McDonald’s In Barcelona Adapts Queue Management-Style Window Screens To Enforce Order For Scooter Delivery Pickups

January 3, 2024 by Dave Haynes

I was intrigued two or three years ago to learn about a QSR operation – I forget which one – that was using digital signage displays in the back-0f-house food prep area to let staff know the anticipated arrival time of delivery vehicles that were tied to GPS and apps, notably Uber Eats. Now that core idea of using screens to streamline deliveries has been extended to scooter and bike delivery services.

My friends at Munich-based Invidis have a post up about a sighting in Barcelona of a McDonald’s store there that has a screen up high in the front of the store, facing out, to let waiting delivery riders know when the order they’re set to deliver is ready to  go.

In European cities, crowds of delivery service drivers might be waiting outside with their bikes, and the stores won’t want all of them clogging entryways or the areas in front of order and pickup counters. What amounts to a queue management display, tied to the order management system, enforces some order.

Newer build restaurants all over, adopting to shifting consumer demands like at-home delivery, are building in separate entrances and pickup windows for delivery services. But a lot of existing restaurants will have to use things like screens to manage delivery pickup areas.

Just as in workplaces, its increasingly evident that there is a lot of opportunity and scale for digital signage technology in the back-of-house areas of businesses – relaying information that helps speed up orders, boosts accuracy and improves quality.