The results of the 2009 Drive-Thru Performance Study are in, and Chick-fil-A remains the overall best drive thru in America, making it the company’s 6th first-place finish in the study’s history.

Behind Chick-fil-A, the overall top performers in this year’s study were Taco Bell, Del Taco, Krystal, and Wendy’s. Although there was some movement—McDonald’s fell five spots to No. 7—all of 2008’s top-five finishers also performed well again this year. Burger King fell three places to No. 6. Wendy’s, which once again topped the service-speed category, slipped from fourth to fifth because of its 14th place finish in order accuracy. And Del Taco improved to No. 3 this year from No. 5 in 2008.

Speed

Wendy’s legendary speed again landed it at the top of the category with an average of 134 seconds per vehicle, three seconds longer per vehicle than 2008’s average. Note, however, that the average number of vehicles in line for Wendy’s jumped to a three-year high of 1.77 (from 1.68 in 2007 and 1.48 in 2008). As a result, Wendy’s appears to be processing more customers in the same amount of time this year than it did in either of the past two years.

Del Taco finished second in speed of service with an average time of about 150 seconds per vehicle, all the way up from 13th in 2008 when it clocked more than 188 seconds per vehicle. Remarkably, Del Taco also had more customers in line this year than last. The 150 seconds per vehicle is very similar to last year’s second-place finisher in service speed (Bojangles’), which averaged just more than 151 seconds. 2007’s second-place finisher, Checkers, averaged about 152 seconds per vehicle.

Taco Bell moved up to third this year from fourth in 2008, despite an increase of eight seconds to about 163 seconds per vehicle. The time increase appears to be caused by the increase in traffic at the drive thru. In 2008 its average was 1.46 other vehicles in line, versus 1.63 this year.

Burger King is the 2009 fourth-place speed-of-service finisher at nearly 167 seconds per vehicle, up from 153 seconds per vehicle last year when it finished third. Like most chains in the ranking, Burger King’s stats also reflect an increase in traffic from 1.42 other vehicles in line to 1.58. Chick-fil-A, already well established as the long-standing industry leader in overall drive-thru performance, still found a way to improve as it moved up to finish fifth in speed this year, clocking slightly less than 168 seconds per vehicle, from eighth in 2008.

Traffic

Many predicted that the quick-serve industry was one of a few that would benefit from the recession as consumers tightened their belts. Based on the amount of traffic in drive thrus during data collection for the study, it appears that there was increased traffic as the average number of other vehicles in line jumped from 1.37 during last year’s study to 1.58 this year. Of the 20 chains included in the study, 15 had more traffic this year than last.

On a chain-by-chain basis, Chick-fil-A again had the busiest drive thru with an average of 3.54 other vehicles in line—nearly identical to last year’s average. McDonald’s, the second-busiest drive thru, averaged 2.93 other vehicles in line compared to 2.69 in 2008. Whataburger’s average of 2.26 other vehicles in line represents the first time in the study’s history that any chain other than Chick-fil-A or McDonald’s averaged more than 2 other vehicles in line. The least-busy drive thru during the study was Captain D’s with an average of 0.85 vehicles. Last year’s least-busy drive thru was Long John Silver’s with an average of 0.77.

It is important to note the impact the number of vehicles in line has on speed of service. To illustrate, Wendy’s average service speed when there were 2 or fewer other vehicles in line was 120.25 seconds, as compared to its average of 166.62 seconds when there were 3-5 other vehicles in line. Also note that speed of service based on the study’s definition excludes the time the customer waits in line before reaching the speaker.

Payment

In addition to customer count, another factor impacting speed of service that has become more prominent over the past few years is the emergence and corresponding impact of different payment options. Ten years ago finding a quick-serve that accepted electronic payment would have been difficult, but within the past few years electronic-payment acceptance has become relatively standard within the industry. To reflect this change, Insula’s researchers made 20 percent of their purchases using a credit card. The 20 percent standard is an industry-suggested approximate percentage of credit-card customers versus cash customers.