A Canadian transponder-maker has teamed up with five McDonald's restaurants in the Los Angeles-area to see if drivers show the same relish for toll burgers as they have for toll roads.
They decided on transponders because there are about
400,000 transponder-equipped vehicles in Orange County,
Calif. where the pilot project will be launched in March,
explained Michael Briand, president and CEO of SIRIT
Technologies Inc., the Brampton, Ontario-based
transponder-maker that will supply the restaurants with
receiving equipment.
Hernandez said the cashless drive-thru will save
customers the 10-15 seconds it takes for the average cash
transaction. Los Angeles, he added, already posts the
fastest time for drive-thru consumption - an average 140
seconds between gimme and got 'em. But if transponder
transactions take-off, McDonald's will be able to up its
purchase processing by about 10 percent.
If the project proves a success, McDonald's - which
is already looking at other cashless sales plans including
debit cards, checks and McKiosks - may expand the
program to other drive-thru locations. Colorado is likely to
be the next McDonald's market to give it a go.
Technological hurdles
For McDonald's, the ideal would be a transponder
capable of working at any of its drive-thru restaurants, "if
the technology is there," Hernandez said, adding some day
the company could market its own, McTransponder.
Once the toll burger project was set into motion,
McDonald's teamed up with SIRIT Technologies Inc., the
only Canadian company in the transponder business.
Founded in 1993, SIRIT bought up the
transponder-manufacturing division of Texas Instruments in
1997 and that became their U.S. sales division, Briand said.
The owner-operator of the southern California
McDonald's drive-thrus "had seen toll transponders coming
past their drive-throughs," Briand explained. When
McDonald's contacted the Orange County Transportation
Corridor Agency - the regional toll operators - "they put
them in touch with us," he added.
Transponders and receivers
In the world of transponders, the one for beaming
burger bills comes at the low end in terms of price and
performance, Briand explained. The top end models for
highway fares price in at about $30 per vehicle and can pick
up a billing beam at up to 100 mph. The ones now in use at
some pre-pay parking lots are lower in price and don't
need to worry about high-speed entry, he added.
While McDonald's customers will start off using a
frequency compatible with their current transponder, an
eventual McDonald's model would fall between the other
two designs since even fast food delivery is slow by freeway
standards, "at most times," he went on.
While there is a possibility frequent-munchers at
McDonald's may have to sign up for the speedier
chow-down program, Hernandez hopes to arrange a deal
with the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agency so
commuters can pay their freeway and fries bill at the same
time.
But potential expansion plans also face some
technological hurdles. While transponders have been in use
on toll roads and in some parking lots for years, they are
limited in scope. Other than California, where a single
transponder can be linked with toll agencies from San Diego
to San Francisco, most are only compatible in local areas.
SIRIT, a $7 million company that sells about 200,000
transponders a year in the U.S., Canada, China, Chile and
Panama, was picked because it manufactured transponders
and could equip the restaurants with the receivers,
Hernandez said.
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