SousShift AIfor Ice Cream Trucks
Ice cream trucks
Half the street never hears your music.
Now their phone rings. When your truck turns onto their block, every customer who joined gets an alert with an ice-cream-truck jingle, so the people inside with the TV on, the AC running or headphones in know you're outside.
How it works
4 simple steps
A QR sticker on your truck
We give you a printed QR sticker for the window by where you serve. Customers scan it while they wait in line.
They join in 10 seconds
No app store, no download. They type their name, tap "Allow location" one time so we know which street is theirs, and turn on alerts. Free points just for joining.
Your phone shares the truck's location
The driver taps "I'm on my route" on their phone. It shares where the truck is while you drive. Tap "Done for today" and it stops.
Close by? Their phone rings
When the truck gets close (you pick the distance, like ¼ mile), their phone plays the jingle: "Paletas El Sol is on your street, 3 min away." They walk out, pay, and you scan their code for points.
The sticker
What goes on your truck
One sticker by the service window, one on the side people see from the curb. Big enough to scan from a few feet away.
Sample sticker points to the demo truck. Yours gets your truck's name, colors and its own link. Print on outdoor vinyl, at least 4 × 5 in.
What the customer sees
Their phone rings like a call
What they get
- An alert with the ice cream truck jingle when you're close (our own original tune, no copyright problems).
- A live map: "Truck is 0.3 mi away, 4 min."
- Your menu and prices, in English and Spanish.
- Points every time they buy, and simple rewards.
- A switch to pause alerts or leave any time.
The numbers
What you make now vs. with the app
Move the sliders to match your truck. Every number here is an estimate, not a promise. Sources are listed below.
More settings (cards, repeat visits, routes)
| New sales from alertsMembers who didn't hear the music come out at the same rate as people who do. | |
| Repeat visits from pointsMembers buy more often to reach a reward. | |
| No-cash sales you win backPeople with no cash pay by card, Apple Pay, Venmo, Cash App or Zelle instead of walking away. | |
| Bigger sales by card / appPeople spend more when they aren't limited to the cash in their pocket. | |
| Time saved on routesSaved minutes turned into extra stops on streets with members. | |
| Cost of rewards you give awayIf every reward gets cashed in: about 43¢ per member visit (points, the alerts-on bonus and the 5-visit reward). | |
| Payment processing feesPaid by you to Square, Venmo or Cash App (about 4% blended on a $5 sale). See the fee table. | |
| Extra per month | |
| SousShift monthly price | |
| You keep each month |
Processing fees are included. Month one will be lower while people join.
Take every payment
Cash only? You're losing sales.
What each one costs you
| Way to pay | Fee | You keep on $5 |
|---|
The simple setup we recommend
Your route
How many homes do you drive past?
Rewards
Small rewards, big reasons to come out
No big game. Just points that add up fast and treats your customers actually want. You pick the rewards.
Straight talk
How it really works (the fine print, in plain words)
- iPhone: alerts only work after the customer adds the app to their Home Screen (Share → "Add to Home Screen"). That's Apple's rule for web apps. The join screen walks them through it. Android works right from the browser.
- Location is only with permission. The customer taps "Allow" once so we know which street to ring. They can type their street instead, and nobody's exact address is shown to anyone.
- They can turn it off any time: pause alerts, change the distance, or delete their account in one tap.
- We never sell their data. Your customer list is yours, and only used to let them know you're nearby.
- The driver's phone has to be on the route screen for the truck's location to update. Keep it charging on a dash mount.
- No spamming: one alert per truck visit, never late at night. Customers set their own quiet hours.
- The numbers above are estimates. Your street, weather and prices decide the real result.
Price
Simple price. No contract.
FAQ
Questions owners ask
Do my customers have to download an app?
No. They scan the QR and it opens in their phone's browser. On iPhone they add it to the Home Screen so alerts can come through. It looks and works like an app.
Does it work if I only take cash?
Yes. Alerts and points work with cash. You scan their code at the window to give points. We also set you up to take cards, Apple Pay, Venmo, Cash App and Zelle, because people with no cash on them walk away, and people spend more when they can pay with their phone.
What if my customers speak Spanish?
Everything is in English and Spanish, and each customer picks their language.
Will it drain the driver's phone battery?
Sharing location uses battery like a maps app does. Keep the phone plugged in on a dash mount while you drive.
Can I control who gets alerts and when?
Yes. You set the alert distance and the hours. Customers can only get one alert per visit, and they can pause it any time.
Is the jingle a real song?
It's our own original tune, made for this app, so there's no copyright trouble. If you have your own truck song you're licensed to use, we can use that instead.
What do I have to do every day?
Tap "I'm on my route" when you start and "Done" when you finish. Scan codes for points at the window. That's it.
Want this on your truck?
Send a message and Antidote will set up a free walkthrough with your truck's name on it.
Sources
Where the numbers come from
Real research where we found it. Anything without a source is labeled as our estimate.
- Ice cream trucks commonly gross $200–$400 a day in season, $500–$1,000+ on holiday weekends. Beancount, 2026
- A truck that went cashless-ready with Square sells 500–800 items a day on average (one business, not an industry average). Square
- Restaurant loyalty members made about 22% more visits a year than non-members (receipt data, correlation not proof). Circana via Nation's Restaurant News, 2025
- After Costco food courts started taking cards, debit tickets were 40% higher and AmEx 50% higher than cash tickets. Digital Transactions, 2015
- Vending customers spent 32% more paying by card than cash (study by a card-reader company). USA Technologies (Cantaloupe)
- Push alerts tied to a real moment get opened far more: 14.4% for contextual alerts vs 4.2% for generic ones; click rates run 0.5%–7.4% by industry. Batch · Pushwoosh, 2025
- On iPhone, web alerts work only for web apps added to the Home Screen (iOS 16.4+). WebKit (Apple)
- Square
- Venmo Help
- Cash App Help
- Fulton Bank · TD Bank
- Payments Dive, Aug 13, 2026 · Federal Reserve
- Pew Research Center, Sept 30, 2026
- © OpenStreetMap contributors
- Our estimates (no study found): % of homes that hear the music, % who join, minutes saved on routes, minutes per stop, share paying by card, % with no cash who walk away, the mix of payment apps.