Due to increased customer throughput relative to traditional drive-thru configurations, fast food restaurants are adopting a side-by-side drive-thru configuration. While the side-by-side drive-thru has benefits regarding the maximum drive-thru customer per hour rate a restaurant can achieve, it presents new challenges to restaurants.
One example of a new problem the side-by-side drive-thru presents is maintaining the correct order sequence. In particular, many side-by-side configurations merge the cars into a single lane for payment and order pickup. As a result, vehicle sequences can become shuffled between the time the order is placed and the time the customer receives the order. Another example of a problem of the side-by-side drive-thru presents is potential for imbalance in the lanes as one lane may contain a larger number of vehicles than another lane for a variety of reasons.
Presently, to address these new challenges, managers may deploy an employee to go outside to manually manage the drive-thru lanes. However, this then lowers productivity from the restaurant as one fewer employee is available to take orders, prepare food, complete orders, and the like.