Q&A: Bavis’ Sieber highlights how to make drive-thru seamless

Drug Store News: Tell us about Bavis and what your company does.  
William Sieber: Bavis Drive-Thru was founded in 1957 by Edward Bavis. He didn’t make drive-thru equipment. He made cabinets. We got into the drive-thru business in the 1960s when branch banking started, and he did the interiors of banks. As an add on, he started selling drive-thru equipment like pneumatic tubes. In the 1970s, he was fed up with the problems with pneumatic tubes and he came out with his first product, the Autoveyor, which conveyed a box-shaped carrier instead of the old and limited round carrier. The Autoveyor became the standard in the Midwest for drive-thru banking.

From there, we branched out with new technologies, and the Autoveyor eventually became the TransTrax. From that technology, we added building windows and drawers. We took our market in the late 1980s and early 1990s from just doing banking equipment to doing banking, fast food and pharmacy.  

DSN: What type of products does Bavis focus on to be successful?
WS: We have to look at the market and find out what customers expect when they get to the drive-thru to receive the product. In the 1960s, a round tube powered by air was what they expected. As we went into other markets, such as food and pharmaceuticals, that little round tube was not sufficient to transport the items. We had to go to other technologies to allow for higher capacity, volume and weight.  

We had to come up with a way to provide a larger carrier so that we could accommodate, for instance, a 100-pack of syringes or multiple prescription bottles in one trip. We were able to create a much larger carrier called the Captive Carrier TransTrax. With this, we could transport various larger items that were needed through the pharmacy. The key items we have to be able to transport are things like syringes, diabetic supplies and other essential items that are much too large to fit in a tube system.

DSN: Tell us about some of Bavis’ other product offerings. 
WS: Now, pharmacies are expressing that they’d like to be able to provide OTC items and items like diapers, toilet paper, soda and other larger products. How can we provide convenience to our customers so they don’t have to come into the store and don’t have to expose themselves to the virus? What can you do for me? To answer that question, in several pharmacies, we’re putting in the Vittleveyor, a product that was created for the fast-food industry. This solution can handle many large products at once at the drive-thru. 

DSN: What trends are you seeing that Bavis is addressing?
WS: Before COVID-19, drive-thru was starting to slow down. Many of the pharmacies and even fast food were saying, “I don’t know that we need multiple lanes.” As soon as the COVID situation occurred, people were concerned and wanted touchless delivery; many of our customers decided it was time to renovate their entire systems. Our production schedule is full and growing. There are so many people who now also want new drive-thrus in existing facilities as it is evident that our products provide a real, unique and proven solution.

Our drive-thru equipment enables businesses to continue to conduct and, in fact, expand business throughput. And, since we are a vertically-integrated manufacturer, we can continue supplying products and are able to augment our supply chain with in-house-manufactured parts as required to meet the growing need.

DSN: What is the future of the drive-thru at the pharmacy?
WS: I’m meeting with several retailers now on the future of drive-thru. They are having conversations now saying, “What can we do to improve drive-thru?” In the past, they bought what was out there. Now, retailers are proactively looking at their environment, at what they can do, and how they can do it better. You will see new drive-thru products come out as a result.