During the pandemic, restaurants, pubs and bars were granted temporary permission to serve customers on the pavement, to cope with lost floor space when adhering to social distancing measures.
This power was removed last year and ever since hospitality industry bodies have been campaigning to make pavement licences permanent, so businesses don’t need to keep reapplying to serve food outside. However, as part of the ‘Levelling up and Regeneration Bill’ unveiled recently during the Queen’s Speech, the government will now allow businesses to serve food alfresco all year round.
There is hope that these changes will help the hospitality sector continue to recover from the past two years and bring Britain’s high streets to life!
With pavement licences now permanent, hospitality businesses need to look at ways to improve operations so they can utilise their outside space. Traditional stationary POS systems aren’t particularly helpful when looking to serve customers outside. Requiring staff to head indoors to enter orders into your terminals isn’t the optimal solution and hampers the efficient transfer of orders to the kitchen. Diners also don’t want to wait longer for their food and beverages just because they’re sitting outdoors.
Deploying a mobile POS system like SymPOS GO can eliminate these problems and shave minutes off your customers’ wait times. SymPOS GO is an all-in-one POS and payment solution designed to be convenient and portable. It gives your team the power to take both orders and payments outside, from just one terminal. SymPOS GO has Wi-Fi, 4G and bluetooth connectivity and a powerful battery life, so your customers will experience a fast and efficient service. You can also receive an accurate real-time view of your EPOS estate with mobile-based dashboard reporting, providing you with everything you need at your fingertips.