Labor Cost Pressures Are Forcing QSR Operators to Rethink Drive-Thru Staffing
Restaurant operators are facing a perfect storm of labor challenges. Minimum wages continue climbing (California hit $20/hour for QSR workers in 2024, with other states following) while finding reliable staff remains difficult. At the same time, drive-thru operations still demand multiple employees just to take orders, cash out guests, and prepare food.
For multi-unit franchisees managing 10+ stores, this translates to a critical question: How do you maintain service quality and throughput while keeping Sales Per Labor Hour (SPLH) healthy?
Here’s what we’ve learned after processing 100M+ orders/year across ~1,000 stores: The answer isn’t working your team harder. It’s removing the burden of order-taking entirely.
The Hidden Cost: Order-Taking Consumes 3-8 Labor Hours Per Day
Before diving into solutions, let’s look at what order-taking actually costs your operation.
In a typical drive-thru setup, you need someone at the speaker taking orders. During peak hours, that might be their only job. During slower periods, they’re juggling order-taking with other tasks: cashier, drink station, sometimes even bagging.
Here’s what that looks like in labor hours (these are averages. Actual numbers vary between low-volume and high-volume stores):
- Single-lane drive-thru: 3-5 labor hours/day dedicated to order-taking
- Dual-lane drive-thru: 6-8 labor hours/day for both lanes
- Peak periods: Full-time order taker cannot assist with fulfillment
At $15/hour (conservative estimate), that’s $45-$75/day per location. At $20/hour (California minimum), it jumps to $60-$100/day per location.
But here’s the opportunity: During most of your schedule, you keep your original staffing and in addition, the Voice AI handles order taking. That frees your team to focus on quality, speed of service, and hospitality at the window.
How AI Order Takers Save 3-8 Labor Hours Per Day (And What That Means for SPLH)
When Hi Auto’s AI Order Taker handles drive-thru ordering, it removes order-taking from your labor equation entirely. The impact shows up immediately in how restaurant managers staff shifts – they may schedule the same number of people during most of the day but redeploy labor to higher-value tasks. They may decide not to call in backup when an employee calls in sick. They may be able to save on overtime hours.
“The technology pays for itself with the labor hours we are able to take out of our budget every week, and then the sales lifts, which we think is about 1-2%, is just kind of gravy on top of that.” — Ryan Weaver, CEO of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken
Let’s break down what those 3-8 saved labor hours mean for your operation:
Labor cost savings: In states like California at $20/hour, saving 5 labor hours/day equals $100/day savings, or $3,000/month per location. But the real number is higher: fully baked labor costs, which include benefits, insurance, payroll taxes, and other overhead, can bring the true cost to $25/hour or more. At that rate, the same 5 hours/day translates to $125/day, or $3,750/month per location.
Redeployed labor: Those saved hours don’t disappear. They get reallocated. Staff who previously juggled order-taking and cashier duties can now focus entirely on guest experience at the window, food quality, and speed of service.
Sales Per Labor Hour improvement: Here’s where it gets interesting. You’re not just saving labor costs, you’re also increasing sales through 100% consistent upselling. When you reduce labor hours AND increase revenue, SPLH improves from both directions.
Richard Del Valle, CIO and COS at Bojangles, puts it simply: “We’ve taken employees that were doing three tasks before (order taking, fulfilling, and cashiering) and taken 33% of the work of the tasks away, but probably 50% of the work.” – QSR Webinar, July 2025
Beyond Labor Savings: Better Scheduling Flexibility for Restaurant Managers
The labor hour savings are just the beginning. What really changes is how restaurant managers schedule their teams.
Before AI order-taking, managers faced a constant challenge: finding reliable order-takers who could handle the pressure, speak clearly, upsell consistently, and show up for every shift.
“Before we dealt with Hi Auto, the two toughest stations in the restaurant are Fries and order taking. It was tough to find an order taker that consistently upsold and was kind to the guests. And so, we’ve always had troubles for the 20 years that I’ve been in the business.” — Jason Amell, Director of Operations for Jasam Enterprises (Checkers & Rally’s franchisee, 27 restaurants)
With AI handling orders, that pain point disappears. Managers gain:
Simplified scheduling: No need to staff a dedicated order-taker position. Your existing cashier can focus on the window without splitting attention.
Flexibility during shortages: When you’re short-staffed (and every QSR is dealing with this), you can still operate at full capacity because the AI never calls in sick.
Faster onboarding: New employees don’t need to learn order-taking or overcome the fear of being on the mic. Training time drops, and new hires can contribute immediately.
“For new hires, there’s very limited things they need to learn about Hi Auto. And so, it makes onboarding them much easier because it takes the fear of getting on the mic right away from them.” — Jason Amell, Director of Operations for Jasam Enterprises (Checkers & Rally’s franchisee, 27 restaurants)
The California Impact: When Minimum Wage Hits $20+, Every Hour Matters
In California and other high-wage states, the financial impact of labor optimization becomes even more pronounced.
At $20/hour minimum wage, and $25+/hour fully baked (including benefits, insurance, and payroll taxes):
5 hours/day saved = $100/day = $36,500/year per location
These aren’t pilot numbers. They hold at scale.
The real win isn’t just cutting costs, it’s improving margins while maintaining (or improving) guest experience. You get more consistency on taking orders, which should increase your sales, and you get the benefit of labor savings because the operation is that much more efficient.
What This Means for Your SPLH and Bottom Line
Sales Per Labor Hour is the metric that tells you if your operation is actually profitable. When you can increase sales (through consistent upselling and faster throughput) while decreasing labor hours, SPLH improves dramatically.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Restaurants calculate SPLH by dividing overall sales by total clocked labor hours. Most QSR locations land somewhere between $50-$80 SPLH, depending on volume – higher-volume stores typically achieve better SPLH.
Example: A store doing $4,000/day in sales with 60 clocked labor hours
- Before AI Order Taker: SPLH = $4,000 ÷ 60 hours = $66.67/labor hour
- After AI Order Taker (saving 5 labor hours + 1-2% sales lift): SPLH = $4,060 ÷ 55 hours = $73.82/labor hour
That’s a ~10% SPLH improvement per location – from reduced labor hours and increased revenue working together.
And here’s the part that matters for multi-unit operators: This improvement is consistent across every location. You’re not relying on individual employee performance. You’re building reliable, repeatable operational excellence into your scheduling model.
Want to see how these savings play out for your specific operation? Let’s talk through your wage rates, store count, and current labor hours to calculate your potential SPLH improvement. Book a consultation →
Team Response: From Skepticism to Relief
One of the most common concerns we hear from operators considering AI order-taking: “What will my team think?”
It turns out, the answer is overwhelmingly positive once they experience it.
Neil Pathak, Owner of Star Enterprises (30-store Bojangles franchisee), saw immediate relief: “From day one, the biggest thing I noticed with having BoLinda in there was that the crew members felt a sense of relief. The person that used to do cash, take orders, make drinks, they’re just so relaxed now compared to before.”
Jason Amell had a similar experience: “When we first rolled out Hi Auto, my employees’ sentiments were, ‘Thank God I don’t have to take any more orders.’ They were happy about that. I was a knight in shining armor when I got Hi Auto working because they didn’t have to do it anymore.”
The reality: Order-taking is stressful. It requires being on the mic, multitasking, staying friendly even when exhausted, and upselling consistently. Removing that burden doesn’t cost jobs, it makes existing jobs less stressful and more focused on what matters: food quality and hospitality.
Richard Del Valle from Bojangles addresses the concern head-on: “We talk about an hours reduction, it’s fringe hours. So to the employees, it doesn’t feel like anybody’s lost a thing, and we pick up just a little bit of traction there to offset.” – QSR Webinar, July 2025
The Bottom Line: Labor Scheduling That Actually Works at Scale
At ~1,000 stores and 100M orders/year, we’ve seen how AI order-taking transforms labor economics for QSR operations.
The math is straightforward:
- 3-8 labor hours saved per day per store
- $1,500-$4,000/month saved per location (depending on wage rates)
- 1-2% sales lift from consistent upselling
- Improved SPLH from both reduced labor and increased revenue
But the operational wins matter just as much as the financial ones:
- Restaurant managers can schedule more flexibly
- Teams focus on food and hospitality instead of order-taking
- New hires onboard faster without mic anxiety
- Staffing shortages become less crippling
In high-wage states like California, these savings directly impact your bottom line. Across multi-unit operations, they add up to hundreds of thousands in annual savings while improving guest experience.
The question isn’t whether AI order-taking improves SPLH. The data from ~1,000 stores proves it does.
The question is: When will you start seeing those improvements in your own operation?
Book a Consult
Let’s talk about your stores, operations, and the specific labor scheduling challenges we can help you solve with Hi Auto. We’ll show you exactly how the 3-8 labor hours/day savings play out across your locations, and what that means for your Sales Per Labor Hour.
