01/26/2009 12:28:45 PM EST

Outsourcing Of Drive-Thru Order Takers! (Seriously)

posted by ihavenobias

From The Charlotte Observer:

"That crackling voice taking your order at a fast-food drive-through may come from a lot farther away than the restaurant: Try Texas, or even overseas.

San Diego-based Jack in the Box has tested outsourced drive-through order-taking since mid-2008 at seven of its 30 Charlotte-area restaurants. Spokeswoman Kathleen Anthony declined to specify the locations, though workers at the Cotswold restaurant in Charlotte recently said their restaurant uses the system.

The technology is intended to improve speed, accuracy and service, freeing up restaurant employees to process orders, accept payment and address other needs, Anthony said. The chain has not reduced staffing as a result of the remote order-taking, and the restaurants can turn the system on and off as they wish, she said.

Still, it's piqued curiosity among local customers who have encountered heavy accents with order-takers, then rounded the bend to find different people handing them food..."

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I can't believe this isn't a headline for The Onion. Many of already know I have a lot of issues with outsourcing and so called "free trade", but even those of you who believe the earth is flat have to admit this story is insane.

We're asking 300 million Americans to compete with over 6 billion people, many of which will work for a couple of bucks a day. I'm all for helping other countries build their economies, but if you haven't noticed, we need a little help building ours at the moment and unemployment is very high. 

I'm referring to the *actual* unemployment amount, not the bullshit number that don't include people who've given up looking for work or people who can't get the full time hours they need and or people who've been forced to take jobs with shit pay just to avoid losing their house, etc.

And even if you don't see the very valid and real problems with free trade/outsourcing, hopefully you can acknowledge that outsourcing Drive-Thru order taking jobs is a BAD idea. It's already impossible to understand what the person is saying over the crackly speaker (and for them to understand you), and this just makes it more likely your order will be wrong and that you'll end up frustrated or pissed off.
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Outsourcing Of Drive-Thru Order Takers! (Seriously) | 29 comments (29 topical, 0 hidden)
I've noticed that some advertisers are (none / 0)
outsourcing their human actors for cartoon characters like the PC vs Mac ads.  Also, some wireless carrier ad got rid of about four human actors with their new cartoon.

by gatekeeper50 on 01/26/2009 01:38:28 PM EST

Hmm (none / 0)
Interesting, I hadn't thought of that.

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 01:43:07 PM EST

[ Parent ]
That saves money? (none / 0)
You still have to pay voice over actors, you just have to pay the voice overs, but animators alos, I don't think it makes a huge difference

by nmaks on 01/26/2009 04:27:24 PM EST

[ Parent ]
The animators are probably outsourced ... (none / 0)
isn't the global economy wonderful?  They can't outsource my job; just do away with it through automation.  There goes my union job, and if I want to retrain so I can operate or maintain the robot that takes my job I'd have to take a 50% pay cut.

by gatekeeper50 on 01/26/2009 05:04:39 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Yes, it's "wonderful" all right (none / 0)
It's a wonder anyone buys the bullshit that unfettered free trade is the way to go.

But you knew that.

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 05:07:38 PM EST

[ Parent ]
There are a lot of examples of outsourcing (none / 0)
It wouldn't be fair to say that a possibility of animators being oustourced for two commercials and the drive through being outsourced for one restaurant chain is anything significant.

by nmaks on 01/26/2009 09:25:37 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Sure, *now* it's ONE restaurant chain (none / 0)
But the point is that it's potentially a terrible sign of things to come.

Between outsourcing, insourcing and automation, the average worker is being triple teamed (or will be soon enough).

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 09:27:47 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Well (none / 1)
Next thing you know we'll strip away child labor protections too. Kids like to draw and color, right?

;)

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 05:08:28 PM EST

[ Parent ]
WTF? (none / 0)
Nmaks rated this comment a "1"? Man, we've got some tough critics here apparently.

;)

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 09:25:45 PM EST

[ Parent ]
It was a bad example in the first place (none / 0)
The example was bad, animation probably has little or nothing to do with outsourcing, and even still what americans lose their jobs from an animated as opposed to a live action commercial? Secondly the joke was rather asanine and had no factual basis.

by nmaks on 01/26/2009 09:33:20 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Im starting to think you do have bias :) (none / 0)
feel free to rate this bad joke a 1.

by nmaks on 01/26/2009 09:34:15 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I never liked the use of the word asinine (none / 1)
It always seems pretentious to me (especially when it follows a word like "rather"), even when people I like use it.

You know, it sounds something like this: "Tut tut bias, your remarks were rather asinine. I'm going to finish my plum brandy and then we are going to discuss more appropriate jokes for you."

:)

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 09:44:59 PM EST

[ Parent ]
ok (none / 0)
I wouldn't have rated it a one if I wasn't trying to be obnoxious :)

by nmaks on 01/26/2009 09:51:20 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Well, this explains why.... (none / 0)

...I was asked if I wanted chutney with my tacos....

by MedfordTim on 01/26/2009 03:01:48 PM EST

Ba-Doom (none / 0)
Tssss.

(Not sure if I did the sound effect right).

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 03:14:42 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Sounds right to me! (none / 0)

...and don't forget to tip your waitress. Try the veal. I'll be here through Thursday, G'night everybody!

by MedfordTim on 01/26/2009 03:43:33 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Not to derail my own thread but (none / 0)
I miss Rodney Dangerfield. Back To School is one of the best comedies ever.

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 03:55:27 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Yum, chutney.. (none / 0)

I am totally floored by this story, IHnB. I don't understand macroeconomics enough to comment on what our trade policy should look like but I do wonder what the heck Americans are going to be doing to earn a living over the next few decades.

Almost any job can be outsourced or (insourced-you don't think we could bring in highly skilled accountants/attorneys/surge ons, etc. from abroad to work at 1/2 the hourly rate?).

Of course that would make the price of goods and services go down but the wages of 'Muricans will fall even more.

This is why I think the tax code is a partial solution, let the companies profits soar; let the wealthy thrive, but let's have them pay enough taxes to keep the quality of life high for everyone.

by dclawyer06 on 01/26/2009 08:21:00 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Outsourcing and insourcing (none / 1)
It's basic economics, if you increase the labor supply wages go down.

It's easy to say that the cost of products will also go down, the only problem is that since the #1 goal for corporations by law is to increase profits (and people are greedy), they're far more likely to pocket most of the profits and only reduce the cost of their products *slightly*.

The best example is Nike shoes. After the production of Nike shoes moved out of the US, did we see a dramatic decrease in the cost of Nikes? HELL NO. If anything they got to be MORE expensive, because the market determines the price. The cost of labor is generally a very, very small factor compared to that.

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 09:19:55 PM EST

[ Parent ]
An even worse and more hurtful (none / 0)
idea is the over-issuance of H1B visas to people who COME TO AMERICA and take high tech jobs from Americans who went to college to learn these skills and cannot find work because of it. These are the jobs that we were convinced would be for Americans when they tricked us into passing NAFTA. I certainly hope that least that the Obama administration (I LOVE saying that) will do is to take a REAL close look at H1B visas and MAKE companies at least attempt to hire able bodied and skilled Americans for this work before bringing folks in from India to do it.

by mijoh on 01/26/2009 09:09:09 PM EST

Amen (none / 0)
OR they need to make college/technical training FREE. If they insist on cramming this "free trade" bullshit down our throats they HAVE to do that.

Otherwise we're screwed and we simply can't compete.

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 09:24:29 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Drive-thrus are a stupid idea (none / 0)
Here in the Greater Toronto Area someone tallied up the damage (in carbon emissions and wasted gasoline) caused by just one Tim Horton's drive thru annually, and the numbers are just repulsive--I wish I had them to show you.  I hope sincerely that they outsource every single drive-thru-related job so it'll bring us closer to ending and banning this ridiculous, frivilous practice.


If you NEED to throw money in your latte factor expense column, why not get out of the car and save some of the gas, which will someday be much more scarce and expensive, and do your obvious duty of lessening your carbon footprint on the environment before its too late to even do that much?

by tuesdayincanada on 01/26/2009 09:44:30 PM EST

Car accidents (none / 0)
Would there be more car accidents with people pulling in and out of spots? How much more would a business have to pay for parking, and how much money would they lose if they couldn't afford the right number of spots to accommodate customers during peak times?

I don't know, I'm just asking.

The bigger issue is that very few people I know want to get out of their cars when it's (pick one) raining/snowing/freezing/in credibly humid.

The other day it was -35 here with the windchill (you should be well aware of brutal winters where you live) and I can't imagine very many people were getting out of their cars unless they ABSOLUTELY had to. Not to mention the fact that some cars wouldn't have started up again if they were left it sitting for too long.

by ihavenobias on 01/26/2009 09:51:15 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Yes! ... (none / 0)
All good reasons for people to be smarter with their money and time!

Recession or no--How many people reading this couldn't use a bit more savings, or a bit more assets.  Coffee everyday gets expensive... and I know it sucks to lose yet another small comfort, but I also know its not the end of the world...---it's not even a big deal!

Big deals = Energy Securty & the Environment

Missing your coffee because you mismanage your time constantly or don't want to bother with bring your own does not fall into the "Big deals" subgroup.  No matter how many impulsive shoppers' cars don't start.  No many how many shitty, minimum wage jobs are taken from students...  Yeah, that last one isn't pretty, but believe me; we'll be making a lot of concessions to the energy issue and (hopefully) to the climate issue in the near future.  All-in-all, this one is EASY! -- It's a slam dunk!

by tuesdayincanada on 01/26/2009 10:07:46 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Ihavehadanepiphany (none / 0)
“We're asking 300 million Americans to compete with over 6 billion people, many of which will work for a couple of bucks a day. I'm all for helping other countries build their economies, but if you haven't noticed, we need a little help building ours at the moment and unemployment is very high.” 

Good thinking. Hey! I’ve got an idea! What if we force 20 million illegal aliens to go back home?

by KenTX on 01/27/2009 01:51:34 AM EST

I've got a much better idea (none / 0)
What if we crack down on illegal employers who want to exploit cheap labor instead? You know, like how it worked beautifully for decades before Ronald 'Amnesty' Reagan opened the flood gates?

Insourcing is half the equation, outsourcing is the other. And I never blame the workers, I blame the policies that enable corporate greed.

by ihavenobias on 01/27/2009 02:52:53 AM EST

[ Parent ]
centralizing drive through orders (none / 0)
I read an article a few years ago about how McDonalds centralized its drive-thru order-taking system into call centers (inside the US, in that case). By shaving a fraction of a second off each order, McD's claimed the company could save (or earn) millions of more dollars each year. I don't quite believe it.

David

by yturks on 01/27/2009 01:12:57 PM EST

The best order taking invention (none / 0)
is the video screen outside that shows you exactly what you've ordered, including the running price.

Most places don't have that (I know some Wendy's locations do), but IMO it's a great investment. It prevents mistakes and frustrations for consumers and employees which is good for the Bottom Line.

by ihavenobias on 01/27/2009 08:34:01 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Perfect post! (none / 0)
Yuck-in-the-Box has installed them in the Seattle area and I've been able to correct the quantity of delicious Jumbo Jacks (no onions) both times I've driven thru since they were installed.  I ride a 250cc Nighthawk and stop the engine while waiting at the window in my meager attempt to lower my carbon footprint.

by gatekeeper50 on 01/28/2009 07:54:16 AM EST

[ Parent ]
Outsourcing Of Drive-Thru Order Takers! (Seriously) | 29 comments (29 topical, 0 hidden)
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