The customer is paying a tiny fee to put their order in, compared to me paying $20 an hour for someone to do that for them. It just doesn’t make sense to go back.
Roadside Tacos
Real numbers from trucks running on Flash Order, and what actually caps how many people you can serve.
From paid orders on Flash Order, counted per clock hour at each location.
35–77
orders in the best hour of the five busiest food trucks running regularly on Flash Order, July–October 2026
98
paid orders in one hour: the best food-truck hour we’ve seen, by Roadside Tacos in Des Moines on June 3, 2026
63 sec
median time for a customer to place an order on their own, from opening the menu to submitting it
98.1%
of submitted orders get paid (Sept 21 – Oct 4, 2026)
Across all Flash Order locations, the busiest hour so far is 417 paid orders at a high-volume cafeteria, peaking at 14 orders in a single minute.
When one person takes every order, the line moves one conversation at a time. Customers take about a minute to order even on their own, so a single order-taker tops out somewhere around 60 orders an hour, no matter how fast the kitchen is.
Take Your First Order →
With QR and App Clip ordering, everyone in line can order in the same minute. Roadside Tacos’ 98-order hour came mostly from customers’ phones (60 orders), plus 26 at the kiosk and 12 on the web.
Take Your First Order →
A shorter event menu means faster decisions and faster cooking. Give each event its own menu, so the festival gets your five best sellers while the brewery night gets everything.
Take Your First Order →
Pre-orders with pickup times move part of the rush into the hour before it. Your kitchen display keeps them separate from walk-ups, so the line and the pre-orders don’t collide.
Take Your First Order →The customer is paying a tiny fee to put their order in, compared to me paying $20 an hour for someone to do that for them. It just doesn’t make sense to go back.
For food trucks, this is the answer. The little kiosk system we had in the trailer worked, but it was constantly changing receipts, wind blowing them off, reprints. With Flash Order, the orders just go straight to the kitchen. No paper. No chaos.
Efficient and effective — that’s what Flash Order is. I’ve even pitched it to other trucks in the area. You’d get rid of all those paper tickets with just two screens.
How many orders per hour can a food truck do?
On Flash Order, the five busiest food trucks running regularly peaked between 35 and 77 orders in their best hour from July to October 2026. The best single food-truck hour we’ve recorded is 98 paid orders, by Roadside Tacos.
What limits a food truck’s orders per hour?
Usually order-taking, not cooking. One person taking orders at the window handles one customer at a time; letting customers order on their phones or a kiosk removes that cap, and the kitchen becomes the limit.
How long does it take a customer to order?
A median of 63 seconds when customers order on their own, from opening the menu to submitting the order.
How do I increase my orders per hour?
Let the whole line order at once with QR codes and a kiosk, run a shorter menu at busy events, and take pre-orders with pickup times to spread the rush.
How are these numbers counted?
Paid orders placed through Flash Order at a single location, grouped by clock hour of the location’s local time. Square point-of-sale sales and unpaid carts are not included.
Built for restaurants · Effortless ordering · Shorter lines