A classic illustration of why I hated working drive thru

[mjr]

This place seems like they wanted their food delivered more rapidly than the King of Burgers where I worked, but it still illustrates the point.

http://notalwaysright.com/not-so-fast-food/40608

And yes, this is quite a common thing. I hated it. I still try to avoid the drive thru, unless I know EXACTLY what I want.

I don't think anyone should be punished for going beyond whatever arbitrary time that particular fast food place has set, especially when you get people like the ones in the link. If you've done that, I apologize, I don't mean to insult.

I wish these places knew it would be more helpful to the customer AND to the staff if they would put up a "pre-menu". You know what I'm talking about. It's one of those big menus before the main menu where you order.

[EricKei]

Aye. I could reasonably understand "90 seconds from 'Your total is $___, please pull around!'" -- heck, at some chains, it's 60! -- and even this assumes that the limit is stretched when they're really busy...but 90 seconds from start to finish is beyond unreasonable. The only conceivable reason for that is to make sure that EVERYBODY has a paper trail on them that can be used to fire them later, when the time comes to reduce headcount due to payroll cuts.

Back at PizzaJoint, the timer was 4 minutes from the time the order was sent to the screen (end of call) to when it needed to be checked off as "in the oven" -- natch, it wasn't always in by this time if this was during a rush --- 6 minutes past that for baking and boxing/cutting, and no more than 18 total minutes to get it out of the door (allowing it to "set" for a minute or two actually kinda helps to keep the toppings from sloshing around in the hotbag). To be fair, unless we has a bad crush with too few workers/drivers, 90+% of the time we DID get it out within 18 minutes, even if it meant the pie came out of the oven at 17 minutes

Heck, I average maybe 20 seconds placing my orders at fast food joints when I go solo, as I always know exactly what I want in advance. It only take 20 because of the pre-order and post-order add-on/sales speeches the workers are required to give. They can't help that, they're just doing their job!

[Food Lady]

Those pre-menus help me. I don't eat fast food very often, so I'm unaware of what is available to order.

[cindybubbles]

I think all drive-through employees should be able to ask hesitant customers to park their cars and come inside to order. That would be one way to free up traffic.

Also, to make it easier, restaurants should install an easy-open gate instead of a divider between the drive-through lane and the parking lot. That way, you keep parked cars out of the drive-through lane, while allowing hesitant customers to leave the drive-through lane to park their cars.

[dalesys]

... an easy-open gate ...

I'd vote for the instant up bollards they use as anti-truck bomb security.
We could play twerpy tiddly-winks.

[drjonah]

I think all drive-through employees should be able to ask hesitant customers to park their cars and come inside to order. That would be one way to free up traffic.

And don't forget the ones who go to the drive thru and order for 20 people. Or the ones who have multiple separate orders