Taco Bell is testing a new drive-thru format with four lanes and vertical drops for food in Minnesota. The concept is dubbed Taco Bell Defy and focuses on mobile ordering and making fast food, well, even faster.
Taco Bell's goal is to get drive-thru ordering times down to 2 minutes or less — a bold goal for a fast food chain that is already the fastest in the business (of the 10 largest chains).
Faster food
Indeed, data from a QSR study reveals that last year the average Taco Bell drive-thru time from entry to exit was a speedy 268 seconds. That was the fastest of any of the largest chains, and less than half of the time that the typical Chick-fil-A drive-thru took.
The only problem is that the speed seems to have compromised on accuracy as the study also showed that Chick-fil-A orders were correct an impressive 100% of the time, while Taco Bell drive-thru orders were only correct 87% of the time — meaning that roughly one-in-seven orders had some kind of problem or mistake.
You can't sit with us
Although it's only one store, this Taco Bell concept is a response to changing habits from the pandemic. Drive-thru sales skyrocketed during COVID, and they've stayed high in some areas — which is why the Taco Bell Defy doesn't have any seating whatsoever inside. One franchisee, Border Foods, has seen drive-thru orders account for 90%+ of its sales at its 200+ locations, up from around 65% pre-COVID.
See a video of Taco Bell Defy in action.
