You're stuck in a sea of standstill traffic when it begins: hunger pangs, the kind that release a steady stream of fast food fantasizing. With your grumbling stomach growing louder, your options are limited: You can wait a few hours for the roadways to clear or leave your car idling (挂空挡) on the highway while you set off on foot (please don't do this).
Now Burger King, is betting that hungry drivers will welcome a third option: a direct-to-driver delivery concept the company has labeled the "Traffic Jam Whooper." Reached by email, Gustavo Lauria, co-founder of the advertising agency We Believers, which developed the vehicle delivery concept, said the new approach allows the burger chain to gain advantage on a time of day in which the city's terrible traffic typically slows business. "This was an opportunity for Burger King to generate new profits out of those hungry drivers", Lauria added.
Lauria claims Burger King is the first fast food brand to deliver food to people in the middle of a traffic jam. In Mexico City, the company said, delivery drivers are already receiving an average of 7, 000 orders per day, mostly to homes and offices. To make the traffic jam delivery process possible, Burger Kings Mexico app activates the service after identifying crowded areas in Mexico City during periods of high traffic. Customers can only place an order if the app determines that the driver will be locked in traffic for at least 30 minutes and they are within a 1. 8-mile distance of a Burger King restaurant, the company said.
Early on, Lauria wrote, the act was met with disbelief. The challenges were complex: making sure real-time data of geographic location was accurate enough, and the creation of a hands-free way to take orders on cellphones in a country that has adopted serious punishment for drivers who use cellphones behind the wheel.
Though the company did not offer a timeline, Burger King says it expects to roll out the Traffic Jam Whopper in other overcrowded cities, such as Los Angeles, Sao Paulo and Shanghai.
