Traffic orders increased during the pandemic. This is what comes next

Last March, restaurant sales fell sharply after governors banned food in person and consumers began working through their amount of stored groceries. But after several weeks, a new trend was imposed, illustrated by long lines of travel surrounding the perimeter of the fast food places.

Checkers and Rally’s was one of many fast food companies that benefited from the change. With more than 800 locations, it is the largest double-lane restaurant chain in the country.

“Last year we had the most tremendous year,” said Frances Allen, CEO. “We recorded record sales gains in the same store and created a major boost.”

The crisis coincided with the renewal of the chain’s menu, which helped revive sales. To keep up with rising demand, approximately two-thirds of Checkers and Rally restaurants changed one of their traffic lanes to handle digital and delivery orders.

After decades as a staple, driving lanes became the superstar, helping fast food chain sales rebound faster than their full-service brothers. In December, access routes accounted for 44% of off-premises orders in the entire catering industry, according to the NPD group. As the distribution of vaccines in the United States increases, the popularity of vehicle orders across seems to hold power, although industry experts predict it will moderate some.

“I think as people get vaccinated, vehicle orders will go up a bit, but I don’t think it’s going down to previous levels because that higher awareness about germs is here to stay and some people are just used to doing things. now in a different way, ”said Lisa van Kesteren, CEO of SeeLevel HX, which conducts an annual study on driven lane service.

Adrianne, a 27-year-old living in Wichita, Kansas, agrees. He has worked at a Starbucks with an access lane for several months.

“Pre-order, delivery and presence can fluctuate, but the constant need is,” he said.

Other workers say the extra stress on their jobs doesn’t seem to stop for many months. Randy, a 30-year-old who works in Michigan, said he wanted to quit his job many times and that his location has a very high turnover rate. According to him, the focus went from connecting with customers to making sure orders were filled in less than a minute.

Higher volume and larger orders slowed the average driving time by 29.8 seconds, according to the SeeLevelHX 2020 study, which was conducted from June to August using secret buyers. KFC, owned by Yum Brands, topped the list and was one of the few chains that managed to cut times.

U.S. chain president and general manager Kevin Hochman credited KFC’s family fill deposits, which experienced double-digit growth last year. Hochman is also interim president of the U.S. for Pizza Hut, KFC’s sister chain. In response to the higher average ticket, KFC added a $ 30 hedging offer to the menu to keep up with the trend of larger orders.

“Packing a 12-piece bucket against an eight-piece bucket is very easy to make, as opposed to making eight sandwiches: it’s a very different model,” said Hochman, who added that other fast food chains are now adding meals. more value in their menus.

Hochman predicts some traffic transitions back to KFC lobbies as consumers get vaccinated. The fried chicken chain is testing collection cubes, hoping its customers will look for even faster ways to grab food after the pandemic.

The shift to automatic orders has also further increased competition between the fast food and fast-casual sectors. Chains like Sweetgreen and Shake Shack have announced plans to add driving lanes. Chipotle Mexican Grill, which had rolled out its lanes for digital orders only, said it would speed up plans to add more “Chipotlanes” to its footprint.

But even before the pandemic, fast food chains invested in their driving lanes, giving them maximum advantage. McDonald’s spent more than $ 300 million on Dynamic Yield, an artificial intelligence company that would help the company drive customers to spend more. (The company is exploring Dynamic Yield’s third-party business sales.)

These investments to make traffic lanes more efficient have only accelerated over the last year. Chains like KFC and Burger King of Restaurant Brands International have designed new restaurant formats that highlight the driveway and switch to smaller dining rooms.

Arby’s chief operating officer, John Kelly, said the Inspire Brands chain has been working to make its production more efficient in the last three to five years. Many of their kitchens now operate with two groups of workers gathering orders to keep up with the flow.

“We certainly didn’t update all of our restaurants during Covid, there wasn’t enough time or manpower to do it, but we had already been on the road and accelerated it by 2020,” Kelly said. “And we will continue to update those of our restaurants, no doubt, where there is volume today, but also for the future.”

Van Kesteren noted automation as another major trend stemming from the increase in drive-thru orders during the crisis. McDonald’s and White Castle are testing artificial intelligence software with the goal of getting drive-thru orders faster and more accurately.

“Automation was explored before and fully automated lanes and kiosks were being tested, but that has accelerated it a lot,” he said.

Kelly said Arby’s is investing in technology that will be able to better inform CEOs of how to serve a restaurant as traffic fluctuates. During the busiest times of the pandemic, Arby’s had assigned many of its restaurant workers to concentrate on a single task, whether taking orders or filling drinks.

“So they don’t always try to catch up on where the business is going, but they actually do it ahead of time,” he said. “I think we learned a lot from that during Covid and we’ll keep moving forward.”