# Drive-Thru Speed Rankings: What the 2025 Study Measures

> Source: https://qsr.pro/articles/qsr-drive-thru-speed-rankings-2026
> Publisher: QSR Pro


Published drive-thru findings, the differences between timing metrics, and why customer wait time cannot be converted directly into hourly capacity.

Published: 2026-03-20T04:11:49.313934+00:00

By QSR Pro Staff

![Drive-Thru Speed Rankings: What the 2025 Study Measures](https://gadzwjyojqpwmxtgebnh.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/article-images/seo-refresh-20260916/qsr-drive-thru-speed-rankings-2026/30951e614ced.webp)

*AI-generated illustration: QSR.pro.*

Taco Bell led the Classic category in Intouch Insight's 2025 drive-thru study with a reported time of 4 minutes, 16 seconds. Tim Hortons led the Beverage category. Those are findings from the 2025 research, not a new set of 2026 measurements. [Intouch Insight's published findings](https://www.intouchinsight.com/blog/drive-thru-trends) identify both leaders.

As of September 16, 2026, the research company's [study catalog](https://www.intouchinsight.com/resources/studies/) still promoted the 25th annual drive-thru report. This guide explains the measures used in that edition. Its results describe sampled visits, rather than a guaranteed wait at every restaurant bearing the same name.

## What the 2025 study measured

Researchers completed 165 mystery shops at each of 13 U.S. brands during June and July 2025. Visits covered breakfast, lunch, afternoon and dinner. A separate group of 120 orders examined voice AI at three brands. The study grouped chains into Classic, Chicken and Beverage categories and tracked accuracy, food quality, suggestive selling and satisfaction alongside speed.

The sample counts visits, which may include repeat stops at the same restaurant.

## Which part of the visit does the timer cover?

A drive-thru visit includes waiting to order, placing an order, moving through the lane and collecting food. A time measured from the order point leaves out the customer's earlier queue. A pickup-window timer covers a narrower part of the experience again.

The [2024 QSR and Intouch report](https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/the-2024-qsr-drive-thru-report/) illustrates why the measures need separate labels. It reported wait time 3 seconds longer than in 2023, service time 17 seconds shorter and total time 14 seconds shorter. A restaurant can improve one stage while another takes longer.

That same edition reported Chick-fil-A's average total time at 479.42 seconds and an average of 3.44 cars in line on arrival. Its line-adjusted figure was 139.4 seconds. These are different measures of the same sampled experience; the adjusted number is not the customer's total wait. All three figures belong to 2024.

## Why total time is not cars per hour

Throughput counts completed transactions during a period. Elapsed time follows one customer's journey. Multiple orders can move through preparation and pickup at once, so dividing 60 minutes by one customer's total time does not establish hourly capacity.

Customers might still spend several minutes in the system because they join a queue and pass through several stages. The count and the elapsed time answer separate questions. Neither alone establishes how much revenue a restaurant lost or could gain.

## How a restaurant design separates the work

Chick-fil-A's [August 2024 announcement for its Jodeco Road restaurant](https://www.chick-fil-a.com/press-room/chick-fil-a-opens-first-elevated-drive-thru-concept) described four drive-thru lanes beneath an elevated kitchen, with a conveyor carrying meals to employees at ground level. Customers could use dedicated lanes for app orders or place an order with an employee in traditional lanes.

The company described a kitchen twice the size of a typical Chick-fil-A kitchen and a conveyor capable of delivering a meal to an employee every 6 seconds. That equipment specification is not a measured customer wait or proof that a completed order leaves the property every 6 seconds. The design shows how ordering, kitchen production and handoff can have distinct capacities, even within one restaurant.

Category: [Operations & Management](https://qsr.pro/categories/operations)