Taco Bell is the fast food chain that has the fastest drive-thrus in America. According to a study done by industry publication QSR, Taco Bell customers have to wait an average of 4 minutes and 28 seconds for their orders. The study included 1,007 visits to the ten biggest drive-thru restaurant chains across all U.S. regions and all times of the day.
KFC, Carl's Jr./Hardee's and Dunkin' Donuts all stayed under 5 minutes per order when the study was carried out, placing them in ranks 2-4. McDonald's just cracked the 5-minute mark and came fifth.
The study also concluded that McDonald's had by far the most locations with order-confirmation boards and that customers could expect the biggest drive-thru order accuracy at Chick-fil-A. The chicken chain had the slowest drive-thru in the survey by far, but was also the place where most vehicles lined up in the drive-thru on average (4). This is many more than the next busiest competitors, McDonald's, at an average of 2.2 cars waiting.