With holidaymakers preparing to embark on their travels around South Africa this holiday season, Micros South Africa – a hospitality and restaurant industry support service – has just equipped the first two restaurants in the country with its new smart drive-thru technology for fast-food outlets.

The system goes live at the newly launched Pedros Flame Grilled Chicken outlet in Inanda, KwaZulu Natal, along with an upgrade from an older system at Pedros Bonaero in Johannesburg.  

The solution includes modular 5G wireless headsets, microphones, speakers, robust anti-glare displays and AI-enabled reporting and timer systems to deliver continuous efficiency improvements over time.

“Drive-thru ordering, historically seen as an ancillary (and optional) sale mechanism, is becoming increasingly vital to continue the sustainability of the food service sector, which is one of the hardest hit by the pandemic,” says Reginald Sibeko, MD of Micros South Africa.

“If sales systems can demonstrate their ability to serve high volumes of customers safely, even under the strictest lockdown, they will go a long way towards preventing closures and maintain revenues while delivering a seamless customer experience, thus protecting businesses and millions of jobs in a high unemployment environment.”

According to a Micros’ sales revenue report of the South African industry, since the relaxing of restrictions, the drive-thru has shown a strong recovery, with a 36% increase in revenue from December 2019 to October 2021, and is now generating greater revenues than eating in, which fell 35% in the same period.

Micros South Africa expects to roll out a total of three drive-thru locations for Pedros this year and is in talks with several quick-service restaurant chains to assist in similar transitions.