As a food truck business owner, you want to maximize your profits and make sure that every transaction is tracked accurately. To do this, you need the perfect food truck POS system.
There are many options available in the market today, but two of the best ones are Valor Paytech VL110 and Clover Flex. With their features such as smart tipping, bill splitting, paperless receipts and contactless payments, these systems can help you manage your business efficiently while providing customers with an excellent experience.
In this article we will explore both of these food truck POS systems in detail to help you decide which one is right for your needs.
1. Food Truck POS Systems and Why they Matter
Food trucks have to keep up with the modern world, and POS systems for food are essential. By using one of these food truck POS systems, food truck owners can easily keep track of transactions and better manage their business.
It also provides customers with a secure, convenient way to pay for their orders at food trucks.
Efficient ordering and payment processing
With a food truck POS system, food truck owners can take orders and process payments quickly and efficiently, reducing wait times for customers and increasing their satisfaction.
Inventory management
Some food truck POS systems can help food truck owners keep track of inventory levels, ensuring that they have enough ingredients on hand to meet demand and avoid running out of popular items.
Sales tracking and reporting
There are also some food truck POS systems that can provide food truck owners with detailed sales reports, allowing them to track their revenue and identify popular items and trends.
Menu customization
POS systems for food trucks can allow food truck owners to easily update their menus and pricing, enabling them to adapt to changing customer preferences and market conditions.
Mobility
Food truck pos systems are often mobile and can be used anywhere the truck goes, making it easy for owners to take orders and process payments even in remote or off-site locations.
Data security
A food truck POS system can provide enhanced security features, such as encryption and secure payment processing, to protect customer data and prevent fraud.
Integration with other systems
A POS system for food trucks can be integrated with other business systems, such as accounting software or email marketing tools, to streamline operations and improve efficiency.
2. Clover Flex
The Clover Flex is a point-of-sale system that is fully integrated and space-saving and is perfect for food trucks. It helps merchants in accepting various forms of payment, tracking inventory, managing staff, providing customer rewards, and more. The best part is that it takes up the same amount of space as a traditional credit card machine.
Inventory Management
With Clover’s Point-of-Sale (POS) system, owners of food trucks can have an all-in-one inventory management system that’s going to make their lives way easier. The Clover Flex enables food truck owners to track stock levels, manage inventory and purchase orders, and it’s got an automated reordering system.
How smart is that? You won’t have to keep one eye on your stock levels and the other on the line of customers anymore. Plus, real-time inventory tracking is included to ensure food truck owners are keeping tabs on their inventory levels and sales data. That way, you can have the right amount of ingredients to feed the masses–no more, no less.
With the reports provided by Clover POS, food truck owners can easily see which items are popular and get low stock alerts with suggested reorder quantities.
With Clover POS managing inventory, food waste goes down, your efficiency gets a boost, and you can save time and money.
Real Time Sales Info
With Clover’s analytics tools, you can get real-time insights into your sales trends and data—all in one powerful platform. You’ll be able to keep a close eye on key metrics like revenue and performance, so you can make data-driven decisions that will take your business to the next level.
REVENUE AT A GLANCE
With Clover Flex, you can easily track your revenue, top-selling items, refund/discount volume, and open orders. You’ll have all the information you need to make informed decisions about your food truck business and keep your profits on the rise!
SALES ACROSS LOCATIONS
Easily view sales data from all your locations—whether it’s online or on-site. This is an invaluable tool if you’re operating multiple food trucks.
With this feature, you can get a comprehensive overview of your business’s performance and make informed decisions to drive growth.
ANYWHERE ANYTIME ACCESS
See sales as they come in, wherever you are. Just pull up your dashboard on your mobile phone or laptop.
Loyalty Programs
Your loyal fans are the heart of your business—they keep it running smoothly. And with Clover Rewards, you can create a custom loyalty program that gives your customers three different ways to earn special perks.
Setting it up is a breeze, and the best part? You’ll get a higher return on your investment.
MORE SPENDING
Did you know that customers who participate in loyalty programs spend 60% more per transaction, purchase 90% more frequently, and are 5 times more likely to choose that brand in the future? It’s true—offering a loyalty program can significantly boost customer engagement and loyalty to your food truck business.
EASY AND FUN
With the Clover mobile app, your customers can easily keep track of their loyalty points—and you’ll know when they’re on-site. This feature makes it simple for you to greet your customers and offer them a personalized experience.
So, whether they’re regulars or new to your food truck, you can make them feel valued and appreciated.
PLUG AND PLAY
Easily create and manage a fantastic customer loyalty program – directly from your POS system. With Clover’s user-friendly interface, launching a reward add-ons system has never been easier!
It’s worth noting that loyalty programs can also be implemented with the VL110 when you process with National Payment Processing. The primary difference is that with Clover you’re setting up the loyalty program through Clover, but with the VL110 NPP sets all that up for you.
App Market
The Clover POS app marketplace has got you covered when it comes to running your food truck business smoothly. With a variety of apps and integrations to choose from, you can easily optimize your operations from accounting and inventory management to marketing and customer relationship management to loyalty programs.
Plus, you can be sure you’re using the latest technologies, as the apps are developed by Clover and third-party developers. The marketplace is easy to navigate, with categories that suit different business needs.
It’s as simple as selecting the app that meets your requirements and integrating it with your Clover system.
Contactless Payments
Paying is a breeze with Flex! Customers can pay with a swipe, dip, or tap using credit or debit cards. Plus, the Flex also supports contactless payments like Apple Pay®, Google Pay™, and PayPal/Venmo®.
3. Valor Paytech VL110
The Valor Paytech VL110 is the ultimate food truck POS system for food truck owners that are looking to keep costs low. With its handheld POS, GPRS/4G and Wi-Fi connectivity, large touchscreen display, signature capture, and pay at the table capabilities, the VL110 simplifies payment processing while improving customer satisfaction.
Plus, with its advanced security features, all transactions are safe and secure.
Cash Discount
When it comes to accepting credit card payments, there are fees involved. And let’s be honest, no business owner wants to lose their hard-earned cash to a transaction fee. Luckily, there’s an option to offset the cost of these fees called a cash discount.
Basically, a cash discount is a pricing structure where customers who pay with a credit card pay the listed price, while customers who pay with cash pay receive a discount on the transaction.
This is better than a surcharge program, because there is no transaction fee charged to the customer.
To start a cash discount program, the first step is raising the price on all items by 4%. Some businesses don’t like the idea of charging their customers to pay for credit card processing costs. But the costs of running a business all factor into the amount you charge for your goods.
For example: rent, food costs, employee salary, hardware costs, and many more costs are all factored into the cost of your offerings. Why shouldn’t credit card processing be considered as well?
However, unlike other costs, you are able to give your customers a way to get a better deal, by paying in cash.
Technically, the Clover Flex has a cash discount option as well. Unfortunately, using the Clover cash discount app will run you monthly software subscription fee of $19.99 per month.
On the other hand, there is no software fee for using cash discount with the VL110.
Smart Tipping
With Valor PayTech, you can give your customers more flexibility in tipping by providing on-screen tip suggestions. You get to choose and customize the 4 different tipping options through the Valor Merchant Portal, making it easy to offer the perfect range of tip amounts for your business.
But that’s not all—smart tipping is also available on paper receipts, ensuring that your customers have an easy and streamlined tipping experience no matter how they choose to pay.
With this feature, customers can simply select the pre-set tip amount, write in a custom tip, or opt-out of tipping altogether.
Bill Splitting
When it comes to paying the bill, sometimes it’s just easier to split it up amongst friends or colleagues. That’s where Valor PayTech comes in. Valor PayTech makes it easy to handle bill splitting, whether you’re in a restaurant or any other environment where splitting the bill is a common occurrence. With Valor PayTech, your customers can split the bill up to 5 ways, ensuring that everyone can pay their fair share.
Using the VL110, your server can simply enter the total number of customers splitting the bill and then hand over the terminal, so that each individual can process their own transaction. This feature takes the hassle out of splitting the bill, ensuring that everyone can pay for their portion without any confusion.
Paperless Receipts
With the VL110, your customers have the flexibility to choose how they receive their receipts after completing a transaction. Whether they prefer an SMS text receipt, email receipt, or paper receipt, they can select the option that works best for them.
This feature not only provides convenience to your customers, but it also creates a significant reduction in paper costs for you as a merchant. By offering digital receipts, you can save money on paper, ink, and other related expenses.
Moreover, all sales receipts, including the customer’s signature, are stored digitally in your Valor Merchant portal. This is a fantastic feature for fighting chargebacks, as you can easily access digital copies of all receipts in case of a dispute.
Full Transaction Information Display
Many payment terminals available in the market today have limited space on their display screens. As a result, it can be difficult to show all the necessary transaction information, such as the total sale, tip, Non-Cash Charge, and tax lines.
Some companies use the tax line to display the Non-Cash Charge, which can be confusing for customers who are unsure of what the tax fees are on their transactions. However, with the VL110 you won’t face this problem. This terminal is designed to show all the transactional information clearly and accurately, without any confusion.
Moreover, this terminal has the ability to display additional customized information, ensuring that your customers have access to all the relevant information they need. By this customer facing display providing a clear and concise overview of each transaction you can improve transparency and build trust with customers.
Auto-Connection Failback
We understand that having a reliable connection is crucial for ensuring smooth payment processing. That’s why our the VL110 is designed to automatically switch between different types of connections, such as dial-up/ethernet, Wi-Fi, 4G, or dial-up, as a failback procedure in case of connection failure.
This feature ensures that you never have to worry about losing connection during a transaction. When you’re using the VL110, you can be confident that your terminal will seamlessly transition between different types of connections to ensure a reliable and secure payment experience.
Contactless Payments
Accepting contactless payments is a smart way to keep everyone safe, including merchants, employees, and customers. With contactless payments, merchants and their employees can process and accept payments, without physically handling the customer’s card, reducing the risk of germs spreading.
The VL110 terminal is equipped with a contactless payment option that can accept eWallet payments, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, and Android Pay, making it easy for customers to pay without touching anything.
4. A Comparison
As you can see, the Clover Flex and Valor Paytech VL110 are both feature-rich options for processing transactions at your food truck. Which one is better? The real question is: Which is the better option for you?
Common Points
The Clover Flex and Valor PayTech VL110 are both modern payment terminals that offer a range of features to merchants. Some of the features they have in common include:
HANDHELD POS CAPABILITY
Both devices offer a handheld POS option, allowing merchants to process payments at the customer’s table.
LARGE TOUCHSCREEN DISPLAY
Both devices have large, easy-to-navigate touch screen displays that make payment processing simple and efficient.
WI-FI AND CELLULAR CONNECTIVITY
Both devices can connect to the internet via Wi-Fi and cellular networks, ensuring a fast and reliable internet connection throughout.
CONTACTLESS PAYMENT ACCEPTANCE
Both devices can accept contactless payments, including eWallet payments such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay.
TIP AND BILL SPLITTING OPTIONS
Both devices allow for on-screen tip suggestions and bill splitting options, making it easy for customers to customize their payment experience.
Key Differences
The Clover Flex and Valor Paytech VL110 are both amazing hardware options for food trucks. Which one is right for your food truck really depends on your priorities as a business owner.
One key difference between these two options is that the Clover Flex is essentially an interactive POS system like what you would see in a restaurant.
The Clover Flex is a more expensive terminal and has some features that the VL110 doesn’t have. However, if you aren’t worried about features like inventory management, employee timecards and then the VL110 might be the option for you.
One special feature the VL110 possesses is the cash discount feature outlined above. This feature makes the VL110 an unbeatable option for food trucks that want to avoid heavily investing in POS systems, and want to keep operating costs low.
5. The Verdict
Both POS systems offer features such as handheld POS capability, large touchscreen displays, Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity, contactless payment acceptance, tip and bill splitting options.
However, the main difference is that the Clover Flex is a more interactive POS system that offers advanced features, like inventory and employee management, while the VL110 is a slightly more straightforward mobile credit card terminal with a cash discount feature which allows food trucks to offset the cost of accepting credit cards.
The Clover Flex will offer some attractive software options in the robust Clover App Market. The only drawback is that you’ll have to be ready to pay for those many of those apps. Software fees with Clover can add up quickly. The VL110, on the other hand, doesn’t have any software fees.
If you want a POS system that allows you to download apps and has more software options and price is no object, then the Clover Flex might be the best food truck POS option for you.
However, if you’re just looking for a food truck POS system that will work smoothly, looks good, and will help keep costs down, then the VL110 might be what you’re looking for.
Saving on Processing
If your primary concern is to avoid processing fees, then the VL110 is the terminal for you. Even though it isn’t an interactive POS system, it is still feature rich and attractive looking.
Not all food truck businesses need the added complication of the features available with a POS system like the Clover Flex. Many food trucks love the plug and play simplicity of the VL110, and of course the unique cash discount feature.
Features
Clover POS systems are some of the most coveted POS systems on the market for the food industry because of all the features laid out above. If you’re concerned about the cost of acquiring this POS system, then read on—you might be surprised.
6. How to Get Started With a Food Truck POS System
Finding the right food truck POS system can be a daunting task. But with an understanding of what features you need and what type of setup suits your business, it doesn’t have to be so overwhelming.
The Valor Paytech VL110 is perfect for those with multiple food trucks who want to avoid processing fees while still having access to key functions like contactless payments and bill splitting options.
For businesses that require more robust features such as inventory management or employee timecards, then the Clover Flex may be the more idea food truck POS system.
Ultimately, choosing between these two food truck POS systems will depend on budget constraints and feature requirements specific to each food truck owner’s individual needs. With this knowledge in hand, you are now ready to make an informed decision about which food truck POS system best fits your unique situation!
Whichever system you think is best for your food truck, you’re going to love getting equipment to use for free as long as your merchant account stays open. In many cases, this is even possible with the Clover Flex!
If you’re still not sure which food truck POS system is best for you, we’re happy to help you sort it out. Don’t forget that we can help you get processing equipment to use for free. An advantage to working with NPP is that you can tap into our decades of expertise to help you get the solution that’s best for your business.
For more about info about how to take payments, save on credit card processing and grow your business, just fill out the form below.
