直通车是快餐店的大生意，全力以赴。这些年直通研究QSR杂志finds that drive-thru sales make up about 70 percent of the average fast-food chain’s business, so it’s incredibly important that these chains keep you happy from the moment you shout into the ordering mic to the moment you’re finally handed that paper bag. How long you spend in between those moments is paramount (as anyone who’s waited hungrily for their四分之一磅的奶酪知道），一些快餐店比其他餐厅快。
麦当劳是最慢的，QSR报告，平均直通车时间为273.29秒，或者仅超过4.5分钟。（这个“服务时间”是定义为在订单站停止和接收所有项目之间的时间，包括更改。）Chick-fil-A在速度方面也排名低，平均服务时间为260.85秒，或者仅超过4.3分钟。有趣的是，这种缓慢的直通速度似乎并不关心Chick-Fil-A的忠实粉丝，他们在许多餐厅连锁店中排名最高总体客户满意度在另一项调查中。在速度光谱的另一端，汉堡王是最快的直通车连锁店，平均为193.31秒，或者不到3.5分钟。
订单的准确性也很重要。(Drive away, unwrap that burger, find out it’s wrong, and your heart just sinks. Ugh, do you go back? Nah, screw it, you’re just going to eat this sad sandwich you didn’t order.) The average chain fulfills drive-thru orders with just shy of 90 percent accuracy; one restaurant, though, was markedly lower than that: KFC, with accurate orders filled just 69.9 percent of the time. Chick-fil-A scored highest for order accuracy at more than 97 percent—is that what’s taking them so long? McDonald’s also scored above average in the accuracy department, so perhaps that’s the customer trade-off: Do you want your food fastest, or do you want exactly what you ordered?