How Have Drive-Thru and QSR Technologies Evolved during COVID-19?

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted every corner of the foodservice industry, and this was especially true for drive-thru and QSR operations that had yet to digitize their drive-thru operations.

With in-person dining off-limits for the better part of a year in many parts of the world, brands quickly shifted to prioritizing their drive-thrus. This spurred acceleration of digitization and adoption of innovative solutions that can bring new speed and accuracy to drive-thru service.

To explore in greater depth how the pandemic accelerated the digitization of operations in QSR brands, particularly in Europe, and saw many brands take their first steps on this journey, Beyond Technology host Hilary Kennedy chatted with Acrelec’s Peter McManus, VP, Global Account Management.

McManus, who has managed many a large account for Acrelec and saw the shift from a focus on in-person dining to drive-thru service happen in real time during the pandemic, was uniquely suited to offer his front-line insights.

“Certainly, there has been a range of reactions [to the pandemic],” McManus said. “One of the things that we’re certainly seeing is new thinking around new store designs. … Many [QSR] operators have reimagined what their stores should look like.”

That means catering to online and mobile ordering, special lanes to fulfill those orders, a new focus on drive-thru success, and more.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

courage
Creative Confidence and Moral Courage: The Leadership Traits Business Schools Should Be Betting On
May 25, 2026

What students need from higher education is becoming harder to pin down than it once was. As higher education faces mounting pressure—from student disengagement to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence—institutions are being forced to rethink not just what students learn, but who they become. New research and industry signals suggest that technical knowledge…

Read More
healthcare
From the C-Suite to the Classroom: A Healthcare Leader’s Bet on the Next Generation
May 25, 2026

Healthcare isn’t short on strategy right now—it’s short on people, access, and experienced leadership where it matters most. In Texas alone, more rural hospitals have closed than in any other state over the past decade, leaving entire communities with limited access to care. At the same time, many health systems are realizing they haven’t…

Read More
AI
The AI Health Score: Turning Hallucinations, Agents, and AI Risk Into Board-Ready Insight
May 24, 2026

As artificial intelligence moves deeper into enterprise operations, many organizations are discovering that the real challenge is not adoption, but control. Traditional software has always been predictable: the same input produces the same output, making it possible to audit systems at a fixed point in time. AI changes that equation. Jeff Carson, founder of…

Read More
TheAIAudit
Introducing TheAIAudit: A Platform Built to Measure, Monitor, and Govern Enterprise AI
May 22, 2026

Enterprise AI is advancing faster than most companies can govern it. Behind the scenes, AI systems are already influencing decisions tied to revenue, operations, compliance, customer outcomes, and risk — yet many organizations still lack a clear way to measure, explain, or oversee what those systems are doing. That is the gap TheAIAudit was…

Read More