Port Jefferson Man Developing Long Island Food Truck-Finding App

PORT JEFFERSON, NY — A Port Jefferson man is working on an app with eyes on connecting Long Island's food truck vendors with hungry residents. Evan Tousey, 31, founder of What The Truk, said his creation is in early beta testing.

The app will feature two versions: one for vendors and another for customers. It will display a map based on one's GPS coordinates and search for food trucks partnered with What The Truk in the area. Vendors will push a button to broadcast their location, and they can also use the app to update their menus. The information will be available in real time to clients who could then place orders through the app. Tousey said the screen is "very simple" to follow. He's aiming for the app to be fully launched within the next three to four months.

"I know that [the coronavirus outbreak] has been not easy, especially for customers right now, with limited dining options," Tousey told Patch. "We’re hoping our app will be helpful for individuals in finding food trucks and really building that community between the food truck and the customer."

Tousey, who worked in New York City before the pandemic hit, said he got the idea for What The Truk when he'd run outside his office in search of a coffee cart. He's seen a coffee cart on a certain corner at one point only for it to have moved when he'd want a cup or snack.

"I started to speak to other people in my office who had the same problem as me," he said. "They would want to get a quick cup of coffee or quick bacon, egg and cheese sandwich in-between meetings or on their way to the office in the morning, but didn’t necessarily have time to wait on line. Other than calling the cart owner directly, there were no options to view the menu or place an order. That was kind of the inspiration for What The Truk."

The wheels were in motion from there. Tousey began research by contacting the National Food Truck Association and reading a report done by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on the state of the food truck industry. His studies took him to Portland, Oregon, which he identified as the top-ranked city for food trucks and culinary street vendors. He got a feel for the city's street-food scene and spoke with vendors to get ideas on features and functions that would be useful to them in app-form.

"That kind of opened up my world," Tousey said. "I tasted some of the best food I’ve ever had in my entire life in Portland. It shed some light. What some people don’t really realize is that food trucks, especially on Long Island, used to have the reputation of being a roadside hot dog stand. Nowadays, you’re talking gourmet restaurants on wheels, in my opinion. In some cases, you probably have better food being served by a food truck than you would get in a brick and mortar restaurant."

That's why, along with Long Island, What The Truk will also service Portland. There are no plans for further expansion anytime soon, however.

"We want to keep it as local as possible, just because it goes with our mission of supporting small and local businesses," Tousey said. "If we expand too quickly and we grow too big, we can’t really build the partnerships that we feel are required to get an app like this to be successful."

He didn't slam the door on eventual expansion, teasing New York City and Austin, Texas, as potential additions to the app.

What The Truk will eventually be available for full download on Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play. For now, the app can be downloaded in its beta form only through a direct link available on the project's subscription list. The website will be updated shortly to allow users who find What The Truk to download it that way. The site features a sign-up button to receive an invite to the app's beta.

Suggestions are being fielded from those with access to the beta, and certain features are being added to the in-development app.

Tousey plans for What The Truk to be a full-time venture going forward. His goal is to keep the ordering free for both customers and vendors, saying he doesn't want to replicate the model of food delivery apps that "charge upwards of 30 percent" of a merchant's daily revenue.

"We know that, especially right now with the corona situation, a lot of small businesses have taken a huge hit economically," he said. "We want to be able to support small businesses, because a lot of the food truck owners are your neighbors or the individuals down the street. They’re community members."

Tousey said the goal is to be a business partner with food truck vendors without eating away at their revenue. At the same time, he hopes the app will serve as a platform that connects customers and food trucks with one another in a real-time manner that’s currently not being accomplished by Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For social media, customers have to follow specific food trucks that they know exist and keep tabs on their location.

In order to generate income, Tousey is considering a subscription package. A pricing model hasn't been developed yet, but a free version of the app will still be available to customers and vendors. Normally, someone would place an order through the app and a merchant would fulfill it.

Tousey plans to offer sophisticated artificial technology to those subscribed to What The Truk, he said. A user would be able to interact with the app through voice and not take the time to go into the app, he said.

Another potential feature is the order priority queue — the developers are working on a better name for it, Tousey said. Instead of orders coming in subsequently, one right after the other, the app would identify orders coming from users closer to the food truck vendor and prioritize them over those coming from people further away. That aspect would come down the line, though. For now, Tousey is looking to build up the community base on both the clients' and vendors' sides.

"Right now, we’re fleshing out different ideas that the community thinks would be useful and would be willing to pay for," he said.

Tousey is excited for the app's Long Island launch, as well as its Portland partnerships. Food trucks on Long Island joined with What The Truk currently range from Eisenhower Park to Montauk.