Read This Before You Expand Your Drive-Thru

A typical banking drive-thru interaction takes about 2.5 minutes. So, if you’re operating two lanes, your theoretical capacity is about 48 cars per hour.

But here’s the catch: most credit unions and community banks make expensive drive-thru decisions based on what they think their capacity is—without validating what their drive-thru is really delivering day to day.

Before you build a new lane, ask yourself the following questions:

1) What’s our true average cars per hour?

Pull data from a normal week, then a normal month. Average customer volume tells you whether you have a real capacity issue—or simply predictable surges that can be relieved with smarter traffic flow, staffing, and lane management.

2) What does our busiest 15 minutes actually look like?

If your busiest 15 minutes routinely backs up into the lot, blocks entrances, or creates safety risks, it’s doing more damage than you think. Long lines don’t just slow things down—they chip away at customer loyalty. If it keeps happening, your capacity deserves a closer look.

3) How many lanes are fully operational from start to finish?

A lot of “two-lane” drive-thrus don’t actually function like two lanes. One lane stays backed up while the other is sitting empty. 

If that sounds familiar, ask yourself: are any of these getting in the way?

• One lane is down because of staffing gaps (or it’s technically open, but nobody’s assigned to run it consistently).
• Equipment isn’t equal between lanes—one has the reliable setup; the other has the “temperamental” tube, scanner, drawer, mic, or ITM.
• Lane assignments create confusion.

4) Are we routing transactions efficiently?

What percentage of your drive-thru interactions are cash-heavy versus quick service? If most visits are straightforward—deposits, withdrawals, loan payments, basic support—you may not need more lanes. You may just need better transaction routing: deciding ahead of time where different transaction types should go so the line keeps moving.

For example:

• Quick-service lane: deposits, withdrawals, loan payments, check cashing, balance questions
• Complex / assisted lane: business deposits, large cash, account maintenance, disputes—anything that naturally takes longer

5) What’s the real bottleneck: lane capacity, staff capacity, or decision time?

Sometimes the lane isn’t the bottleneck—the teller is. If your process includes extra approvals, manual steps, or jumping between systems, that “2.5-minute” interaction quietly becomes 4 minutes. And when that happens, your capacity doesn’t just dip. It drops from roughly 48 cars per hour to closer to 30, without anyone realizing why.

6) Can we shift demand?

Can we take pressure off peak times with a few smarter moves?

• Appointment-based service for complex needs so those longer transactions don’t clog the line.
• Stronger digital adoption campaigns that shift routine requests out of the drive-thru entirely.
• Incentives to use ITMs or self-service for quick, repeatable transactions.
• Staffing schedules built around peak windows so your strongest coverage matches your heaviest traffic.

At the end of the day, the goal isn’t “more lanes.” It’s a faster, smoother member experience. When you measure real traffic, look closely at your busiest 15 minutes, and identify what’s actually slowing things down, you can often unlock more capacity with smarter adjustments—without paying for infrastructure you don’t need.