Chick-Fil-A Is The Slowest Drive-Thru In America For 2019

Thanks to the iconic American invention, the drive-thru, you can order all kinds of food from the comfort of your driver’s seat. Freedom of choice is as American as a burger and fries.

But sometimes you’re really in a hurry, so Benzinga examined drive-thru speeds across the country.

Who Leads The Pack In Speed?

America’s fastest drive-thru for 2019 is Dunkin’ Donuts. The iconic coffee and donut chain has the fastest performing drive-thrus, by average wait time, according to the QSR Drive-Thru Performance Study.

Drive-thru customers at Dunkin’ spend an average of 3 minutes and 37 seconds waiting from the time of arrival to departure.

This incredibly speedy performance by Dunkin’ has everything to do with the chain’s focus on a simple menu. Unlike most other fast-food chains, Dunkin’ serves food off of the same menu selection, no matter the time of day.

Because coffee, donuts and breakfast sandwiches are Dunkin’s signature food menu items, there’s little if any food preparation required.

As such, the time elapsed from which an order is placed, to bag in the customer's hand, is limited and allows for faster output than a more expansive food menu could handle.

Who Lags Behind?

America's slowest drive-thru is Chick-fil-A, with average wait times of 5 minutes and 23 seconds. The chicken sandwich chain is last place nationwide in terms of speediness of order completion for 2019.

Speed Of Service, Ranked

The overall average drive-thru wait time, among the top 10 fast-food chains, comes in at 4 minutes and 26 seconds for 2019.

The data was gathered by visiting 1,503 drive-thrus over the course of a day and tabulated by SeeLevelHX. The drive-thru clock starts with upon the vehicle’s arrival to the drive-thru line. The clock ends upon receipt of the food and beverages purchased, at the pick-up window.

The following is a table of the fastest drive-thrus in America for 2019:

Photo credit: Jay Reed, Flickr