Taco Bell tops new drive-thru speed rankings, and Chick-fil-A wins on satisfaction

Question

Taco Bel has been titled as the fastest drive through. While Chick-fil-A was labeled the slowest but with the most customer satisfaction.

Answer 1

I believe that this claim is neither right or wrong! After researching for articles to backup this claim, I came across this article by New York Post. And in this article it does only give a written response about Taco Bell being the fastest fast food drive thru, but at the end of the article it shows a graph of various different fast food chains and the time it takes to get your food and Chick-Fil-A is at the bottom. But as I continued to research more I found this article by Food & Wine, and they claim the complete opposite opinion about Chick-Fil-A. In this article they don't even mention Taco Bell at all.

Truthfully, I do believe there can be a statistical answer to this claim but in the end I feel it just depends on the location in which your ordering from!

Answer 2

According to a recent analysis of the connection between speed and consumer satisfaction at fast food restaurants, Taco Bell had the fastest drive-thru time. QSR Magazine also states that Chick-fil-a had the slowest time, but ranked higher in customer satisfaction due to their friendliness and accuracy. Mystery shopping visits helped gather data for this study, where researchers would time the waiting period and evaluate the accuracy of the orders they received. They noted that Chick-fil-a consistently had much higher traffic than Taco Bell which suggests that customers value friendliness and accuracy over efficiency.

Answer 3

After doing some more research, it seems that this claim is true. It came from a drive thru survey conducted by Intouch Insight and QSR magazine. There were a few different news sources that covered this topic aside from Fox. Local 12 says “Taco Bell emerged as the fastest, with an average wait of four minutes and 16 seconds, while Chick-fil-A, despite being the slowest at seven minutes and six seconds, tied with Dutch Bros for highest satisfaction.”https://local12.com/news/nation-world/fast-food-study-chick-fil-a-slowest-drive-thru-taco-bell-fastest-highest-satisfaction-list-order-best-worst-customer-satisfaction New York Post also talked about it, along with Yahoo News Canada and abc6. 

Answer 4

The annual fast food repot came through with surveys from customers, with the survey consisting of the speed and satisfaction of the customers during the drive through experience. At the top of the speed list, Taco Bell has been the prime choice of being the fastest drive through, according to customers. This information has been reported by QSR Magazine, tracking fast food and drive through statistics. Though, Chick-Fil-A is ranked lowest in time but is ranked top for satisfaction. A critical point they made which made this statement uncredible and exaggerated was the lack of other businesses. In QSR, they did in fact have right stats about Chick-Fil-A and Taco Bell but only did 13 business. However, ABC 6 stated that Dutch Bros is ranked highest for satisfaction, tying with Taco Bell. Due to the lack of information, this statement is uncredible by the exaggeration of the quality of business.

Answer 5

For my fact-check, I looked at the claim that Taco Bell has been titled the fastest drive-thru while Chick-fil-A is the slowest but has the highest customer satisfaction. While verifying this, I found the claim back to the annual “Drive Thru Study” conducted by Intouch Insight in partnership with SeeLevel HX, which is a credible source that evaluates major fast-food chains based on speed, accuracy, and customer service. Taco Bell was the fasted rated drive thru, averaging about 278 seconds per order. Chick-fil-A ranked as the slowest with an average of 436 seconds. During this study they found Chick-fil-A maintained the highest customer service, as its slower service was often because of more orders and volume and personalized customer interactions. Other major outlets such as CNN and USA Today reported similar findings, confirming that this claim is accurate and based on reliable industry data. Knowing this, the statement that Taco Bell has the fastest drive-thru and Chick-fil-A the slowest but has the best customer service is true, supported by reputable studies and consistent media coverage.

Answer 6

This claim made originally by Fox News that "Taco Bell has the fastest drive thru time compared to other fast food chains," has blown completely out of proportion. The study done by Fox News claims that Taco Bell's drive thru wait time was around 5 minutes and 40 seconds, but this is far from a consistent answer. Fox News also claims that, "Overall, the average total drive-thru time was five minutes and 35 seconds, slightly slower than 2024 but three seconds faster when excluding brands that were just added to the study this year: Popeyes, Dutch Bros, Starbucks and Tim Hortons." But this claim is very misleading because not every Taco Bell drive thru operates in an identical way to its various number of locations.

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/taco-bell-tops-new-drive-thru-speed-rankings-chick-fil-a-wins-satisfaction

Answer 7

The claims that Taco Bell was the top of the new drive-thru speed rankings and Chick-fil-A was the top of satisfaction are true. Taco Bell has consistently been at the top of speed rankings, the New York Times, QSR Magazine, and Fox News report. This information is based on the 25th Annual Drive-Thru Study conducted by Intouch Insight and QSR magazine, analyzing 13 fast-food brands over three categories, with 165 undercover visits per brand between June and July of this year. Taco Bell’s average time of drive-thru was 256.81 seconds, slightly higher than the previous year of 255.78 seconds, although still the fastest time. On the other hand, Chick-fil-A reported the slowest drive through times, although their satisfaction ranking was the highest, illustrating how drive-thrus now struggle to balance speed/efficiency and quality service.

Sources:

https://nypost.com/2025/10/15/lifestyle/fastest-fast-food-chains-in-the-us-ranked-by-drive-thru-speeds/ 

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/taco-bell-is-once-again-the-fastest-drive-thru-in-america/ 

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/taco-bell-tops-new-drive-thru-speed-rankings-chick-fil-a-wins-satisfaction 

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/chick-fil-a-still-has-the-most-satisfied-customers-in-fast-food/

Answer 8

While this statement is technically true, it is somewhat of a misleading title. It is hard to say that taco bell is the fastest drive-through, considering that every drive-through can be different day to day, and also depending on the time of day. Another factor in this could be how many people each fast-food chain feeds a day. According to Quora, one Taco Bell location is serving almost 300 people a day where whereas Chick-fil-A is serving upwards of 1,500 people a day. Serving that many people a day will automatically take more time through a drive-through, even if the food is made at the same pace. 

Source: 

https://www.quora.com/How-many-people-visit-Taco-Bell-per-day

Answer 9

The claim states that Taco Bell customers spent around four minutes in line, making it the fastest overall, while Chick-fil-A was the slowest but earned the highest satisfaction scores. The Fox News Food & Drink article summarizes the study accurately and highlights the trade-off between speed and customer experience. The evidence supports the claim since both reports are consistent, but the study’s lack of outside verification leaves some room for uncertainty. The claim seems accurate and fairly presented, but additional research from independent sources would make it more reliable.

Sources: 

https://www.intouchinsight.com/blog/drive-thru-trends

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/taco-bell-is-once-again-the-fastest-drive-thru-in-america/

Answer 10

The main claim of the article is that AI use in drive-thrus can speed up service but reduces friendliness. The original source of the claim is a study done by Intouch Insight and QSR magazine. There were somewhat similar articles done by NBC News, ABC12, and Aioitle. The original source is not considered legitimate as it is not on the fact-checking list of sources and the information can be considered biased with not enough research done at this point in time. Other sources, such as the article by NBC News, also discussed the topic but did not mention AI in drive thrus being less friendly exactly, but there were other issues mentioned. The Fox News article had a video linked within the article, in this video it describes how people have fun with AI in drive thrus, often times even flirting with the AI taking their order. This piece of evidence does not support the claim that AI in drive thrus is less friendly. Additionally, other articles mentioned how AI can make mistakes often, this is mostly due to the fact that it is still fairly new, mistakes means that the whole process is more time consuming for the costumer. The article could possibly be biased against AI by targeting the fact that it is less friendly, however the article included some evidence that did not support that claim. 

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