While the foodservice industry has undoubtedly seen a whirlwind of change and innovation in the past decade, the ice cream truck has largely remained the same. For multiple generations, ice cream trucks drove through neighborhoods ringing a bell or playing a digital tune, selling pre-packaged frozen treats to kids and their begrudging parents.
Five years ago, Eric Murphy — a former radio DJ and Conde Nast executive — wanted to modernize the ice cream truck for the first time. In September 2020, he launched a fleet of hot pink trucks in New Jersey that would sell premium ice cream creations (with homemade sprinkles and mix-ins from New York City-area bakeries) from what is likely the world’s first on-demand ice cream truck. Then, when it became too cold for ice cream in the off-season, they would sell hot chocolate and pastries..
“I’ve always been a huge ice cream fanatic. So, one day I was in my neighborhood when I noticed an ice cream truck go by, which was like most of them: really beat up and selling bad product, and I was like, ‘Why has no one ever done a cooler version of the ice cream truck?’” Murphy said. “Then, as we started building trucks and our software, we realized that the delivery concept is actually the real value because we generate demand by texting people. You’re not necessarily thinking today, ‘Oh, I want some ice cream,’ but if you got a text from Scream Truck that we were coming to your neighborhood, you’d sign up for some ice cream.”
Unlike most ice cream trucks, Scream Truck doesn’t do walk-up orders. People who want to join can sign up on the company’s website with their phone number and address, and they will receive notifications when a truck is in their area. Every ice cream treat is ordered and paid for ahead of time. That way, Murphy said, the trucks can increase volume by skipping past the indecision of people waiting in line to order.
The company also does private events like corporate gatherings, weddings, and other parties.
“If people come up to the truck and they aren’t signed up, we give them a free ice cream and a card and let them know how to sign up so that next time we can hit them up on the route,” he said.
The business model is not the only way Scream Truck stands out from other ice cream trucks. Each ice cream truck is outfitted with digital menu boards that can be customized to showcase personal creations, which is especially useful for private events where people want to show off frozen treats named after the birthday celebrant or the wedding couple.
Customers can choose from pre-made selections or build their own from vanilla, chocolate, or twist soft serve ice cream, hand-rolled ice cream cones from the Conery in Brooklyn (including flavors like birthday cake), and toppings like Ghirardelli sauces, Gummy Bears, Fruity Pebbles, Oreos, and homemade sprinkles. (Scream Truck offers its own homemade sprinkles in different varieties including dinosaur-shaped).
“This is the best soft serve you’ll probably ever have,” Murphy said. “We use premium ingredients, which is different from most ice cream trucks’ bottom-of-the-barrel ice pops. We have a partnership with Liv Bread bakery, where we get our cookie and brownie mix-ins, and our sprinkles taste better.”
The company also partners with outside brands for limited time offerings like a partnership with New York City bakery Levain Bakery for a cookie sundae, as well as a Fourth of July special in partnership with LaFrieda Meats, where for every three ice cream treats sold, customers would get a free four-pack of burgers.
Scream Truck uses proprietary software that breaks up all of the towns within the company’s coverage into neighborhoods and sends out texts to each neighborhood for about one hour. Each truck is outfitted with a digital screen that shows different routes and schedule of events for the day. From this interface, employees can personally text customers, see directions to the next stop, and look at all of the pre-orders.
Since launching in 2020, Scream Truck now has 20 trucks and serves 110,000 households across 75 towns in New Jersey. The company just started selling franchises and will be using its new franchising model to expand to Las Vegas: Scream Truck’s first city outside of New Jersey.
Murphy has big plans for Scream Truck and particularly wants to get franchisees on board on Long Island in New York, and in regions like the Carolinas, Tennessee, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, where it’s ice cream weather all year-round.
“The bigger vision for Scream Truck is as a premium delivery service,” Murphy said. “So, someone like Levain cookies or Pat LaFrieda, you can’t get those delivered through DoorDash or Uber Eats. … We haven’t spent any money on marketing so far. Over 100,000 people have signed up just from social media and word of mouth.”
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