Pilot joins the journey middle meals tech wars

Dive Brief:

• Pilot has launched mobile ordering and up to date its app and web site in a refresh of its digital expertise, the corporate introduced on Tuesday.
• The order-ahead expertise is at the moment out there in choose markets in states together with Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia and is predicted to be in almost 400 of Pilot’s greater than 900 journey facilities within the U.S. and Canada by the tip of the 12 months.
• Pilot’s announcement follows TravelFacilities of America introducing ordering kiosks to its Popeyes areas and Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores making a number of foodservice expertise upgrades for a number of QSRs.

Dive Insight:

With prices rising and labor retention nonetheless a thorn in retailer’s sides, journey middle retailers like Pilot are turning to cell ordering, kiosks and different labor-saving expertise in an effort enhance the ordering expertise with out burdening workers. 

The order forward possibility is out there by way of the Pilot app, and offers clients entry to a menu of greater than 100 objects, together with scorching meals and grab-and-go choices. Customers are alerted when their orders are prepared for pickup. Digital orders can be used to earn loyalty factors.  

The expertise will initially solely be out there within the U.S. While clients can’t order from Pilot’s QSR companions by way of this initiative, they will select kind a choice of meals objects like pizza and rooster, salads and fruit cups, together with snacks, sweet and a few truck and automotive objects.

Along with the addition of order forward, Pilot has renamed its MyRewards Plus app to the Pilot app. Professional drivers in Canada can now additionally earn PushForPoints rewards by way of the app for the primary time. 

Finally, Pilot has up to date its web site, PilotFirm.com, with a brand new look and a extra intuitive person expertise. Customers may entry the brand new order-ahead capabilities, in addition to bathe and parking reservations, by way of the web site. 

While Pilot has added ordering forward and TA is putting in digital kiosks the place individuals can order meals, Love’s is doing each. It’s bringing kiosks to all 112 of its Arby’s eating places and added order-ahead tech to all of its greater than 130 Carl’s Jr. areas, and plans to roll it out at Hardee’s areas by the tip of Q3, with Bojangles and Taco John’s QSRs anticipated to observe.