How Drive Thrus Work: What gear do I need? Do I need radios?

How Drive Thrus Work: What gear do I need? Do I need radios?

Line busting places humans outside, in the elements all year long. This means that for all locations outside of San Diego, West of Interstate 5, you will need gear to keep them safe, comfortable, efficient and effective. Line busting is its own environment and as such, comes with its own constraints. You’ll need gear to liberate your team from these constraints. 

Let’s take a look at what gear you’ll need to run a world-class drive thru line busting operation:

1. Apple iPads for POS software: the iPad is the thinnest, lightest, and most reliable tablet on the market today with the most intuitive operating system. This means little to no training time for your employees as the chances are high they already personally own and use Apple devices everyday. When was the last time your teenager saw Microsoft or Google products as status symbols and a way to build social capital? Yeah, that’s what we thought.

2. iPad Cases: iPads are beautiful and intuitive, but like all machines, they have operating environment limitations. In other words: they overheat and they freeze. Running wifi and Bluetooth with Retina Displays on maximum brightness means they also run out of power. As useful and amazing as iPads are, they can’t hold menus and don’t have a natively integrated carry mechanism. Steve Jobs and his iPad team were brilliant, but still human.

Ok, that was the bad news. 

Here is the good news: there’s an app (and a case) for that. Enter IceCase: the world’s most powerful and most capable iPad Cooling Case for QSR and Pilots/Aviation. IceCase can do all sorts of cool things (see what we did there). BLUF:

  • Conductively cools iPad 10.2 (also works with iPad 9.7, iPad Mini) for 1-2 hours
  • Companion StayFrosty® App provides continuous thermal monitoring, alerts
  • IceBloq cooling inserts swap out in seconds to keep iPads cool indefinitely
  • Integrated and detachable SunShield keeps glare and heat off the screen
  • SunShield displays menus for customers/teams, no more menu arm tucks or binder clips!
  • Connects to: IceVest HiVis Class 2 (Type R), IcePlate® Hydration Backpack, IceVest Black for hands-free carry
  • Attach external devices using SpeedSlots (patent pending) for unlimited scalability
  • no batteries
  • no moving parts
  • no condensation

However, we would be remiss in our duty to educate customers and hypocritical in our duty to be transparent, if we didn’t als tell you about the other iPad cooling cases on the market.

What?!?! “You are going to advertise for your competition?” you say? What is this sorcery? “Have you gone mad Qore Performance®?”

BLUF: Yes, we are going to advertise for our competition. Why? We care about your outcome and we care about helping you and your organization realize your full potential. That is what Building A Superhuman Future is all about. 

In addition to IceCase, here are the other iPad cooling cases on the market today:

1. X-Naut

2. iPad Sport Cool Case

Curious to learn more about the differences, similarities and capabilities of each iPad cooling case? Click here to read or watch our full review.

3. Safety Vests: being outside means your employees are not only exposed to the elements, but they are also exposed to slow moving traffic. This means you need to protect them against the elements to prevent heat/cold exposure injuries and break rotations that make line busting super inefficient (read: expensive) while simultaneously making them super to the cars in the drive thru.

Luckily, there are two easy solutions here: IceVest HiVis Cooling/Heating/Hydration Safety Vest Class 2 (Type R) and IceVest Hydration Backpack. Use IceVest for the hottest climates where you need the maximum cooling power of two IcePlate® Curves and/or for team members who run a bit hot and prefer as much cooling power as possible. For more petite team members, use the IcePlate® Hydration Backpack. These two cooling hivis safety solutions are the gold standard for QSR line busting operations and are trusted by the most respected names in the business.

Both IceVest HiVis and the IcePlate® Hydration Backpack also solve another problem: hydration. IceVest and IcePlate® Hydration Backpack can be used in cooling/heating only mode for teams that share assets. But, for teams who do individual issues of gear, both hivis safety solutions come in a drinkable format where team members body heat is absorbed into the frozen IcePlate® Curve water bottles. This keeps them cool and creates ice cold water to keep them hydrated in the process.

4. Radios: any good line busting operation needs radios with earbuds and lapel mics. Radios, like IceVest HiVis and IcePlate® Hydration Backpack, reduce the need for team members to go in and out of the building, slowing down the line busting operation. Drawing again on our work for military and law enforcement units, both IceVest and IcePlate® Hydration Backpack have integrated radio mounting and wire routing for the earbud and lapel mic. We recommend the Motorola TalkAbout series of family radios.

While this gear list might look both expensive and intimidating, it will turn out to be one of the best investments you’ve ever made into your restaurant. Most of our customers make their investments back in this equipment in a matter of days or weeks. The ROI is so quick that you’ll wish you could convert your entire property into one gigantic drive thru!


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