Ideal Bollard Application: Drive-Thrus and Drive-Up Locations

Bollards are used for plenty of different things, in industries across the board. One common application for them, however, is at locations where driving up close to a structure is essential, but the object it’s necessary to get close to is at risk of serious damage if a car hits it—for instance, a gas pump or an ATM. They are also common at drive-thru restaurant windows, as there are multiple points where, if a car crashed into something, it could cause the establishment to lose a lot of money.

Protecting Property

One of the big reasons that bollards are used in drive-up scenarios is to protect property and building structures. For example, When you pull into a drive thru restaurant’s driveway, you’ll notice bollards around things like their ordering screen, because if someone were to hit it and cause damage to the point of the screen being unusable, the restaurant would not only have to spend money replacing the screen, but it would lose money off of potential drive-thru sales lost.

Another application of bollards that is meant to protect property is surrounding an ATM. This time, however, the bollards are likely installed to prevent theft. Since ATMs are often located otherwise-empty parking lots, and are used to store a lot of money, a would-be criminal may get the idea to ram into the ATM with their car, knock it down, and either take all of the money or take the machine itself. A bit extreme, perhaps, but with bollards posted around the ATM, a car cannot possibly knock it down.  This saves the bank the liability of losing a lot of money.

Protecting People

Other bollard set-ups at drive-up locations are there for the protection of people. For instance, at a toll booth that is manned by a worker, bollards are set up to ensure that cars don’t pull up too closely and accidentally sideswipe or hit the booth, both of which may injure the worker. They are used at public parking lots as well, where people have to take a ticket or pay a cashier to park.

Bollards used at drive-up locations are typically very strong, to withstand the impact of a vehicle, even at a high speed. The main goal of bollards in these applications is to protect what’s behind them, whether that is property or a person.