at the end, twelve lines.
Do I need Toast or Clover for this?
Only for taking cards at the window, printing kitchen tickets or counting stock. Neither publishes a monthly software price — both quote through sales, with card processing on top. The page that says where you are is a different purchase, and it can be free.
What if my city requires a permit to park where I sell?
Then keep the permit and the approved spot list with the schedule, and put the spot on the page exactly as it appears on the permit. Customers do not need the permit number; they need to arrive where you are allowed to be. The printed URL is the right home for anything that may be checked at the kerb.
Is $49 once really enough for a truck?
Yes for the page and the paper: the live mobile page, the A4 QR poster, the menu sheet, stickers, the table tent, the window sign, review cards and the rest of fifteen pieces, delivered within 24 hours. The limits are scope, not a renewal — Starter covers ten tables and one revision round, and the page lives on our address rather than your own domain.
Related reading: the QR menu and table tent chain, measured, what a food truck page holds, and the three-year cost calculator.
The code on the window, the menu and the spot — printed once
Send a Maps link, your twelve lines and your number. Within 24 hours: the live mobile page, the A4 QR poster, the printed menu sheet, window cards and stickers, the table tent, review cards and the rest of the fifteen pieces — $49 once, no subscription, nothing auto-renewing.
Want to try the page before buying anything? It takes about thirty seconds and stays free:
Create a page — free Food truck pages See the samples
Sources, read on 13–14 November 2026: squarespace.com/pricing — Basic $19 a month billed annually ($25 monthly), no free plan, 14-day trial; wix.com/plans — Light $17, Core $29, Business $39 a month on a yearly subscription paid in full, prices exclude tax; linktr.ee/s/pricing — Pro $14 annual / $17 monthly, Starter $7 / $9; toasttab.com/pricing — no published software price; hardware, implementation and the rest by quote. clover.com/pricing — bundle prices per business type (full-service restaurant Starter $179 a month for 36 months, or $1,799 + $89.95 a month), card processing 2.3% + 10¢ on top, so the hardware rides inside the number. MapToSite's Card, Board, Sign and turnkey prices are on this site and charged through Polar as merchant of record. Three-year figures are 36 months at the stated rate, before tax and excluding domains after year one and third-party apps. Vendor prices change — check the page before you subscribe.