69-74 WEB-Abdelwahab

69 INTRODUCTION The success of operating a drive-thru facility depends on queues and waiting times experienced by customers. Drivethru facilities are required to provide queuing areas that can hold the expected maximum queue length. Rates of arrivals and service times affect the required queuing areas for drive-thru facilities. Gattis recommended queuing areas for drive-thru facilities located at businesses such as fast food restaurants, banks, day care facilities, dry cleaners and car washes.1 However, the study did not discuss queue lengths for drive-thru lanes at a pharmacy store. This feature presents a traffic study for drive-thru lanes at a pharmacy store. Traffic counts were collected before and after the addition of a second lane at two drive-thru pharmacy stores in Indiana. Per the pharmacy’s decision-makers, the two-lane configuration adopted at both stores included a full-service window lane and a lane for drop-offs only. To further extend the investigation of the benefits of adding a second drive-thru lane, a simulation model was developed to compare three different double-lane configurations against the single lane. Three drive-thru lane configurations were examined and simulated: • The window lane is full service (drop-off and pick-up) and the second lane is for use only to customers intending to drop off a prescription. • Both lanes are full service. • The window lane is for pick-up only and the second lane is for drop-off only.