The more things change, the more they stay the same. According to the results of the 2008 Quick-Service Drive-Thru Performance Study conducted by Insula Research, Wendy’s still operates the fastest drive-thru system in the land, but Chick-fil-A’s drive-thrus are the best overall among the nation’s largest chains based on systemwide sales.

Behind Chick-fil-A, the top performers in this year’s study include: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, and Del Taco.

In an effort to tighten the study’s focus and parameters, changes were made. Taco John’s, a regular top performer in previous studies, was dropped in favor of Culver’s, a Wisconsin-based chain (and QSR 50 regular) operating nearly 400 restaurants in 17 states. In the overall rankings Culver’s finished in the middle of the pack at 15th, last in speed of service, but near the top in both order accuracy and menuboard appearance.

Speed Changes

The good news for new Wendy’s owner Triarc is Wendy’s is again the fastest chain at just more than 131 seconds per vehicle—about 7 seconds faster than its first-place time last year. There were, however, fewer vehicles in line at Wendy’s drive-thrus this year (from 1.68 in 2007 to 1.48 in 2008), which might account for the speedier lines. Over the years the Quick-Serve Drive-Thru Performance Study has consistently demonstrated that for any given chain, more vehicles in line equals longer service times.

Bojangles’, which was added to the study three years ago, finished second in speed of service, up from eighth place in 2007. Its average service time of just more than 151 seconds is similar to the 152 seconds Checkers posted to finish second in 2007 and is nearly 40 seconds faster than Bojangles’ 2007 average time of 190 seconds. However, as with Wendy’s, Bojangles’ faster service might be attributable to fewer customers in line (1.48 in 2007 versus 1.07 in 2008). Interestingly, along with Bojangles’ improvement in speed came a decline in order accuracy.

Burger King is 2008’s third-fastest service provider at 153 seconds per vehicle, up from sixth place last year when it averaged nearly 180 seconds. Although Burger King also saw a decrease in the average number of vehicles in line, the change was slight (1.5 to 1.42) and unlikely enough to account for the nearly 30 second improvement. Taco Bell improved its average service time from just more than 163 seconds in 2007 to less than 155 seconds in 2008, while also increasing the average number of vehicles in line from 1.34 to 1.46. Unfortunately this improvement was not enough to prevent Taco Bell’s slide one place in the rankings, from third in 2007 to fourth this year. Similarly, McDonald’s dropped one slot to fifth this year, despite shaving nearly 10 seconds off its average service speed while increasing the average number of vehicles in line from 2.54 in 2007 to 2.69 in 2008.