After record-breaking growth during the pandemic, drive-thru traffic is softening. But this year may be more about redistribution and innovating the drive-thru.
Guests are still choosing quick service, but how they do it is shifting. The modern drive-thru now sits at the center of a growing web of fulfillment options, where app orders, curbside pickups, and third-party deliveries all intersect.
In addition, orders are becoming more complex to execute quickly because of rising order customizations. According to a 2024 Tillster report1, one in three quick-service diners skipped a restaurant because it lacked customization options. That evolution is reshaping everything from staffing to service flow.
The 25th-anniversary edition of the Intouch Insight Drive-Thru Study reveals what’s really happening at the lane, drawing on mystery shopping insights across 13 major QSR brands to highlight key shifts in speed, satisfaction, technology and customer interaction.
Total times, line lengths, and satisfaction data together tell a story of how the drive-thru continues to evolve, and what it means for operators in 2025.
As part of the anniversary edition, we analyzed data going back to 2018 to track the evolution of drive-thru traffic performance.
This year’s study recorded an average total service time of 4 minutes and 15 seconds, higher than in 2024 by 10 seconds. With the longer timings, the average cars in line also fell to 1.20, down from more than two per lane at the 2020 pandemic peak and slightly below last year’s 1.23 range.
At first glance, fewer cars might suggest reduced demand. But when total service times stay elevated, it possibly suggests another reality: each transaction has become more detailed and time-consuming.
Guests are increasingly personalizing their orders, combining items and requesting modifications that take longer to prepare and verify. QSRs are also responding to shifting demographics, as 75% of Gen Z diners personalize their meals2.
While this can extend service times, it remains essential to meet these expectations, as 58% of diners say they are more likely to recommend a QSR chain after a positive custom-ordering experience2.
QSR Magazine also notes that some of that drive-thru volume has likely shifted into mobile and pickup channels, where guests pre-order and bypass traditional lanes.
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A closer look across the industry shows converging factors possibly driving these changes:
Off-premises dining continues to dominate total restaurant activity, with nearly 75% of all restaurant orders now occur off-premises3.
However, the overall rise in off-premises dining reveals contrasting performance across channels.
While off-premises dining remains strong, more guests are choosing to eat inside again. Dine-in visits grew +1.2% year-over-year in 2025, following a +6.3% increase in 20244, signaling a slow but steady rebound rather than a return to pre-pandemic norms.
Many drive-thrus still operate in spaces designed for single-lane simplicity. Today, those same lots must handle traditional lanes, delivery pickups, and mobile orders simultaneously. This shift forces operators to reimagine lane layouts, staging zones, and pickup access rather than rely on speed alone.
Leading brands are experimenting with double-lane flow, pickup-specific windows, and expanded staging zones to reduce cross-channel interference. Many are also using digital signage to dedicate lanes for mobile ordering or digital pickup orders and adjust them in real time based on drive-thru demand
Leading QSR brands are adapting to new drive-thru realities including reduced traffic, more personalized orders, shifting customer patterns, and ongoing labor pressures. Their focus is to simplify what can be automated and strengthen what only people can deliver.
More quick-service brands are adopting Voice-AI ordering to improve efficiency, accuracy, and service flow. For many, it’s also a way to ease the impact of labor shortages and rising wages, which 62% of QSR leaders identify as their biggest challenge6. By automating order-taking, AI helps employees perform their roles more efficiently and gives them more time to focus on hospitality and providing a better customer experience.
We mystery shopped 120 AI-enabled locations as part of the 2025 Drive-Thru Study. The data shows that AI-powered lanes averaged a total service time of 3 minutes and 53 seconds, faster than the overall study average of 4 minutes and 15 seconds. Speaker clarity reached 98%, indicating fewer misheard orders and smoother exchanges.
While overall satisfaction reached 97%, AI lanes scored lower on friendliness and slightly lower on accuracy. The drop in accuracy was primarily linked to challenges processing customized orders, which often required human intervention. Download the full study to see the percentage of incorrect orders tied to customization requests.
As operations become more complex, friendliness has emerged as the strongest performance multiplier.
According to our study, when service was friendly:
These results confirm that friendliness is a measurable throughput factor. For instance, Chick-fil-A continues to prioritize the quality of interaction7, emphasizing clear communication and courteous engagement at every stage of service. This focus aligns with findings from report, where Chick-fil-A ranked as the category leader in friendliness, with 93% of visits rated as friendly compared to a 78% study average.
Surprisingly, only four brands exceeded the study’s friendliness average of 78%. Category-level data further shows:
One more headwind. According to Restaurant Dive, pickup-only formats often lack the human touch. It reported in the case of Starbucks8 that some mobile-order and pickup-only restaurants underperform because customers miss the warmth and personal interaction present in full-service operations.
Drive-thru layouts are being updated to improve flow and speed. Some operators are introducing combo window-door systems that combine service points into one structure to simplify handoffs and minimize employee movement, improving speed and consistency.
Chick-fil-A’s Elevated Drive-Thru9, launched in late summer 2024 reflects this shift. The two-story design separates its kitchen above from four lanes below, using a conveyor system to deliver meals directly to vehicles.
Our study found that most locations still operate with a single lane, as 79% of drive-thrus evaluated had only one complete lane. Two-lane configurations accounted for 20%, while three-lane setups were rare at just 1%. This highlights both the opportunity and challenge operators face as they redesign spaces to handle growing digital and delivery traffic.
As brands continue exploring ways to enhance speed and consistency, our study offers a clear view of drive-thru performance across the industry. We measured all 13 brands on total time, service time, wait time, window time, and time per car. Download the 2025 Drive-Thru Study for the full breakdown.
Most operators are pursuing technology integrations to streamline operations and maintain consistency across growing digital touchpoints. The goal is to speed up service and accuracy without losing operational control or hospitality.
Examples include:
So, how do we evaluate what is working?
For 25 years, leading QSR brands have relied on the Intouch Insight Drive-Thru Study as a trusted benchmark for real-world performance. Built on hundreds of shopper visits, our mystery shopping programs provide the clearest, most current measurement of drive-thru execution so operators can make confident, data-driven decisions.
Now with the fresh insights, this year’s edition helps you assess your own distribution and plan your next moves with confidence.
References:
1https://www.tillster.com/blog/phygital-dining-expectations-q2-2024
2https://diginsights.com/resources/genz-qsr/
4https://www.revenuemanage.com/blog/drive-thru-trends-2025-qsr/
5https://loyaltyrewardco.com/do-loyalty-programs-work-just-ask-mcdonalds/
6https://www.qsrmagazine.com/sponsored_content/solve-one-of-the-restaurant-industrys-top-challenges/
9https://www.nrn.com/quick-service/take-a-look-at-chick-fil-a-s-new-elevated-drive-thru-prototype