It’s that time of year again, folks. The playgrounds are full of children and campus is stirring with the already stressed out bodies of college students. With the busy schedules of those people who are taking college classes and those who have children in primary or high school, we all find it a bit difficult to fit cooking our own food, into our day. Now, everyone has their own favorite fast food joint, be it Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Taco Bell, Jimmy Johns, Arby’s, whatever; Its fast, its cheapish and the food is palatable. We are all guilty of popping into a drive thru from time to time.

Sometimes, we are in a hurry, we have had a bad day or we are stressed out and don’t really pay all that much attention to how we interact with the staff of said fast food restaurant. That being said, here are some helpful hints to make your experience a little better for everyone involved.

A lot of people have worked in a fast food restaurant before but for those of you who haven’t; there is a set system to everything that happens when you go to a restaurant or thru the drive and it is important that you know that.

First off, let’s get into a bit of drive thru lingo. Every restaurant with a drive thru more than likely has a “Drive time.” And that means that as a customer, as soon as you get to the speaker, it starts a clock. All drive times are different but, the idea is that the customer should be in the drive thru for only a set amount of time. After that time expires, bells and whistles go off in the form of machine or manager. Keep this in mind the next time you go to grab food. Try to have some kind of idea what you want to eat before you get to the speaker. The longer you sit at the speaker, the more stressed everyone inside becomes.

As annoying as it can be, most places also have a set greeting and dialogue and closing that they have to go through with you at the speaker and at the window. That whole, “Welcome to so-and-so, how may I help you today,” when you get to the speaker and the “how are you today, would you like a receipt,” deal at the window. Not very many people enjoy talking to strangers but that’s how it is for the people working the drive thru. They aren’t talking to you for their health, it’s their job. They are real people, saying real words; talk to them back. You would be surprised how many people come through a drive thru and completely ignore the person at the window. A lot of the time, it has to do with the fact that people cannot put their cell phone down long enough to acknowledge others. 85- 180 seconds, that’s how long most drive times are. Use those seconds to smile and greet the person greeting you; your phone really will be okay without you staring at it.

While on the topic of speaking to employees, lets touch on listening to what they have to say. Some people don’t realize that the folks working drive thru are doing more than just standing there waiting for you to order. Sometimes they may ask you to wait a moment while they finish up with their last task. If you hear “Welcome to so-and-so, please hold one moment,” there is a good chance that the person behind the speaker is bagging up the order in front of you or maybe even taking their money. Despite popular belief, there aren’t always 5 people working a drive thru. Sometimes there is just one person running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Be patient and be attentive, for everyone’s sake. It is also important to listen carefully to what they say because there will usually be questions asked about your order. Some places don’t have fancy screens on their speakers so when your order is repeated back, it is better to listen to what is said, rather than just pulling off or assuming that it is right. If you are having a hard time understanding what is being said through the speaker, don’t be afraid to ask them to repeat something. It is far better to have them repeat the order than having to have them remake something because it was wrong.

When you are at the speaker, keep in mind that it can be really hard to hear you over all of the outside noise. If you have a loud car or a truck, cut off the engine and please, please cut off your radio. As soon as your car puts weight on the drive pad, it opens up a mic to the inside of the store. The roar of your vehicle or radio is the first thing that goes through the headsets and into all of the employee’s ears. To insure that your order is being heard, make sure you are speaking directly into the speaker and you are speaking clearly. When you say your order, it goes through all of the headsets so that everyone in every area can get a jump on it before it is entered into the system. Try not to change your order a million times before you decide exactly what you want. Also, try not to add onto your order once you get to the window to pay for your food. When you add things after the order is already sent through, everyone has to stop what they are doing to get the extra things for you. This throws a wrench in the groove that everyone follows and adds onto the drive time because you will have to sit longer and wait on the new items to be prepared or you may even be asked to pull around and park which will eat up your time.

If you have been to that particular store multiple times, you usually have a good idea about what is on the menu. You know what you like and you know how long it will take to get your food. Just a heads up here, items that aren’t as popular and items that have to be cooked to order, those things will always take longer to cook. Things like Onion rings, Hash browns, Cheese sticks or curds, Crispy chicken, Fish, fried mushrooms, or “baked” items have a set cook time. If you are ordering things like that in the drive, understand that there is a good chance that you will be asked to pull up. Nothing you can say will make those things cook any faster but, if you mention them at the beginning of your order, they may get done by the time you make it to the window.

If you happen to drive off and notice that you received the wrong order or that there was a mistake, try to remember that people make your food, people bag your food and people make mistakes. No one intentionally makes your food wrong. If you give the store a call, come on inside or come back around the drive, they will fix it. There is no need to be hostel in those situations, they are just people.

All in all folks try to be attentive, be courteous and don’t be rude. Keep in mind that although you may only deal with drive thru employees once or twice a week, they deal with hundreds of people just like you every single day. The easier you make things, the more smoothly your drive experience will be.