The Energy Wasters Report

FYI fast food nation: Every time you go to a drive through, you burn about 18 cents worth of gas idling your car. To use Burger King as an example, about 70% of their restaurant revenue comes from drive-thru business, according to the Associated Press. With $2B of annual revenue, and an average order size of $5, that means about 280 million cars a year idling while waiting to have it their way. And according to QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) Magazine, the average drive-thru wait once the order’s taken is about three minutes. Tack on another minute or two waiting to place the order, and thats about a billion car-minutes spent idling per year at the Home of the Whopper alone. At $3/gallon, assuming an idling car burns about .75 gallons an hour, thats 18 cents per drive-thru in burned gas - or 16M gallons annually for all Burger King drive-thru customers. If BK is that much, you’re probably looking at a couple hundred million gallons wasted idling total when you add up all the restaurant drive-thrus - $600M a year, not to mention the environmental cost.