Welcome to South Island Food Trucks
Get your truck set up and ready to take bookings
This guide walks you through everything — from registering your truck to taking your first booking. Work through the steps in order and you'll be live in no time.
Register your truck
Before anything else you need to create your truck listing. This is the public profile customers will find when searching the platform.
Create your listing
Go to Dashboard → Register your truck
Fill in the following:
- Truck name — what customers will see in search results
- Cuisine type(s) (required) — choose from the approved list, or suggest a new one
- Description — your story, your food, the events you love. This is your pitch to customers.
- Base location — the city or region you operate from (e.g. Christchurch, Queenstown)
- Capacity — your minimum and maximum guest range
- Starting price — a guide price to help customers self-qualify
⏳ Approval process
After you submit, your truck goes into a Pending state. Our team reviews new listings before they appear in search results — this usually takes 1–2 business days.
You can still complete your profile, upload photos, and configure your settings while approval is in progress. You'll receive an email once your truck is live.
Status is visible at the top of your Dashboard overview.
A thorough initial submission speeds up approval. Include a clear description and at least one cuisine type. The more complete your profile, the more confident our team is that the listing is ready to go live.
Complete your profile
Your profile is your storefront. Once your truck is approved, customers searching on the platform will land here first. A complete, well-written profile converts significantly better than a sparse one.
Basic information
- ✦ Truck name and cuisine types
- ✦ Description (your pitch — make it vivid)
- ✦ Contact email for booking notifications
- ✦ Social links — Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, website Plus
Location & service area
- ✦ Base address (used for travel fee calculations)
- ✦ Service areas — cities/regions you'll travel to Plus
- ✦ Dietary tags — Vegan, GF, Halal, etc. Plus
Capacity & pricing
- ✦ Minimum and maximum guest count
- ✦ Starting price (guide for customers)
- ✦ Booking fee (your call-out / admin fee)
- ✦ Extra hour rate (charged beyond the 2-hour base)
- ✦ Additional charges (generator hire, etc.)
Photos & video
- ✦ Free: 1 photo · Plus: 3 photos · Pro: 30 photos
- ✦ First photo becomes your profile cover image
- ✦ Video embed (YouTube / Vimeo) Pro
- ✦ Go to Photos to manage your gallery
Menu setup — do this properly
Your menu is one of the most important parts of your profile. Customers choose a menu option when they request a booking, so the way you structure it directly affects how many enquiries convert.
Per-person menus (for truck hire events)
These appear when a customer books your truck for an event. Structure them as named packages rather than a flat list of individual meals. Each menu option has a name, description, and per-person price.
Good example:
Classic Menu — $28 pp
Choose from our core lineup: fish burgers, chicken burgers, or vege burgers with chips. Includes a drink.
Premium Menu — $38 pp
Everything in Classic plus premium protein options, side salad, and dessert.
Avoid this:
Fish burger — $12, Chicken burger — $14, Chips — $5, Drink — $4… (individual items with no package logic)
Catering menus (for catering orders) Pro
If you enable catering orders on your profile, a separate "Order Catering" button appears on your public profile. Catering menus are structured as platters with per-platter pricing (or TBD). Enable this under Profile → Accept catering orders.
Travel fee setup
If you charge for travel, enable the travel fee in your profile. Set your per-km rate and a free radius (the distance included in your base booking fee).
The platform automatically calculates the travel fee for each booking based on the distance from your base address to the event location — charged as a return trip. Example: 130 km away, 10 km free, $3.20/km → $3.20 × (130−10) × 2 = $768.00.
Your base address must be set (with coordinates) for automatic travel fee calculation to work. Use the address autocomplete field in your profile to set it.
What does a strong profile look like? A clear description, at least 3 photos, 2–3 well-described menu packages with pricing, your service areas filled in, and your contact email set. Profiles that take less than 30 seconds to scan perform best.
Choose a subscription
You need at least a Plus subscription to take online bookings. The Free tier gives you a basic directory listing — great for getting discovered, but customers can only contact you directly rather than book through the platform.
View plansFree
$0No commission · No online bookings
- ✦ Basic listing in the directory
- ✦ Business name, cuisine & general location
- ✦ 1 profile photo
- ✦ Contact button (phone/email only)
- ✦ Star rating display
- ✦ Live map (Who's Cooking Right Now)
Best for: operators testing the waters or managing bookings manually off-platform.
Plus
$9.99/mo8% commission · 10 bookings/month
- ✦ Everything in Free
- ✦ Full online booking system
- ✦ Availability calendar with date blocking
- ✦ Up to 3 profile photos
- ✦ Full menu with prices
- ✦ In-app customer messaging
- ✦ Customer reviews & ratings
- ✦ Basic analytics (6 months)
- ✦ Service area map & dietary tags
- ✦ Social media links
- ✦ Email notifications for bookings
Best for: solo operators, part-time trucks, weekend market vendors.
Pro
$24.99/mo4% commission · Unlimited bookings
- ✦ Everything in Plus
- ✦ Priority search placement + Featured badge
- ✦ Up to 30 photos + video
- ✦ Advanced analytics (12 months + demographics)
- ✦ Custom booking form questions
- ✦ Automated email templates
- ✦ Multiple staff accounts
- ✦ Quote calculator + deposit customisation
- ✦ Buffer time between bookings
- ✦ Recurring blocked days
- ✦ Catering orders
- ✦ Priority support (4–8hr response)
Best for: full-time operators, event-focused businesses, high-volume trucks.
Commission is calculated on the deposit amount only (25% of the total booking), and deducted from that deposit payout — not on the full booking value. A separate $4.99 booking fee is charged to customers on each booking and goes entirely to the platform.
Start on Plus to unlock online bookings, then upgrade to Pro when you need unlimited volume, advanced analytics, or team access. You can upgrade at any time from Dashboard → Subscription.
Set up payouts
To receive deposit payments from customers you need to connect a Stripe account. This is required for all Plus and Pro operators. Without it, customers can request bookings but cannot pay deposits, which will stall your pipeline.
Set up payoutsHow it works
- 1A customer submits a booking request.
- 2You confirm the booking from your dashboard.
- 3The customer is prompted to pay a 25% deposit plus the $4.99 platform booking fee.
- 4The deposit (minus your plan's commission) is transferred to your Stripe account.
- 5Stripe pays out to your nominated bank account on their standard schedule.
- 6The remaining balance is settled directly with the customer — managed from the booking detail page.
Stripe onboarding not yet started. Click "Connect with Stripe" to begin.
Stripe needs more information. Click "Continue onboarding" to complete.
Your Stripe account is active. Deposits will be transferred automatically.
Do this before you start confirming bookings. If your Stripe account isn't connected when a customer tries to pay their deposit, the payment flow will fail.
Understand bookings
The bookings section is your day-to-day operations hub. Here's how to get the most out of it.
The booking pipeline
- New Request:Customer has submitted their event details. Review it and decide to confirm or discuss further.
- Awaiting Deposit:You've confirmed the booking. The customer has been prompted to pay the deposit. Awaiting their payment.
- Confirmed:Deposit received. Event is locked in. Use the messaging thread to discuss final details.
- Completed:Event has happened. Send the final payment request from the booking detail page. Customer will be prompted to leave a review.
Bookings tabs
The bookings page has five tabs: All, New requests, Confirmed, Completed, and Cancelled. The All tab shows your active pipeline (new + confirmed) by default. Check New requests regularly — unanswered requests can lead to customers booking elsewhere.
Calendar view Plus
Go to Dashboard → Calendar for a visual monthly view of all your bookings and manual events. Click any day in month view to drill into that day's detail. Pro operators can also switch to week and day views.
Blocking unavailable dates Plus
In the Bookings section (or the Availability page), you can mark specific dates as unavailable so customers cannot request those days. This is useful for holidays, other commitments, or days you simply don't want to work.
Pro operators can also set a buffer time between bookings (e.g. 60 minutes to allow travel/setup) and define recurring blocked days (e.g. always closed on Mondays).
Manual events
Manual events let you log things that aren't platform bookings — a regular market pitch, a private catering job taken off-platform, or anything else that occupies your time. Manual events appear on your calendar, block those dates from new requests, and show up in your recent activity feed.
Automated emails & templates Pro
The platform automatically emails customers when booking status changes (confirmed, cancelled, completed). Pro operators can personalise these emails under Dashboard → Email Templates — add a custom signature, personalise the confirmation message, and customise the review request.
Deposits and final payments
The platform handles two payments per booking:
- Deposit (25%) — paid by the customer after you confirm. Processed via Stripe. Transferred to your Stripe account minus commission.
- Final payment — after the event, use the "Send Final Payment" button on the booking detail page to send the customer a payment link for the remaining balance.
If a customer prefers a traditional invoice, you can discuss this via the in-app messaging thread and handle it outside the platform. The platform's deposit system covers the upfront commitment — the final balance process is flexible.
Recommended booking workflow
- 1Check New Requests daily. Don't leave enquiries sitting.
- 2Message the customer if you need more detail before confirming.
- 3Confirm the booking once you're happy. Customer gets a deposit request.
- 4Wait for deposit — booking becomes Confirmed once paid.
- 5Stay in contact via the messaging thread leading up to the event.
- 6On the day — do your thing.
- 7After the event — mark as Completed and send the final payment request.
Dashboard & analytics
Your dashboard overview and analytics section give you visibility into how your business is performing on the platform.
Dashboard overview
The main dashboard gives you a live snapshot of your business. At the top you'll see your key metrics at a glance:
Total Bookings
All active bookings
New Requests
Awaiting your response
Confirmed
Locked in with deposit
Completed Revenue
NZD from completed events
Event Pipeline
Estimated value in progress
Profile Views Pro
All-time views (Pro only)
Below the cards you'll find a Recent Activity feed showing your latest bookings and manual events, and a Stripe Connect prompt if you haven't yet set up payouts.
Analytics Plus
Available from Plus tier. Go to Dashboard → Analytics for deeper business insights.
Plus — last 6 months
Total bookings · Completed revenue · Average booking value · Completion rate · Monthly revenue chart · Monthly booking count chart
Pro — last 12 months Pro
Everything in Plus, plus: profile views · star rating · conversion rate · peak season insight · customer demographics (avg guests, avg duration, unique customers, repeat rate) · event type breakdown · popular event days · guest count distribution · CSV export
Fleet & live map
Fleet management Plus
FleetIf you operate more than one physical vehicle under the same brand, Fleet lets you manage them as separate "rigs". Your listing stays as a single brand — customers book your truck, not a specific van — but each active rig can take its own booking on the same day.
- Add vehicles under Dashboard → Fleet
- Each vehicle can be named, activated, or deactivated independently
- When all active rigs have confirmed bookings on a date, that date becomes unavailable to new requests
- After confirming a booking, assign it to a specific rig from the booking detail page
- First vehicle is included. Additional vehicles are billed at $9.99 NZD/month each
Fleet currently manages vehicles under a single brand/listing. If you operate multiple distinct brands, you would create separate truck registrations for each.
Live map — Who's Cooking Right Now
Live mapThis is a free discoverability feature available to all tiers. When you're open at a market, festival, or pop-up location, you can appear on the public "Who's Cooking Right Now" map on the South Island Food Trucks homepage.
- Tap Go Live (header button or Live Map page) to set your current location
- Use the GPS button or click the map to drop your pin
- Set a duration (30 minutes to 8 hours) — you auto-disappear when it expires
- Add an optional note (e.g. "Open until sold out")
- This is not continuous tracking — you choose exactly when you appear
Upload a truck logo on the Live Map page — it appears as your marker on the public map and makes your listing much more recognisable.
Team setup
Team members Pro
Pro plan only
Pro operators can invite staff members to access the dashboard. Team members can manage bookings, update the profile, handle manual events, and manage photos — without having full owner-level access.
Owner
Full access — profile, bookings, billing, team management, subscription, payouts. Only the owner can invite or remove team members.
Staff
Access to bookings, profile editing, events, and photos. Cannot manage billing, subscriptions, or team members.
How to invite someone:
- 1. The person must first create an operator account at South Island Food Trucks.
- 2. Go to Dashboard → Team and enter their email address.
- 3. They receive an invite email and accept via the link.
- 4. Once accepted, they appear as an active team member.
If the person you're inviting doesn't have an account yet, they can sign up at the join link in the invite email. They'll be guided through creating an operator account and accepting the invite in one flow.
The booking flow — big picture
Here's the end-to-end view of how a booking works on the platform, from the customer's first search to your payout.
Customer finds your truck
They search on /trucks by location, cuisine, date, or guest count. Your profile appears. They read your description, review your menu options, and decide to enquire.
Customer submits a booking request
They fill in a 4-step form: contact details → event details (date, location, guests) → specifics (menu selection, dietary requirements, any custom questions you've set) → review. They submit — no payment yet.
You get notified
A notification email goes to your contact email (if set). The booking appears in Dashboard → Bookings under New Requests.
You review and respond
Open the booking. Review the details. Message the customer if you need clarification. When you're ready, change the status to Confirmed.
Customer pays the deposit
On confirmation, the customer is prompted to pay 25% of the estimated total plus a $4.99 booking fee. Once paid, the booking becomes Confirmed and the date is locked in.
Day of event
Show up and do your thing. Communicate any final logistics via the booking's message thread.
Mark as completed & request final payment
After the event, mark the booking as Completed from the booking detail page. Send a final payment request for the remaining balance. The customer also receives a prompt to leave a review.
Payouts
The deposit (minus commission) was already transferred to your Stripe account when the customer paid. Final payment proceeds flow to you via the same Stripe account.
Getting ready to go live
Work through this checklist before you announce your listing. Tick off each item to make sure you're fully ready to take bookings.
Essential — complete these first
- Truck registered and approved by the South Island Food Trucks team
- Profile completed — description, cuisine types, base location, contact email
- At least one photo uploaded — your cover image is the first thing customers see
- Menu set up with at least one well-described per-person option and a price
- Subscription upgraded to Plus or Pro to enable online bookings
- Stripe payouts connected at Dashboard → Payouts so you can receive deposits
Recommended — do these for a strong start
- Set your service areas (cities and regions you travel to) Plus
- Add dietary tags so you appear in filtered searches Plus
- Configure your travel fee settings if you charge for travel
- Set your booking fee and extra hour rate in Profile → Fees
- Block any dates you know you're unavailable in Bookings → Availability
- Upload your truck logo on the Live Map page for map visibility
- Add social media links to your profile Plus
- Test the booking flow as a customer by viewing your public listing at /trucks
Pro operators — additional setup Pro
- Customise your email templates at Dashboard → Email Templates
- Add any custom booking questions at Dashboard → Booking Form
- Set your buffer time between bookings and recurring blocked days in Profile
- Invite team members if you have staff who will manage bookings
- Add your fleet vehicles at Dashboard → Fleet if you run multiple rigs
- Enable catering orders in Profile if you offer off-site catering
You're ready to go! 🎉
Head to your dashboard to check your booking inbox, complete any outstanding steps, or view your public listing.