New Study Reveals The Fastest And Slowest Fast Food Drive-Thrus
The fastest drive-thru has been determined to be Chick-fil-A while the slowest is Wendy's.
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If you have ever found yourself stuck in a seemingly never-ending drive-thru lane – you are not alone. Countless hungry diners have gone through a similar experience. But good news – a recent report discovered what restaurant has the fastest drive-thru, so you can avoid long waits in the future.
Now is the moment fast food fans have been waiting for – the winner of the fastest drive-thru experience. And the news should not be a surprise for anyone. When averaged out for the number of cars in the drive-thru line, Chick-fil-A took the top spot for the third year.
Every year Intouch Insight releases a report analyzing the speed of drive-thru windows. In this year’s hunt for the fastest drive-thru, the numbers come from visits to more than 1,500 fast food restaurant locations nationwide. Brands surveyed include Dunkin’, Arby’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC, Carl’s Jr., McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Wendy’s, and Hardee’s.
Chick-fil-A also had the highest number of cars in line at any given time. So the total average time waiting was the highest among all locations surveyed. Chick-fil-A also took several other top spots in the survey.
They have the friendliest employees out of every location. And they tied with Carl’s Jr. for first place in customer satisfaction. Both received a 95% satisfaction rating.
On top of not having the fastest drive-thru, they also had the lowest order accuracy. Based on survey data, they only fulfilled 79% of orders correctly. So, while you may get your food in a decent amount of time, you may spend more time trying to get the order corrected.
The second fastest drive-thru belongs to McDonald’s, which is great news for fans of the golden arches. It also got a high customer approval rating, with an 89% accuracy rate. So, next time you find yourself in a rush, you can choose either beef or chicken and know that you will get the correct order in a reasonable time.
Every fast food restaurant saw a bump in drive-thru traffic during the pandemic. One reason for this was local regulations and closures that prompted locations to shutter their lobbies. However, even after restrictions started easing, some people preferred to stay in their cars to order.
Intouch Insight found that the average drive-thru time among all chains was 6 minutes and 13 seconds. It shows improvement over last year’s wait, which was 10 seconds slower. But the overall speed has not returned to the pre-pandemic level of 5 minutes and 28 seconds.
With fairly significant wait times facing customers, finding the fastest drive-thru is critical. So, where should you go if you find yourself crunched for time? Definitely avoid Wendy’s.
Though the founder of Wendy’s, Dave Thomas, is credited with making drive-thrus popular, the company failed to perform well this year. It was not the slowest to fulfill orders, as its wait time was only 4 minutes and 35 seconds. But, according to CNBC, that is a 20% increase over the 2019 wait times.
