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Food Truck & Mobile Concept Platform - French manufacturer (MCR)

Food Truck & Mobile Concept Platform - French manufacturer (MCR)

Complete redesign of a WordPress site into a modern Next.js 16 + Payload CMS v3 platform for a French food truck manufacturer - 129K lines of code, 78 pages, 1,383 SEO contents, delivered in 41 days.

February - March 2026
41 days
Founder & CTO - Solo Developer
Next.js 16React 19TypeScriptPayload CMS v3PostgreSQL 16Tailwind CSS 4shadcn/uiStripeCloudflare TurnstileTerraformGitHub ActionsDockerDrizzle ORM4 AI APIs

Lines of Code

129,371

TypeScript (strict mode)

Pages

78

Next.js App Router

SEO Contents

1,383

Indexable contents

Database Tables

133

Including 46 versioning

Presentation

Project definition and scope

Mon Camion Resto (MCR) is the complete redesign of a French company's showcase website, specialized in designing, manufacturing, and customizing food trucks, trailers, converted containers, and mobile concepts for the food-service and events industry. The project replaces an outdated WordPress site with a modern application built on Next.js 16 and Payload CMS v3.

The company operates in a niche market at the crossroads of several sectors: vehicle bodywork and conversion, professional food-service, corporate events, and mobile concept rentals. It serves prestigious clients such as Futuroscope, Sodexo, IKEA, France TV, Elior, Charal, and Ralph Lauren, with 3 physical agencies across France (Bordeaux, Paris, Metz).

A significant part of the project involved developing numerous custom Payload CMS extensions - particularly tools dedicated to AI-powered content generation (articles, product descriptions, image creation) using 4 integrated AI providers. This custom development work on the CMS layer proved to be one of the most technically enriching aspects of the project.

Domain

Food-service vehicles, B2B events, custom vehicle conversions, mobile concept rentals

Target Users

B2B: event agencies, brands, food-service professionals - B2C: entrepreneurs starting a mobile food business

Functional Scope
Expertise - Workshops & Skills
Concepts - Vehicles & Containers
Realizations - Project Portfolio
Pre-owned - Marketplace + Stripe
Rentals - B2B Event Fleet
Resources - Blog, Guides, Glossary, FAQ
Contact & Quotes - Multi-step Forms
Admin - CMS + AI Tools

Objectives, Context, Stakes & Risks

Strategic vision and constraints

Objectives
  • Completely redesign the WordPress site into a modern stack (Next.js + Payload CMS) with autonomous content management
  • Multiply SEO visibility through a massive content strategy: 112 blog articles, 664 guides, 471 glossary terms
  • Professionalize brand image with a cohesive design system (shadcn/ui, 59 components) and quality visuals
  • Automate content generation via 4 AI APIs integration
  • Structure the sales funnel with multi-step quote forms routed by agency and Stripe checkout for pre-owned vehicles
  • Industrialize deployment with complete CI/CD infrastructure (GitHub Actions, Terraform, OVH VPS, 3 environments)
Context

The existing WordPress site suffered from broken navigation, poor SEO, outdated visuals, and generic contact forms. The company was transitioning from "Mon Camion Resto" to the "MCR" acronym while managing 6 domains (moncamionresto.com/fr, labeglaise.fr, location-foodtruck.fr, food-trucks.fr, mountain-egg.com). A database migration from WordPress (42 existing articles) was also required.

Business Stakes

SEO Visibility

The website is the primary acquisition channel - the redesign must maintain or improve existing rankings while massively creating new content

Lead Conversion

Quote and contact forms are the commercial backbone - every lead must be correctly routed to the right agency (Bordeaux, Paris, Metz)

Brand Image

The company works with clients like IKEA, France TV, and Ralph Lauren - the site must reflect this level of quality

Identified Risks

SEO Migration Risk

Potential loss of search rankings during migration - mitigated by implementing redirections and preserving legacy URLs via Nginx.

AI Content Quality

Massive volume of AI-generated content (664 guides, 471 terms) requiring human verification - a status system was implemented (not-verified, ai-verified, human-verified).

Infrastructure Constraints

Hosting on a single OVH VPS with 3 environments, limited to 8 GB RAM for the entire stack.

Multi-API Complexity

Integration of 4 different AI APIs with varying billing models and rate limits.

The Steps - What I Did

Chronological phases and personal contributions

Project timeline
Phase 1
Foundations
Feb 10-12
  • Next.js 16 + Payload CMS v3 + shadcn/ui setup
  • CMS data model: 15 collections, 24 content blocks
  • TypeScript strict, Docker Compose, local dev
Phase 2
Content & SEO
Feb 14-27
  • Design system + SEO audit + PageSpeed tuning
  • Editorial calendar + 4 AI APIs for content generation
  • Admin panel with Lexical rich text editor
Phase 3
Infrastructure & Migration
Mar 2-9
  • Terraform DNS for 6 domains via OVH API
  • WordPress migration: 42 articles imported
  • 4-level navigation + 24 rental/event pages
Phase 4
CI/CD & Production
Mar 12-22
  • GitHub Actions pipeline: 5 jobs, auto-deploy
  • GA4 + GTM with custom event tracking
  • Stripe checkout for pre-owned marketplace
  • Cloudflare Turnstile anti-spam + AI image gen

Actors & Interactions

Team, stakeholders, and collaboration dynamics

Development Team

Important nuance: While AI generated ~75% of code volume (mega-commits >10K insertions = 79% of total), the human value represents ~70% of the project's intellectual output - all architectural decisions, technical stack choices, data modeling (15 collections, 133 tables), infrastructure design, SEO strategy, client relationship, prompt engineering, and final validation.

Code Volume Distribution (Lines Produced)
Intellectual & Decision-Making Value
External Stakeholders
  • Pierre-Olivier P.Company owner & CMS admin
  • GeoffroyBordeaux agency sales contact
  • StripeMarketplace payments
  • CloudflareTurnstile anti-spam
  • AI providersMulti-provider content & image generation
  • OVHVPS, SMTP, DNS

Results

Impact for myself and for the company

For the Company - Business Impact

1,383

SEO contents

Indexable pages created (vs. 42 on WordPress)

78

Pages

Complete site with 7 layouts and 4-level navigation

15

CMS collections

Autonomous content management via Payload CMS admin

3

Environments

Test (auto-deploy), Staging, Production

Codebase Metrics
SEO Content Distribution (1,383 Contents)
WordPress vs Next.js+Payload CMS
Design System Composition (203 Components)
Development Velocity (Commits per Week)
For Me - Skills Acquired & Reinforced

Technical Skills

  • Full-stack Next.js 16 + Payload CMS v3 at scale (129K lines)
  • Custom Payload CMS extensions for AI content generation
  • 133-table PostgreSQL schema with Drizzle ORM
  • Multi-provider AI integration (4 APIs)
  • Terraform IaC for DNS across 6 domains
  • CI/CD: GitHub Actions, 5 jobs, 3 environments
  • SEO architecture: 1,383 indexable contents, ISR

Functional & Human Skills

  • Requirements from voice recordings to specs
  • SEO content strategy and internal linking
  • AI-assisted development and prompt engineering
  • Solo project management and delivery

Project Aftermath

What happened after delivery and current state

Immediate Future: The platform was deployed to a production environment (production.moncamionresto.com) with two additional environments (test, staging). The test environment is auto-deployed on every push to main via GitHub Actions CI/CD. The CMS admin is accessible and operational for the team.

Medium-Term: The site is live under a temporary subdomain while the final DNS migration from the old WordPress site is pending. The massive SEO content (1,383 items) needs progressive human verification - the verification status system (not-verified / ai-verified / human-verified) is already in place. Business-critical collections (realizations, pre-owned vehicles, rental fleet) are structured and ready to be populated with real data.

Current State: The platform represents a 33x increase in indexable content compared to the original WordPress site (1,383 vs. 42 items). The infrastructure is production-ready with SSL, automated backups, CI/CD, and monitoring. The n8n automation platform is deployed for workflow automation.

Critical Reflection

Retrospective analysis and lessons learned

Strengths

  • Exceptional development velocity

    3,000+ lines/day sustained over 6 weeks, productivity multiplied x3-x4 via AI-assisted dev.

  • Modern and coherent tech stack

    Deliberate full-stack monolith: CMS embedded in Next.js, end-to-end TypeScript typing.

  • Ambitious SEO strategy, well executed

    Dense internal linking across guides, articles and glossary to saturate topical coverage.

  • Professional infrastructure

    Industrial pipeline: IaC, robust scripts, safety confirmations before production.

  • Complete design system

    24 content block types: the marketing team composes freely without ever breaking visual consistency.

Areas for Improvement

  • Insufficient test coverage

    8 test files for 129K lines. Critical API routes (contact, quotes, Stripe) deserve better.

  • No semantic versioning

    No git tags or releases - hard to trace versions deployed in production.

What I Would Do Differently
  • Content strategy in batches - rather than 664 guides at once, validate by batches to guarantee quality
  • Feature flags - progressive production rollouts rather than all-or-nothing
Lasting Lessons

AI as a force multiplier

AI absorbs the volume, the human keeps control of architecture and structural decisions.

Integrated headless CMS > decoupled CMS

At this scale, CMS inside the app beats decoupled: less latency, one deploy, one typed model.

Infrastructure as Code from day 1

DNS, deploy, environments in code from day one - pays off from the very first change to push.

SEO content is a strategic asset

Each new indexable content durably widens the organic acquisition surface.

Architecture

Related journey

Professional experience linked to this achievement

ACCENSEO - CTO & Founder

IT consulting and software company providing comprehensive services: custom software development, system integration, cloud infrastructure, database hosting, and technical advisory. Helping SMEs and mid-cap companies transform their IT systems into competitive advantages.

Skills applied

Technical and soft skills applied

Hard Skills

Architecture & Design5/5

System Architecture & Design

Designed the monolithic full-stack architecture: Next.js App Router + Payload CMS v3 + PostgreSQL, 15 collections, 24 content blocks - every structural decision owned end-to-end

Software Development5/5

Full-Stack Development

Shipped 129K lines across frontend, backend, admin, CMS extensions and AI tooling - 78 pages, 54 API endpoints, 133 database tables

DevOps & Cloud4/5

DevOps & CI/CD

Built an industrial-grade GitHub Actions pipeline (5 jobs), Terraform DNS for 6 domains, PM2 across 3 environments with safety confirmations before production

Tech3/5

Database Design

Shaped a 133-table PostgreSQL schema through Payload CMS collections and Drizzle ORM, including 46 versioning tables

Image gallery

Project screenshots and visuals

Mon Camion Resto homepage with vintage food truck, custom design services and navigation menu
Homepage - Food truck custom design services
Food truck customization page showing bespoke vehicle fitting, standards compliance and style options
Customization - Bespoke food truck fitting
Used food trucks marketplace with grid of refurbished vehicles for sale including various models and styles
Marketplace - Used and refurbished food trucks
Mon Camion Resto blog with articles on food truck locations, training and industry trends
Blog - Industry articles and case studies
Contact page with form, Paris, Bordeaux and Metz office locations and phone numbers
Contact - Multi-city offices (Paris, Bordeaux, Metz)
Food truck glossary and lexicon page with alphabetical definitions for mobile catering industry terms
Glossary - Food truck industry lexicon A-Z
Footer with call-to-action for mobile concept launch, quote request and multi-city contact cards
Footer - CTA and multi-city contact

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