Burger King Plans to Serve Drivers Stuck in Traffic

Burger-to-car-delivery is moving into big cities across the globe.

MIAMI May 16, 2019; Burger King sees drivers stuck in heavy traffic as a potential market. The burger chain reports it’s starting a service to deliver hamburgers to people driving in traffic in Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles and Shanghai, according to Bloomberg.

Burger King launched a pilot program in Mexico City last month using an app that recognizes voice orders and provides the real-time locations of drivers in motion. The company is still refining the service, according to Gustavo Lauria, chief creative officer of We Believers, the ad agency responsible for the campaign. The company must avoid some obvious traffic violations seen in the original advertising, such as navigating between lanes to hand the order to the driver.

Burger King will rely on Google’s traffic reports to locate heavy traffic and create maps for delivery drivers. One restriction is that the delivery must be made within a 3-kilometer (1.8 mile) radius of the customer to guarantee that hot food arrives hot and beverages arrive cold. Already, the company is familiar with the Rappi app, which uses delivery people on bicycles and motor bikes, to deliver food to customers in several Mexican cities.

The on-the-road delivery service comes as Burger King’s owner, Restaurant Brands International Inc., struggles with less foot traffic and more online and mobile-ordered pickups.