Solutions To Avoid Gutter Rash & Car Damage At Drive Through Restaurants
Australia’s love of the drive-through restaurant experience shows no sign of abating. And as more and more of us head down the drive-thru lane, the number of bumps and scrapes to vehicles is increasing. Navigating the narrow lanes in a larger car is a skill in itself and it’s really frustrating if you’re one of the increasing number of drivers suffering ‘gutter rash’: scratches to your wheels from scraping the kerb. Fortunately, more and more outlets are adopting a number of simple measures to help protect their customer’s cars.
At one time drive-thrus were solely the domain of chains like KFC and McDonalds. Now, of course, brands such as Hungry Jacks, Coffee Club, Guzman Y Gomez, Zarraffa’s Coffee, Starbucks, Zambrero, Taco Bell and Oporto have all embraced the consumer’s need for speed and convenience. The customer experience is still paramount and technology and innovation are playing a crucial role in making the process as fast and efficient as possible, particularly when it comes to the ordering process. However, there is still one area of the drive-through experience that irks and frustrates customers more than any other and that is the car damage so frequently suffered in the outside lane, particularly gutter rash.
It’s noticeable that as land becomes more expensive, drive-through driveways are becoming narrower and tighter increasing the risk of scraping or catching your wheels. In many cases, customers may never have experienced car damage at the drive-through window but the potential for it to happen is enough to put them off visiting a particular chain. Thankfully more and more drive-through restaurant owners are realising that there are some simple solutions that will make the whole experience safer, less stressful and help customers avoid the dreaded gutter rash and even worse car damage.
Firstly installing spee
d humps at appropriate intervals helps keep drivers’ speed down on approach to the windows and at key ‘black spots’ in the drive-through lane and also helps avoid collisions between vehicles.
The next innovation in drive-through car safety is using rumble bars along the roadway to alert drivers that they are too close to the kerbside. As these photos show, a row of rumble bars running parallel to the kerb helps avoid a car getting gutter rash on the wheels as well as helping keep the vehicle a safe distance from the building itself.
Rumble Bars may also provide protection for the property by helping guide vehicles away from the side of the building, especially at the order kiosks and drive-thru collection windows.
At Speed Humps Australia we are now regularly working with many of the big brand chains and drive-through owners to install these simple, cost-effective traffic management tools. They are also now becoming best-practice in new-build drive-through restaurants, with many architects and builders including them in the spec at new sites.
If you manage a drive-through restaurant and want to avoid complaints of car damage and keep your customers returning regularly, contact us today on 1300 138 568 for more information and a quote.
