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

This appears to be based on a drive thru study conducted by Intouch Insight and QSR magazine, which examined 13 fast-food brands across three categories: classic, chicken and beverage. ABC 6, reporting on the study, confirmed that "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." CBS News also picked up the story.

Comments

Solid fact check! Is there anything you found that is contrary to this article?

Answer 2

The study was done by Intouch, insight for the 25th annual drive-through study. Not only reported by Fox News, but also by Local 12. Looking at the study report:

https://go.intouchinsight.com/hubfs/website/intouch-insight/resources/reports/drive-thru/drive-thru-study-report-2025.pdf

They broke up the fast food places into three separate categories to best be able to rank them. and find which leads overall in each segment, which are: classic, chicken, and beverage. Looking at the study and both reports of it, Chick-fil-a is the overall slowest; however, it ties with Ducth Bros for overall satisfaction. Due to ducth bros not being mentioned in the claim, I think it's a little misleading. However, overall, true Tacobell was fastest at 4:16, and Chick-fil-A was slowest at 7:06.

Answer 3

This article is misleading / exaggerated for a few key reasons. The main data points were posted by Intouch and FoxNews, which correlate with one another and are true, allthough they were not posted by quote on quote credible sources. As stated, "The fastest overall was Taco Bell, with customers spending about four minutes in line", and, "While Chick-Fil-A was the slowest, it ranked highest in satisfaction, tying with Dutch Bros, a drive-thru coffee company with more than 1,000 locations across 19 states." So while Taco Bell won the fastest drive-thru time, the "win" for Chick-Fil-A is a bit misleading because Dutch Bros was not mentioned in the claim itself. They had also added more information regarding Taco Bell, Chick-Fil-A, Dutch Bros, and two other food chains, which do not significantly relate to the main claim of the article. In conclusion, this article is essentially misleading and exaggerated in a sense, though some parts are true. 

Answer 4

Taco Bell has been named the fastest drive-through among other drive-throughs. "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." Chick-fil-A ranked as the slowest, but it ranked highest in satisfaction.

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