You want Fries with that?

[Bigglez]

Technology now allows the fast food drive through
order taker to be outsourced, too.

More info here
And here

[Chupa]

I guess the idea is to have 1 person overseas working 2 or more restaurants? I don't see how this would make any scene otherwise scene the bottle neck of the fast food line is delivering the food, not taking the order. And then they will give you the wrong bag anyway

[jollyrgr]

This was briefly featured on an episode of "Modern Marvels" concerning fast food tech and all that goes into it. The owner of a number of franchise restaurants setup a "call center" to handle the order taking for the drive through windows of all of them. (One order taker could be working for ten drive up windows.)

The people taking the orders never saw the inside of the restaurant itself or the food being made. Asked if this type of job would be sent overseas they said it likely would not as this was more of a "cultural" thing that had to remain in the states. I figured "Yeah, right". Anything to save a buck. Now even the minimum wage jobs will wind up overseas. No wonder we're screwed right now. I hate government regulation but I would not be opposed to putting the smack down on overseas call centers; especially concerning fast food!

[Bigglez]

This was briefly featured on an episode of "Modern Marvels" concerning fast food tech and all that goes into it.

Right... I had forgotten about that story. Wasn't the
experiment being done by a regional restaurant owner,
with a call center in Texas?

Asked if this type of job would be sent overseas they said it likely would not as this was more of a "cultural" thing that had to remain in the states. I figured "Yeah, right". Anything to save a buck.

The weak economy has sent more 'poor'
people to the fast food chains. Customers can
eat well (volume) if not wise (nutrition) for only a
few dollars. Do that a million times a day and it
adds up! MacDonalds reported a record sales year in 2008.

Now even the minimum wage jobs will wind up overseas. No wonder we're screwed right now. I hate government regulation but I would not be opposed to putting the smack down on overseas call centers; especially concerning fast food!

Isn't that un-American? Why can't overseas call
centers operate in a free market?
If anyone needs a "smack down" its the voter that
keeps the modern day State and Fed governments
in power over the population. Even the governor of
California has been unable to defeat the entrenched
system that is currently spending like a drunken sailor
while saddled with a 28 Billion dollar and growing deficit.

The magnitude of the problem is beyond grasp
for the average person, so the average person
tunes out. The GND for the US has passed ten
trillion dollars (10,000,000,000,000).
More about a trillion here.

[philba]

this reminds me of a local comedy show that did a parody of the outsource fast food order taker. foreigner trying hard to be hip with an indian accent and all. it was hilarious - "You want curry with that?"

[Robert Reed]

The short range radio sets the local McDs order takers were using at the time (circa 1996). were frequently coming over my companys radio system created a hilarious situation. I worked for a major power company at that time and was attending a rather important meeting that requested all department personel be there on time. After all but one was in attendance, the department head was delaying the meeting for that one to show up and was getting a little irratated with each growing minute. But low and behold after about 10 minutes the missing persons UNMISTAKEABLE voice came over the company radio system -- one coffee and an egg McMuffin to go!--. The whole room was roaring with laughter and the DP was choking back his laughs and said the meeting will probably progress in about 10 minutes and would start with a severe reprimanding of a certain individual. Maybe the internet would have saved this guys a**.

[jollyrgr]

Maybe the internet would have saved this guys a**.

Doubtful. The outside board on these "Call Center" places likely contain a two way radio same as always. They use business band frequencies. Likely the outside board would still be connected to a computer with VoIP to relay the signal to the call center. If something were to go wrong, it would be a simple manner for workers in the store to pick up headsets and fill in.

As to having fun with these. Most ham radios (2M and 70CM) can be "opened" to work on frequencies outside the normal band. Some of these radios can have power levels of 25 to 50 watts. Buisness radios for the most part work in 151MHz and 464/467MHz bands. There are even web sites that post the Fast Food frequencies....

The signs as some have said likley do not have a password protection. There are web sites dedicated to providing instructions on how to reprogram the signs. (2600 Magazine covered these signs.) The owners "claim" these were locked and password protected. Knowing what grief I get in IT from people having to use passwords just to unlock their screen savers, I can bet some road worker figured out how to erase the password and probably "forgot" to lock these signs.