How to choose a POS for a food truck

A food truck needs a POS that keeps taking cards when the signal drops, runs a full shift on battery, gets online without building Wi-Fi, and fits on a narrow counter. Square, Clover, Toast and Shift4 Dine all sell setups that can work on a truck. They differ most in how long offline payments can wait, which devices carry their own cellular, and which prices they print.

No spec sheet tells you how a system copes with a festival lunch rush on one bar of signal. Use the needs table to narrow the list, compare the options, price a month, then run the test at the end on your own truck.

What does a food truck need from a POS?

Need	Why it matters on a truck	How to test it
Offline card payments	Parks, lots and festivals lose signal when crowds arrive	Turn off data, take a card, reconnect, and check it cleared
Its own connection	There is no building Wi-Fi at most stops	Run a mock service on cellular or your phone's hotspot only
Battery for a whole shift	You may not have a free outlet at the window	Start at full charge and take orders for your longest shift
Small devices	The service window has room for one screen and a cash drawer at most	Set the devices in your window and serve a practice line
Low cost per payment	Small tickets make the fixed fee per card a large share of what you pay	Price one month with your real ticket count, as below
Menu changes from a phone	Menus change by stop and items sell out	Mark an item sold out from your phone between two orders

Which POS options fit a food truck?

These details come from each vendor's own US pages. Card rates are for a card tapped, dipped or swiped.

POS	Small devices and printed prices	Connection	Offline cards, as published	Start here if
Square	Square: Free plan $0/mo. at 2.6% + 15¢; Reader $59; Terminal with printer $299; Handheld $399	The Reader connects through Wi-Fi, a hotspot or cellular data; the Handheld needs a Wi-Fi network	Up to 24 hours from the first offline payment, then declined	You want to start with no monthly fee and a phone you already own
Clover	Clover: Go reader $199 at 2.6% + 10¢, or $199 + $29.95/mo at 2.5% + 10¢; Flex $749; quick-service bundles from $135/mo for 36 months	Go works over Wi-Fi or cellular; Flex lists Wi-Fi and LTE	Up to 7 days, on by default for Mini and Flex, with limits you set	You want a handheld with its own LTE and a printer built in
Toast	Toast: Starter Kit from $0/month; card rate and device prices by quote	Toast Go 3 has 4G on applicable models; Toast Router has cellular backup with a monthly cellular plan	Offline mode keeps taking cards; Toast warns some authorizations expire in as little as 24 hours	You want Toast's handheld and will sign a term agreement
Shift4 Dine (formerly SkyTab)	Shift4 Dine: Handheld $29.99 per device per month; system and card rate by quote	Every Handheld includes cellular and uses Wi-Fi when available	On by default, with a cap per payment you can set	Your restaurant already runs on Shift4 Dine and the truck should match

Sources: Square's pricing page and Reader page; Clover's Go pricing, Flex page and food truck page; Toast's Toast Go 3 page and hardware page; Shift4's Handheld FAQs.

How long can offline card payments wait?

This is the biggest gap between the four. Square's hardware pages say offline payments are declined if the device does not reconnect within 24 hours of the first offline payment, and the seller carries the risk of any declined or disputed payment.

Clover's offline payments article allows up to 7 days. You can cap each offline payment and the total per device, and you accept the risk of a decline once back online.

Toast's offline mode guide makes you responsible for declined, expired or disputed offline payments. It warns that the card networks can expire an authorization in as little as 24 hours, and suggests a cellular backup. Shift4's offline setup article says offline mode comes on by default with an optional per-payment limit.

On a truck, set a per-payment limit, and get back online before you leave each stop.

How do the devices get online and stay charged?

• Square: the Reader needs an internet connection through Wi-Fi, a hotspot or cellular data, and its battery "lasts all day." The Square Handheld needs a Wi-Fi network and has a battery designed to last all day.
• Clover: Flex lists at least 8 hours of use for a typical small business. The Go reader lists about 160 dips, 160 swipes or 130 contactless payments per charge.
• Toast: the Toast Go 3 lists a 24+ hour battery, an IP65 rating and a 5-foot drop rating. Toast's network requirements say a Toast Flex terminal needs a wired Ethernet connection, so plan a router in the truck.
• Shift4 Dine: the Handheld specifications list all-day battery, IP54, and a working range of 14°F to 122°F. The FAQs say the Handheld is designed to work with an existing Shift4 Dine system.

What would a month of card fees cost? A worked example

The truck here is made up. It takes $20,000 a month in card sales across 1,600 payments, an average of $12.50. The table uses only rates the vendors print, so Toast and Shift4 Dine are left out. It excludes hardware, tax, cash and add-ons.

Setup	Monthly fee	Card fees	Monthly total
Square Free, 2.6% + 15¢	Square Free fee: $0	Square fees: $520 + $240 = $760	Square Free total: $760.00
Clover Go Starter, 2.6% + 10¢	Go Starter fee: $0	Go Starter fees: $520 + $160 = $680	Go Starter total: $680.00
Clover Go Essentials, 2.5% + 10¢	Go Essentials fee: $29.95	Go Essentials fees: $500 + $160 = $660	Go Essentials total: $689.95
Clover quick-service Starter bundle, 2.3% + 10¢	Bundle fee: $135 for 36 months, hardware included	Bundle fees: $460 + $160 = $620	Bundle total: $755.00

With small tickets, the fixed fee per payment is a large share of the bill: Square's 15¢ adds $240 of the $760. Clover's Go pricing page also marks item and order tools as not included on Go Starter, so check how you would ring items on that plan. If your average ticket were $25 across 800 payments, Square's fixed fees would fall to $120.

How should you test a truck POS before you buy?

1. Load your ten best sellers with their modifiers.
2. Park where you usually serve. Take a tapped card, a dipped card and a phone wallet on cellular only.
3. Turn off data. Take three card payments, one above your planned offline limit. Reconnect and check each one.
4. Serve from full battery for your longest shift and note the charge left.
5. Mark an item sold out from your phone and check it drops off any online menu.
6. Print a receipt and a kitchen ticket, or send a text receipt, whichever your window needs.
7. Pull the day's report and find every card fee.

For a wider look at restaurant systems, see our POS buying guide and Toast vs Square. If you take call-ahead orders, Maple's integrations page lists the POS systems its phone ordering writes into, including Toast, Square, Clover and SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine).

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines Square, Clover, Toast and Shift4 product, pricing and help pages with an original needs table, a worked fee example using made-up sales, and a test plan. It does not report hands-on testing of any POS or name a best system.