When Americans are hungry we very seldom leave our cars. We love a good, fast, accurate, drive-thru and a recent study has revealed which of the major fast-food restaurants do the best job of getting our orders into our cars faster than all the others.

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It will come as no shock to anyone reading this that the winner in the speed category was not Chick-fil-A. But there is a very good reason why Chick-fil-A doesn't win for speed when it comes to feeding America's motor-born hunger. The reason is quite simply this. Chick-fil-A has a lot more customers in the drive-thru than any other restaurant chain does.

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According to this particular study, the average amount of time spent in a Chick-fil-A drive-thru is eight minutes and 29 seconds. This includes time spent waiting to place the order and waiting for the order to be filled. Chick-fil-A averages 4.74 cars in the drive-thru the other leading fast food restaurants only average 2.76 cars in line.

And if you're a fan of Chick-fil-A and want the real truth, if you divide the number of cars by the time in the drive-thru Chick-fil-A improves its average drive-through time to one minute and 47 seconds.

Supporters Flock To Restaurants On Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day
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Here's the complete report, The 22nd Annual Drive-Thru Study by Intouch Insight in partnership with QSR. Here are some of the highlights of the report. Your average total time in a drive-thru of the restaurants surveyed is about six minutes and 12 seconds.

The study looked at drive-thru operations from Wendy's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin, McDonald's, Arby's, Taco Bell, KFC, Carl's Jr. and Hardees.  The study found the highest volume of traffic in the drive-thru was between 10:30 and 1:30 with the lowest traffic noted during breakfast hours.

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According to the study the fast food establishment with the fastest drive-thru, total wait time, was KFC followed by Taco Bell, Hardee's, Dunkin', and then Carl's Jr. Chick-fil-A had been the industry leader for both 2021 and 2022 but didn't make the top five in this year's survey.

When it comes to getting your order right, which is a really big deal since most of us don't bother to check the bag until we get home. The two top restaurants for accuracy in the drive-thru were Arby's and McDonald's. Burger King was third followed by Carl's Jr and then Hardees.

Google Maps/Google Streetview
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And when it came to getting the order wrong, the item most often messed up in the order was the beverage. About 15% of drive-thru orders are deemed "inaccurate" according to the definitions of the study, in those orders the wrong drink was the culprit about one-third of the time.

When it came to food quality Chick-fil-A ruled the roost with Taco Bell, yeah, Taco Bell was also tied for first. Arby's, Dunkin', and Wendy's all tied for third in that aspect of the study.

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