A Food Truck Owner Built His Own Catering Orders in 2 Days to Avoid a 20% Marketplace Fee
A food truck owner used ChatGPT to build his own catering ordering on his website in 2 days, with pricing math, reminders and staff and admin views, so orders no longer have to go through a marketplace that takes 20% of each one.
Who this is about: Food truck with a catering business
What it takes
- Cost
- Free planChatGPT: Free plan. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month. Go, Pro, Business and Enterprise plans are listed on chatgpt.com/pricing.Price checked Oct 15, 2026 on help.openai.com. Prices change; check before you buy.
- Setup time
- A few daysOur estimate from the source, for one business.
- Skill needed
- Developer skillsYou build or run your own code, even if AI writes it.
Explain it simply
A food truck was paying a catering website 20% of every order. The owner used ChatGPT to help him build his own order form on his website that works out prices, tax and delivery fees, and sends reminder emails. Now customers can order from him directly and he keeps that 20%.
What was done
The truck took catering only through ezCater, which takes 20% of each order. The owner used ChatGPT to build a catering inquiry form on his site that handles quantity pricing, sales tax, staff tip and delivery fee. The system emails customers a reminder the day before delivery and creates a draft thank-you email that asks for a review.
He also built an admin area with a calendar and order history, and a staff view where each order has one-tap buttons to call or text the customer and open the address in maps.
How it went
The system was built in 2 days, and catering now comes in from both his own website and ezCater. He copies ezCater orders into his database by hand, which he says takes about a minute each.
- He gives no revenue or savings figures, so the 20% fee is the only number that shows the stakes.
- It's one Reddit post, which our editors could check only through search results.
- A self-built order system needs testing and secure handling of customer data.
Prompt
"Build a catering order form for my food truck website. Customers choose menu
items and quantities; calculate subtotal, [X]% sales tax, an optional staff
tip and a delivery fee. Save each order to a database. Then build:
1) an admin page with a calendar of orders, order history and editing,
2) a read-only staff page with order details and one-tap call, text and open-in-maps buttons,
3) an automatic reminder email the day before delivery,
4) a draft thank-you email with a review link after each order.
Explain how to deploy it and how to back up the data."Our prompt from the features the post lists.
Business fit
Who this helps, and how:
Local service businesses: take bookings directly on your own website instead of paying a marketplace commission on every job.
Local & serviceRetail store owners: add a custom-order form with automatic tax, delivery and reminder emails.
Local & serviceIndependent contractors (barbers, bartenders, consultants): give event clients an inquiry form that prices the job and sends a reminder the day before.
Local & serviceStartup founders and e-commerce sellers: build a staff view with one-tap call, text and map buttons for each delivery.
Shopify & ecommerce
Related
- Evidence grade BFive Simple Agents Helped a Dallas Food Distributor Double Monthly RevenueStrong evidence, using ChatGPT, Apify and Apollo
- Evidence grade CA 70-Year-Old Manufacturer Cut RFQ Turnaround Nearly in Half With Claude CodeVendor or secondhand, using Claude Code
- Evidence grade DA Claude Agent Takes Instagram DM Orders for a 7-Location Sushi ChainLight evidence, using Claude, Meta API (Instagram DMs) and The restaurant's CRM
- How to use AI in salesDepartment hub: AI for sales, 34 examples
Similar tools
Other tools for this job, and how they differ. Chosen by our editors, never paid for.
- Lovable
Builds web apps from prompts, with hosting and a database included.
- Replit Agent
Builds and hosts apps from a description, another option for a custom order site.
- Square Online
Off-the-shelf online ordering and payments, for owners who don't want a custom build.
“Light evidence” (grade D) means: A brief, early or in-progress claim. Treat it as an idea to test, not proof. How we grade. Spotted a mistake? Suggest a correction.