Modular Drive-Thrus: Costs and Configurations

This article was updated on 5/29/2024

During the height of the pandemic lockdown, Andrea Worthy, director of economic development in Smyrna, Georgia, noted that many food and beverage operators began requesting permits to construct and operate drive-thrus adjacent to their food venues. She lamented that despite years of efforts to permit uses and configurations that would accommodate more walking, jurisdictions would "need to look closely at drive-thrus."

Before COVID-19, Worthy said that in Smyrna, and in several other jurisdictions in the Atlanta area, there were many "zoning regulations to try to limit the number of drive-thrus for food and beverage vendors." But now, "pickup is an integral part of a restaurant's business model, so I think you're going to see jurisdictions taking a look at where and how much they allow drive-thru services."

As part of a series of articles focusing on future innovation in the restaurant industry, LoopNet explored this drive-thru phenomenon so building owners, restaurant operators and retailers can familiarize themselves with the current generation of drive-thru technology. Understanding these systems will enable entrepreneurs to think about modifications they may need to make to buildings, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, curbs, alleys, etc. so they can factor the design and flow of drive-thrus into the sites and properties that they own and operate.

Drive-Thrus Mean More Revenue

Kevin Bessy is the founder and CEO of Humdinner, Inc., an Ontario, Canada-based company that manufactures modular kitchens, eating areas, drive-thrus and other structures for restaurant and retail operators. He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opening experience relative to drive-thrus because of the tremendous revenue boost that these features can generate.

"Most quick service restaurants (QSRs) and restaurants that had drive-thrus prior to COVID [had] 75% of their business going through the drive-thru," Bessy said. So, the prospect of generating 75% more revenue by simply adding a drive-thru - versus building a whole new facility - became very appealing to many food and beverage operators.

This sentiment was echoed by Ed L. Yancey, Jr., vice president of franchise development at Blaze Pizza. Even though the ambiance of watching your pizza made and fired in a brick oven is a significant part of the experience Blazes Pizza offers, this food vendor also realized the value of seamless pickup and delivery.

Yancey emphasized that at Blaze Pizza, they are careful not to call their pickup lanes drive-thrus. "We call them drive lanes. We don't call it a drive-thru because it's not a traditional drive-thru. You order on the app and we have a dedicated drive lane for pickup."

He explained that when you order at a traditional drive-thru, you queue up and wait for that order to be fulfilled. "With ours, the order is typically done when you get there, because we give you a time when the pizza should be ready and then our software geo-fences to your phone. [Geo-fencing is a service that - among other things - can notify a vendor when a device enters a defined geographic location.] So, when you pull up, we know you're there. There's no tendering [of money] at the window. It's mainly handing you a pizza as you pull up."

Eliminating the Bottleneck

Bessy said that his modular drive-thru concept, with overhead conveyors, enables food vendors to create distinct order and pickup lanes cost-effectively. He explained that most multiple-lane drive-thrus of the past create bottlenecks at the payment window, the pickup window or both. Today's ability to pre-order and pre-pay means pickup is just that - a drive-by requiring no ordering through a speaker or payment at a booth.

Unfortunately, for customers and third-party delivery drivers, picking up completed food orders has often meant getting in line with individuals ordering and paying for food, essentially carrying out traditional drive-thru activities. With a dedicated pickup lane, this comingling does not occur.

But the challenges of creating these distinct lanes often center around finding parcels large enough - and with the right circulation patterns - to accommodate multiple lanes that can be serviced from a single building. To overcome these constraints, advancements in technologies, with customizable modular construction, can address current lot size limitations and traffic flow issues.

Throughout the pandemic, many food and beverage vendors improvised to come up with pickup options like short-term parking outside their front door, outdoor tables manned by staff handing out numbered orders or runners that delivered food directly to a parked car. Today, many operators are refining these approaches and investing to make them part of their business models.

This focus on pickup opens the door for entrepreneurs, like Bessy, that offer drive-thrus that can be customized.

Modular Drive-Thrus for Existing or New Buildings

"The modular drive-thru's we offer are fully adaptable; they can be custom designed and built to fit an existing structure or they can be incorporated into a new build," Bessy said. Once his firm receives shop drawings that have been approved by a local architect ensuring that they meet all local codes, they "go into manufacturing so we can have it delivered to [clients] within six to eight weeks. The install is fairly quick, because the units are modular," tying into mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems as well as other existing infrastructure.

Whether manufacturing for a new or existing building, Humdinner can make the drive-thrus in different lane widths. They do this because "every region is different," Bessy said. "Some municipalities will allow a 10-foot drive-thru lane, others require [them to be] 11.5 to 12 feet wide. In places like New York state, they allow lanes as narrow as 8 feet."

The initial idea behind the modular drive-thrus was to "have the ability for an establishment to double or triple their revenue without having to build a whole new facility," Bessy said.

One Food Source Serving Multiple Lanes

A significant challenge for food and beverage operators adding lanes involves moving the completed food order to outer lanes that are not adjacent to the kitchen. Bessy's design overcomes this with a type of conveyor system that takes the products up vertically, over horizontally and then back down.

"We can set our drive-thrus up where you have lane one as the traditional window, providing all menu items and the ability to pay cash and interact with the person. Lane two could be an automated window with a redacted menu where you have ready-made sandwiches and everything ready to go like coffee, drinks, wraps, donuts, etc. The third lane can be for third-party delivery services or your own delivery drivers," Bessy said. "We can set up a geo-referencing and geo-location system, so we know when those drivers are going to be arriving, so those orders are ready to go, and we keep that line going," he noted.

Costs of Modular Drive-Thru Lanes and Kitchens

To understand pricing, Bessy shared some recent estimates for projects he quoted as well as the particulars of each.

"We have just priced a few versions for a well-known burger company at about US$1 million." This includes three distinct lanes with all menu items offered in lane one; lane two serves as an express lane with pre-ordered and pre-paid menu items and lane three is dedicated to third-party delivery drivers.

This configuration includes Humdinner's contactless delivery system, which limits human interaction as food is passed along. It includes UV light to sanitize surfaces as well as speech-to-order devices. It features a relatively large building footprint of 1,600 square feet that accommodates two floors for 3,200 square feet of total space, housing a fully outfitted kitchen and a rooftop dining area. Bessy emphasizes that this concept is not just about saving on construction costs, "it is about automation and long-term labor-saving costs as well."

A humbler fried chicken and barbecue concept with a contactless delivery system, a fully equipped kitchen and two kiosks, Bessy just priced at about $780,000. Each kiosk features touchscreen and electronic payment options as well as speech recognition. He noted that "smaller footprints and simpler designs without larger kitchen equipment requirements, indoor seating and or larger cold-storage areas can cost less."

As a point of comparison, Bessy said "when you look at, let's say, a Tim Hortons up here in Canada, a 1,200-square-foot or 1,400-square-foot facility typically runs about $1.4 million to build. And, the cost of construction doesn't account for an automated multiple-lane drive-thru, only a traditional drive-thru with one payment and one pickup window."

Emerging Technology: Speech Recognition and Contactless Ordering

In an effort to make ordering more appealing - to millennials and generation Z in particular - the company is focusing on speech recognition and the ability to order without talking to a server. "Most of them don't want to deal with a person anymore," Bessy said.

"We have over 85% accuracy right now [with the speech-to-order technology]. It is being tested in three locations here in Ontario, and we were trying to take it a step further." Bessy said they want to make the technology interactive as well as adaptable for each business. "We can enable customers to interact with a digital character that can be customized to the branding of each business."

For now, they are sticking with seven of the world's most popular languages and they are also working on gesture recognition to read sign language, so the technology is fully ADA compliant and can be completely contactless.