Intouch Insight has released its annual ratings of drive-thru restaurants, ranking them based on their speed, accuracy, and other factors.
Fastest drive thrus
In its annual ranking, Taco Bell provided the fastest service among North America’s 10 largest fast-food chains, according to the newly released report. It is the second straight year Taco Bell tops the ranking.
The report found it takes Taco Bell an average of 256 seconds to complete an order, nearly 73 seconds faster than the industry average.
Wait times at leading fast food restaurants dropped in 2024 by 13 seconds. It now takes an average of five minutes and 29 seconds for a person to get their order.
Here is how the top 10 ranks:
- Taco Bell 255.8 seconds
- KFC 259.9 seconds
- Arby’s 283.5 seconds
- Dunkin’ 287.3 seconds
- Wendy’s 301.8 seconds
- Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s 338.6 seconds
- Burger King 339.1 seconds
- Raising Cane’s 370.1 seconds
- McDonald’s 375.7 seconds
- Chick-fil-A 479.4 seconds
Although Chil-fil-A had the longest wait times, much of that is due to the sheer volume in its drive-thru. Chick-fil-A actually had the fastest pickup orders when factoring in cars in line.
According to the QSR Magazine report, the average total time for a Chick-fil-A order par car was 139.4 seconds. The industry average was 267.5 seconds.
Chick-fil-A has three times the number of cars in line than average fast food drive-thrus.
Most accurate drive-thrus
The report revealed that Taco Bell perhaps sacrifices accuracy for its speed. The chain ranked dead last for drive-thru order accuracy, getting 85% of orders correct.
Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s tied for having the most accurate drive thrus, getting 93% of orders correct. Here are how the 10 largest chains rank:
T1) Chick-fil-A 93%
T1) McDonald’s 93%
3) Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s 90%
4) KFC 89%
5) Arby’s 89%
T6) Burger King 88%
T6) Raising Cane’s 88%
T8) Dunkin’ 87%
T8) Wendy’s 87%
10) Taco Bell 85%
The report noted that 50% of errors involved an incorrect amount of ice added to drink orders. The report also found that 10% of incorrect orders had the wrong side item, while another 10% had an incorrect entree.
Food quality
One thing fast food is known for is having consistency and 97% of respondents said orders tasted as expected. Customers of Chick-fil-A and Raising Cane’s said their orders tasted as expected 99% of the time.
