The Pizza combination bakery/delivery truck cruises the neighborhood, receiving orders via cellphone, baking and delivering continiously.

It has the advantage that as soon as the order is recieved the truck can start to the delivery location. By the time it arrives the pizza is ready.

Another big advantage is the rent on the store is free, and the truck can cruise neighborhoods that are not zoned anywhere near other stores or restaurants. It can follow the demand. When demand increases, add more trucks, when it decreases you can move a truck to a more promising neighborhood

You could also sell slices like an icecream truck when the business slows down like during the day.
-- macrumpton, May 24 2004

Efficient fast halogen oven http://www.geappliances.com/ advantium
This would be better than giant pizza ovens [macrumpton, Oct 17 2004]

(?) Baked, apparently http://www.superfas...store/HowWeDoIt.asp
[theircompetitor, Jun 03 2005]

Pizza_20deliverycooker seems redundant. [contracts, Jun 04 2005]

How long does the drive take and how long does the baking take? If you can get the two times to match this would be feasible. Trucks can also be rented for an evening to cater parties from the curbside.
-- kbecker, May 24 2004


Have a bun with pepperoni. :-9
-- MrCutieFinster, May 24 2004


Re the timing: In a 600° oven you can bake a pizza in 12 minutes or so. Less if you use parbaked crusts or some of the new sophisticated ovens that use light to cook all the way through.
-- macrumpton, May 24 2004


I just hope they don't play a jingle like an ice cream truck. Now if I could just get the pizza truck and the Snap-On truck to come at the same time...
-- MrCutieFinster, May 24 2004


I like this idea,but it would get really hot inside and would be a real energy guzzler. How about a hybrid truck so the ovens could be gas powered.

[kbecker] a pre made pizza only takes 10-15 minutes to melt cheese and brown the dough.
-- dentworth, May 25 2004


Add beer and you're onto a winner!
-- dobtabulous, May 25 2004


Brilliant [+]
I do say that I'd feel really bad for the cook. I've been a pizza chef . . . and I've burnt myself when the kitchen *wasn't* moving.
-- contracts, May 25 2004


Good 1
-- FarmerJohn, May 25 2004


Bun, bun, bun, bun like crazy (bread). Good call. +1
-- Letsbuildafort, May 25 2004


Too many negatives. It would be too hard to bake a quality pizza on the move. The truck would need an auxiliary generator, and it would probabl ybe in conflict with smog and noise laws in many places. Zoning and solicitation laws would also be a big problem. We can't even have ice cream vendors in my neighborhood. <sniff> ;(
-- bobad, May 25 2004


Hey, man - its halfbaked, and thats what we're all about.
-- Letsbuildafort, May 25 2004


I've seen a mobile 'restaurant' like this in NYC. They sell Mexican food and there's two|three guys in there cooking away. I don't know if you could cook on the move, but they just park in the same place each night and customers come by.
-- MrCutieFinster, May 25 2004


Re efficiency: The truck could use a heat exchanger to let the heat from the engine exhaust help heat the oven. Or you could have the truck powered by a stirling engine that runs off the waste heat from the ovens.

OR you could save power by using an advantium (halogen) oven which can cook a pizza in 6 minutes: http://www.geappliances.com/ advantium/faq/#faq5

In any case any additional costs are made up by the fact that you have No Rent! And the fact that the truck would be always moving would make getting a good kitchen airflow easy. And the chef would get a free ride to and from work!

Kitchen safety could be addressed by having the prep work (chopping mixing dough) done elsewhere or only while the truck is still.
-- macrumpton, May 25 2004


Great idea! Our local football* oval attracts about 3,000 spectators when there's a game on. One of your pizza trucks parked next to the beer stall would probably go ballistic. (+)

* Aussie rules.
-- cromagnon, May 25 2004


great idea +
-- po, May 25 2004


There would need to be a sun roof so the pizza chef could toss the dough into the air. Of course, this could only be done at stoplights so that the dough would come back into the truck again.
-- phundug, May 25 2004


Course with the Atkins craze you'll probably do better with the sausage delivery truck+
-- theircompetitor, May 25 2004


I worked for a pizza store back in '86 fresh out of high school that was called, simply enough, The Pizza Store. They had a small box truck with pizza advertisements on the side and a slogan that read "Stop Me and I'll Sell You A Pizza."

The back of the truck was converted into a warming oven. A big metal box was anchored into the back of the truck. Inside the box were four or five racks stacked vertically. At the bottom was a tray that held a huge sponge filled with water. Underneath the box was a warming unit with electronic ignition. The process would be to heat the water in the sponge, creating steam heat that kept the pizzas warm.

Under the right conditions, pizzas would stay "store fresh" for approximately and hour and a half. After that, the steam heat would take a toll on the boxes and the food inside.

When the truck left to make deliveries, we had to make sure two plain, two pepperoni, and two mushroom pizzas were in the back just in case we were stopped....and boy, were we ever. Amazing how many people would flag us down for a pizza. Some in cars, some neighbors of customers.

One time, I had the truck out on delivery and a cop pulled me over - flashing lights and all. When he came up to the window, instead of asking for my license and registration, he asked for a pepperoni pizza. :-)

A lot of times, a call would come in for a pizza while the truck was on the road. The shop would radio the truck and ask if the pizzas were still on board. If so, they would make the delivery immediately, sometimes in as little as five minutes to ten minutes.

Let me tell you...nothing was better for business like a fresh pizza delivered to your door in ten minutes. The tips were insane, too. It was wildly popular and I'm surprised I never saw the idea pop up anywhere else.
-- jjwinc, May 25 2004


I surrently work at Pizza Hut as a manager/delivery driver/cook/whatever and I think it's a great idea, I have even though about something along these lines myself. However, there is one major problem. On anything that has a decent amount of cheese compared to the amount of toppings (i.e. cheese or pepperoni pizzas) the chese completely liquifies in the oven. We have had the cheese slide off the pizza after it was in the box on on the way to the house more than 3-5 minutes after it left the store, without any more force than going around a corner. Now this happening inside the over would be a HUGE problem, first of all because of having to remake the pizzas, and second, the buildup of cheese in the oven would be insane.

Other than that, great idea. Bun for you.
-- lunaras, May 25 2004


Pretty sure I saw an advertisement making fun of this concept. I belive the ad touted domino's insulated pizza boxes.
-- bungston, May 25 2004


As long as you only cook while stationary, many of the problems doing this disappear.
-- MrCutieFinster, May 25 2004


As good an idea as this is, and as much as I love pizza...I think he world is obese enough without this kind of encouragement.
-- shinobi, May 25 2004


Fine ... go with abandon; abandon the cheese, that is.
-- dpsyplc, May 25 2004


Regarding the problem of the cheese sliding off the pizza as you go around the corner - what if you had a sort of rack that sits on top of the pizza - a wire mesh disk with 3-inch pins sticking down all over it. You could rest it on top of the pizza as it's cooking and it would basically hold the cheese and toppings in place, and then when you take it off the pin holes would be small enough that you wouldn't notice them or they would close up.
-- wayne606, May 26 2004


I think it needs to play music. Piano accordion and mandolin would be just perfect, as would old Tony Bennett numbers.
-- Zanzibar, May 26 2004


"climb every margarita"
-- po, May 26 2004


I really hate to be a 'downer' when it comes to one of my favorite foods - pizza. However, let's examine this situation from the point of view of logistics. If you travel to the north end of town to cook and deliver a pizza to a customer, you are just that much further from your potential customers on the south end of town. The only benefit would be in having multiple mobile units, at a corresponding increase in costs. There is no benefit in being mobile, because you require refridgeration space, etc., all of which is much more expensive when not stationary. It is more prudent to have a single location with a high volume oven, and one or more lo-cost delivery persons.

Is it not through a sort of evolution of delivery that we have come to, after decades of trial and re-trial, the present day 'pizza guy' with his thermal bag and deterministic delivery schedule, mobile debit card and/or credit card device?

I think we should not regard too lightly the 'pizza guy', who braves inclement weather, late hours, and minimum wage, to deliver that which we need the most, in 30 minutes or the next one's free of cost.
-- xrayTed, May 26 2004


Pizza....Mmmmmm....+
-- finflazo, May 26 2004


//Health inspections might be a problem, though.//

Laughing, imagining Keystone Cops chase through suburbs, with truck blaring Sole Mio while launching pizzas at health inspector whenever he gets close. I wish I could give this another Stuffed Crust. Super Supreme effort, macrumpton].
-- Zanzibar, May 26 2004


And you can drive following the map on my pizzas. hee hee +
-- sartep, May 26 2004


I'm not convinced that costs will be lowered. Each pizza oven is a considerable cost. Each truck that holds a pizza oven is a considerable cost. Each driver/cook that drives/cooks must surely be paid more than a pizza delivery guy. You still need some central location for refridgeration, dispatch, etc.

I will concede that //With some fairly clever software// you could deliver a piping hot pizza every time. I don't think this would necessarily be cheaper, or faster. The key to feasibility would exactly how much (and how many) people would be willing to pay for a piping hot pizza. I live about 1 km from my local pizza place; their pizza is never piping hot, but it's always hot enough.
-- xrayTed, May 27 2004



random, halfbakery