Intouch Insight Reports Fastest Average Drive-Thru Visit Since 2018

Ottawa, Ontario, Oct. 01, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Intouch Insight, a provider of customer experience management solutions, has released its 26th Annual Drive-Thru Study, which found that the average drive-thru visit took 5 minutes and 24 seconds in 2026, 11.1 seconds faster than in 2025 and the fastest average total time the study has recorded since 2018. Nearly all the improvement came from service time, the stretch from placing an order to leaving with it, which fell 10.3 seconds to 4 minutes and 4 seconds.

Faster handoffs at the pickup window accounted for most of that gain, with window time down 7.5 seconds to 1 minute and 40 seconds. The average visit is now 58 seconds shorter than the study’s 2021 peak of 6 minutes and 22 seconds. Speed remains a priority for guests, with 38.4% of shoppers choosing speed of service as the most important factor in a drive-thru visit, followed by order accuracy at 28.4%.

She noted that what stands out this year is how closely the human side of the visit tracks with satisfaction.

Friendly service showed one of the clearest links in the study to how shoppers felt about their visit. On visits where service was rated friendly, 98.6% of shoppers were satisfied and 86.5% said they would recommend the location. When service was not friendly, satisfaction dropped to 26.8% and willingness to recommend fell to 19.6%. Even neutral service came with a noticeable dip, with satisfaction at 83.0%.

The gap extended well beyond satisfaction. Orders were accurate on 91.3% of friendly visits, compared with 73.2% when service was not friendly. Friendly visits averaged 5 minutes and 16 seconds in total time, compared with 5 minutes and 41 seconds. Shoppers rated their order good or excellent value on 58.6% of friendly visits, compared with 21.4% when service was not friendly.

The range seen between brands also showed what consistent execution can look like. At the top end, friendly service was recorded on more than nine in ten visits, which demonstrated what consistent execution can achieve.

Voice AI ordering performed better in 2026 than in 2025. At locations running the technology, orders were accurate on 90.8% of visits, up from 82.5% a year earlier, and the share of shoppers who had to repeat part of their order fell to 29.1% from 34.2%. Service at those locations was rated friendly on 77.5% of visits, up from 70.8%. That improvement moved AI-enabled locations ahead of the same brands in the main study on order accuracy, 90.8% compared with 86.7%, after trailing them in 2025.

Despite these improvements, voice AI remains rare at the drive-thru. Across the 2,145 visits in the main study, a voice AI took some or all of the order on 36, fewer than 2%. Even the most common form of automation, an automated greeting followed by an employee taking the order, occurred on just 77 visits.

The study was conducted by Intouch Insight’s mystery shoppers at 165 visits each of 13 quick-service brands, for a total of 2,145 visits across the United States between June and July 2026. Brands were grouped into three segments: Classic (Arby’s, Burger King, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s), Chicken (Chick-fil-A, KFC, Popeyes, and Raising Cane’s), and Beverage (Dunkin’, Dutch Bros, Starbucks, and Tim Hortons). A separate sample of 120 visits at Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s locations reported to be running voice AI ordering evaluated the technology using the same questionnaire.