TruckTracker

Why?

• disconnect between people and real-time truck locations
• no universal way to track all of bloomington's 18 trucks together
• manual location updates not always reliable
• not all clientele has twitter, facebook, etc.

What?

• an application that tracks the location of trucks in real-time
• shows all trucks on a universal map
• notifies users of hours open & truck status

Who?

• all 18 of btown's trucks (and any future trucks!): all thai'd up, barisgo coffee, big cheeze, gerrick's bbq, gimmie sum moe, great white smoke bbq, gypsy moon, juancho's munchies, la poblana, the lochwood kitchen, naughty dog, nowhere mandrews, rasta pops, rush hour station, the gravy train, the gyro truck, thunder hog bbq, uel zing, zeitgeist creamery

How?

• gps trackers on each truck
• data sent from device to app, allowing for live tracking
• truck icon displayed in location on map of bloomington--color indicating status
• go to truck --> eat food --> be happy
• : )

implementation

• agreement worked out between food trucks/developer re: gps/data costs
• team of developers build app & website
• gps trackers installed
• soft launch of app (bugs)
• full launch w/ promotion

pros

• no small-town truck locater
• agreement worked out w/ developer to bring down costs for food trucks
• patrons can see ALL trucks that are active, as opposed to checking multiple twitter feeds/facebook
• serendipitous
• drive up sales of trucks/discoverability
• automatic updates-- no more forgetting to update twitter

Concerns

• big brother
• cost- hardware, monthly data service
• similar applications exist--but not small scale
• food truck fridays