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Drive-through

A drive-through or drive-thru (a sensational spelling of the word through), is a type of take-out service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. The format was pioneered in the United States in the 1930s, and has since spread to other countries.

For other uses, see Drive-through (disambiguation).

A drive-up window teller was installed at the Grand National Bank of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1930. The drive-up teller allowed only deposits at that time.[1]


Orders are generally placed using a microphone and picked up in person at the window. A drive-through is different from a drive-in in several ways - the cars create a line and move in one direction in drive-throughs, and normally do not park, whereas drive-ins allow cars to park next to each other, the food is generally brought to the window by a server, called a carhop, and the customer can remain in the parked car to eat. However, during peak periods, to keep the queue down and avoid traffic flow problems, drive-throughs occasionally switch to an "order at the window, then park in a designated space" model where the customer will receive their food from an attendant when it is ready to be served. This results in a perceived relationship between the two service models.


Drive-throughs have generally replaced drive-ins in popular culture, and are now found in the vast majority of modern American fast-food chains. Sometimes, a store with a drive-through is referred to as a "drive-through", or the term is attached to the service, such as, "drive-through restaurant". or "drive-through bank".


Drive-throughs typically have signs over the drive-through lanes to show customers which lanes are open for business. The types of signage used is usually illuminated so the "open" message can be changed to a "closed" message when the lane is not available.

A and microphone for customers to place their orders

speaker

A speaker and microphone or wireless system for employees to hear the customer's order (when a speaker is used)

headset

A trigger pad beneath the concrete to activate the microphone and headset

Monitoring of the driveway and window through a system to monitor traffic flow and any criminal action which may occur at the window such as an armed robbery

CCTV

One or more free-standing signs listing the menu items, called a menu board

Newer drive-throughs feature a or LED display within the speaker system in order to show the full order and total cost to avert order errors through miscommunication; the entire menu board may also be a display, freeing employees of the responsibility of switching out promotions, adding or removing items, and making pricing changes. At many restaurants, a secondary display featuring the total is placed directly next to the order window to provide the amount to customers, usually paying with cash.

LCD

Windows where employees interact with customers by processing the customer's payment and giving them their order. Most drive-throughs have either one window serving both functions, or two windows with the first being used for payment and the second used for retrieving the order, depending on overall restaurant traffic.

Most restaurants have marked parking spaces just beyond the last window. If there is a significant delay in an individual customer's order (e.g. a special order) or congested line traffic, an employee may direct that customer to park in this area, clearing the drive-through lane for the next customer and preventing knock-on delays to other customers. When the order is ready, an employee hand-delivers the order to the customer. This service therefore occasionally has some similarities to service, but only during peak periods.

drive-in

Drive-through stores[edit]

Grocery shopping[edit]

Harold Willis and his father, Robert Willis, first incorporated a dairy and eggs drive through service in Redlands, California, in the early 1940s, supplying milk and eggs quickly and efficiently to driving customers; this utilized a dairy conveyor belt that Harold Willis had invented.[14] Some supermarkets offer drive-through facilities for grocery shopping. In the UK, this service was first announced by Tesco in August 2010.[15] In the United States, Crafty's Drive-Buy Grocery Store in Virginia started offering the service. In 2012, the Dutch chain Albert Heijn introduced a "Pick Up Point" where one can collect groceries bought online.[16]


Dairy products are available at a drive-through dairy store (notably the Skinner Dairy shops of North-East Florida or Dairy Barn in Long Island).

Liquor stores[edit]

Alcoholic beverages have been sold at a drive-through liquor store (called a "Beer Through", a "Cruise Through", a "Brew Thru" in the U.S. eastern Mid-Atlantic coast,[17] or a "Pony Keg" or "Party Barn" in certain areas; generally illegal in the Northeast and West)

Drive-through medical testing[edit]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-through testing became a common approach around the world for testing people who were potentially infected with the virus.[18] In 2020, drive-through testing facilities were set up in many countries to test whether passengers were infected with COVID-19 (the first being in South Korea).[19][20]


This approached allowed medical workers to process high volumes of tests quickly while reducing exposure and risk of infection between those being tested by keeping patients isolated in their vehicles.[21]


The process typically saw patients present their ID before being swabbed while remaining in their vehicles, before driving off once the test was complete. Their results were then typically shared with them either via text message or via their doctor.[22]

Emissions and traffic[edit]

Emissions[edit]

In recent years, drive-through restaurants and other drive-through facilities have faced increased scrutiny due to the higher levels of emissions that they create – compared to walk-in equivalents.[23] A 2018 study by QSR Magazine found that the average waiting time at a McDonald's drive-through restaurant in the US took 3 minutes and 15 seconds, with an average of 3.8 cars waiting at any one time.[24] This figure rose to an average of 4 minutes 25 seconds in 2019.[25]


If the average motorist avoided idling for just 3 minutes every day of the year, CO2 emissions would be reduced by 1.4 million tonnes annually, or the equivalent of taking 320,000 cars off the road.[26][27][28]


In response to emerging evidence of the role that drive-throughs play in contributing to climate change, Minneapolis banned the construction of new drive-throughs in 2019, while a number of other US cities, including Creve Coeur, MO; Fair Haven, NJ; Long Beach, CA; and Orchard Park, NY, have enacted ordinances to restrict or prohibit fast-food drive-through restaurants.[29][30]


Outside the US, a total of 27 municipalities have banned drive-through restaurants on the grounds of environmental and health concerns from engine idling[31]

Traffic[edit]

Long drive-through lines in the United States have been reported to cause traffic backups, blocking emergency vehicles and city buses and increasing the risk of collisions and pedestrian injuries. The popularity of Chick-fil-A's drive-throughs in particular has led to traffic problems, police interventions, and complaints by neighboring businesses in more than 20 states.[32][33][34]

Postal services at a drive-through mailbox

Prescriptions at a drive-through pharmacy

Marriage (primarily at special drive-through marriage chapels in in the United States)

Las Vegas

where mourners can drive by, view and make offerings to the remains of their loved ones through windows.[35][36]

Funeral home

Kevin P. Murphy installed a drive-through window designed to speed constituent service.[37]

Pennsylvania State Representative

at Fotomat.

Photo processing

Some other examples of drive-through businesses include:

Non-car usage[edit]

Pedestrian[edit]

Pedestrians sometimes attempt to walk through the drive-through to order food after the seated section of a fast-food restaurant has closed. Many establishments refuse drive-through service to pedestrians for safety, insurance, and liability reasons.[38] Cyclists are usually refused service with the same justification given.[39] However, in the summer of 2009, Burgerville gave use of the drive-through window to bicyclists.[40]

B-Bop's

Drive-in

Disposable food packaging

Effects of the car on societies