Tapingo come to UT

Just walking through the student union during lunchtime can be a struggle due to long lines weaving throughout the whole building. However, thanks to the University of Toledo’s decision to implement a new app called “Tapingo,” dining lines have the potential to become a lot shorter and speedier.

Tapingo is an app that will allow students to preorder their food from certain locations on campus.

After working on implementing the app for several months, it went live Monday, March 20 for UT campus.

Gary Casteel, operations director for UT’s dining and hospitality services, said Tapingo will improve the speed of service, cut down wait time, allow personal order customization and save previous orders so that reordering is a breeze.

“It will speed up the payment process in our retail locations, but most of the advantage goes towards the guests’ experience,” he said.

Tapingo can be used to order food at Croutonz, Agave, Java City, Subway and Starbucks, but Casteel said that other locations may be added in the future.

“It’s awesome this app works for most places on campus, but it would be even more convenient if they could somehow make this work for the dining halls,” said Trevor Daniels, second-year mechanical engineering student.

Taylor Burchfield, first-year communication major, said this app will help students who have a small window to grab lunch between classes.

“This app is a game-changer because that Subway line is not a joke,” said Justus Maveal, second-year business major. “It will definitely save some time.”

To use the app, students need to download it from the app store on their phones, select the location, place the order and choose the method of payment.

Tapingo shows the wait times for each location and gives an approximate time when the order will be ready for pickup.

Each location that uses Tapingo has a sign identifying where to pick the order up, Casteel said.

Casteel said UT is the first school to use the Tapingo app in the area.

According to the Tapingo website, they believe that “technology removes the hassles and stress of everyday transactions—so humans can focus on more important things. You know, human things.”