How pickup orders work

This is the orientation article for pickup orders on Trucked Up. It walks through what happens from the moment a customer places an order to the moment they walk away with food, and where you fit in at every step.

If you've never taken a Trucked Up order before, read this first. If you're looking for the specific actions to take on an order, see Accepting and completing a pickup order.

The big picture

Customer adds items → Customer pays → ORDER LANDS IN YOUR QUEUE
   ↓
You accept (set prep time) → You mark Ready → Customer picks up → You mark Complete

Every step has a clear owner. The customer drives the first half (browse, cart, checkout). You drive the second half (accept, prep, hand off). Trucked Up handles the connective tissue (notifications, payments, refunds).

Step by step, with example

Let's follow a real-feeling order — Sarah ordering a chicken burrito at 12:34 PM.

1. Customer places the order (~30 seconds)

Sarah finds your truck on Trucked Up (web or iOS app), taps your menu, adds a chicken burrito, and checks out with Apple Pay. The order is paid up front — no "pay at pickup."

2. Order hits your queue (instant)

The order shows up in your Order queue at truckedup.food/owner/orders (or My Truck → Orders in the iOS app), in the Submitted tab, marked with a short ID like #A4F2.

You also get a notification:

• iOS app: a push notification titled "New order".
• Web: a browser notification (if you've allowed them — see below).

3. You accept and set a prep time (~10 seconds)

You open the order, see Sarah ordered one chicken burrito ($12), and tap Start (enter ETA). You pick 15 min from the preset chips. The order moves to In Progress.

Sarah's app updates: she now sees "Ready in ~15 min" and the timer ticks down.

4. You make the food (your part)

This part is on you and your kitchen. The platform doesn't track prep — just the bookend timestamps.

5. You mark the order Ready (~2 seconds)

Burrito wrapped, you tap Mark Ready in the queue. The order moves to the Ready tab.

Sarah's app pings her: "Your order is ready for pickup at [Truck name]."

6. Sarah arrives, hands you her phone or order ID

You verify the short ID (#A4F2) on her screen against the order in your queue. (Most owners just call the name — short IDs are a backup.)

7. You mark the order Complete (~2 seconds)

You tap Mark Complete in the queue. The order moves out of Active and into History.

That's the whole loop — call it under 30 seconds of taps from your side, plus the actual cooking.

Where you see orders

Web

• URL: truckedup.food/owner/orders

• Reachable from your Owner Dashboard under Order queue.

• Tabs across the top: All active, Submitted, In progress, Ready, History (and Out for delivery if you accept delivery — covered in the Orders — Delivery section).

iOS

• My Truck → Orders.
• iPad: a 3-column Kanban view (Submitted | In Progress | Ready). Drag-style flow makes it natural to track multiple orders at once.
• iPhone: the same tabbed list as web, sized for the smaller screen.

Notifications

You won't catch every order if you don't have notifications working. Set them up before your first shift.

iOS (recommended)

The app sends a push notification for every new order. The first time you sign in, iOS will ask if you want to allow notifications — tap Allow. If you missed that prompt: open iPhone Settings → Trucked Up → Notifications and turn everything on.

Web

When you visit /owner/orders for the first time, your browser asks if you want to allow notifications. Click Allow. From then on, every new order pops a small system notification (works on Mac, Windows, and Linux). The browser tab needs to be open for these to fire.

If you're using a laptop in your truck, always have the iOS app installed too — push to the iPhone is the most reliable channel.

Order states explained

State	What it means	Who can change it
Submitted	Customer paid; waiting for you to accept	Owner (Accept)
In progress	You've accepted; you're cooking	Owner (Mark Ready)
Ready	Food is ready; customer has been notified	Owner (Mark Complete)
Complete	Customer picked it up	— (final)
Cancelled	Order was cancelled (by you, the customer, or us)	— (final, refund issued)

There are no automatic state changes once an order is in your queue. You drive the order forward at every step. The only exception is the very initial "paid → submitted" hop, which our payment system handles before the order shows up in your queue.

Common questions

What if I miss an order — do I get a reminder? The iOS push notification is the primary reminder. There's no escalation today (we don't auto-cancel or re-notify). If you accept late, just enter a longer ETA when you accept and the customer's countdown updates.

Can a customer cancel after they place the order? Yes, until you mark it as Ready (or until a short window after they place it, depending on state). Cancelled orders are auto-refunded. You'll see the order disappear from your queue.

What if a customer never shows up to pick up? Today, that's a judgment call. Most owners wait 15-20 minutes past the ready time, then Cancel (refund) with a reason like "Customer no-show". If this becomes common, email us — we may add a no-show convenience flow.

Are tips part of the order total? Yes — customers can add a tip at checkout. The full amount (subtotal + tip) is shown on the order detail. Tips are paid out to you with the rest.

How do I see today's totals? The History tab shows past orders. We don't have a dashboard for daily/weekly totals yet — for now, scroll the History tab. Aggregate reporting is on the roadmap.

Still stuck?

Email info@truckedup.food.