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Industry · QSR

Cut losses across every unit and every shift.

Tec-Tel designs, installs, and runs the cameras, POS-to-video pairing, and AI analytics that turn quick-service restaurants into live data: drive-thru and queue timing, plain-English footage search, and cash-handling exceptions across every unit. Brand-spec installs. Built for multi-unit franchise groups. PCI-DSS aware.

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  • NDAA-compliant
  • Platform-agnostic
  • 1,000+ deployments over 15 years
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63%
of retail shrink has internal causes (NRF 2023)
90 days
PCI-DSS Req 9 retention floor for POS-area cameras
1,000+
facilities secured nationwide
<30s
average monitoring response time

§01  What we install in QSR

Loss prevention that ships the same to every unit.

What a unit gets after Tec-Tel commissions the system, and what your area developer, store managers, and loss-prevention team see from day one.

Live drive-thru and queue timing. The cameras you already have become live queue data: lane times by window, walkaway counts, and the moment a line starts costing you a car. A manager gets the alert while there is still time to open a second register, not in a report next week.
Drive-thru LPR + POS-to-video pairing. Plate recognition on order, pay, and pickup windows, paired to the register. Voids, refunds, and discount overrides auto-clip the camera at that drawer, so sweethearting and drive-offs are investigatable instead of speculated.
Plain-English footage search. Ask "show me every order that took over five minutes at lunch yesterday" and get the clips back in seconds. No scrubbing hours of recordings, and one search reaches every camera and every unit.
Cash-handling + safety exceptions. Coverage on safes, drop boxes, and drawer pulls with two-person-rule and time-of-day alerts. The same feed flags slip-and-fall, an unstaffed line during service, and after-hours entry, so exceptions surface as they happen.
Brand-standard install, one dashboard. We design and install to whichever brand camera and POS-area spec is on file, document the package for franchise-compliance review, and report every unit into one place so you manage the whole footprint from a single screen.

§ How we work

Drive-thru drive-offs add up fast across a franchise group. We install lane LPR and pair it with your POS so a drive-off has a plate and a transaction reference, and the same install package ships to every unit in the group.

How Tec-Tel works in QSRs

§02  How a Tec-Tel deployment works

Five steps, one accountable team.

01

Walk every store before we quote

No quote-by-floorplan. We come on site, talk to your franchisee or area developer, and document POS, drive-thru, and back-of-house coverage.

02

Standardize across the brand

One or two camera platforms. One POS bridge. Twenty stores from twenty franchisees get one master spec, not twenty conversations.

03

Size the network and PCI scope first

PoE budget + PCI-DSS Requirement 9 are the real constraints. We touch switches, cabling, and CDE coverage before any analytics.

04

Pair POS to video before alerts go live

Event-stream bridges so a void or refund auto-clips the right camera. We tune POS exception thresholds on site before alerts route to LP.

05

Hand off with a runbook

Your team gets a written ops doc: escalation tree, retention rules per camera, who calls Tec-Tel for what. We sequence around remodel cycles.

§03  How we deploy

Three unit types. Three tailored builds.

No two QSR footprints get the same install. Here's what we deploy across the three most common builds.

Single QSR · franchisee

One unit, single owner-operator, mixed tenure

  • POS-to-video on every register, drive-thru LPR
  • 90-day retention on POS-area cameras (PCI Req 9)
  • Cloud VMS, no on-prem server to maintain
  • Brand-standard package documented for franchise review
Franchise group · 10-50 units

Area developer or multi-unit franchisee across one region

  • Standardized camera spec rolled out by region
  • Central VMS with role-based access per unit + per LP
  • POS exception reporting aggregated across stores
  • Phased install around remodel cycle, no Saturday-lobby disruption
Corporate · 500+ units

National chain, corporate-owned + franchise mix

  • Master brand-standard install package per concept
  • Optional franchisee service contract under master pricing
  • Centralized LP dashboard, regional service crews
  • Drive-thru analytics + foot-traffic feeds to ops

§04  Compliance buyers ask us about

Frameworks we build to.

PCI-DSS Req 9

Cardholder data environment: POS registers, cash office, safe rooms. 90-day retention floor, badge access mapped to areas.

FDA FSMA

Food safety preventive controls. Camera coverage of receiving dock, walk-ins, and sanitation cycles. Traceability windows that survive a recall.

ADA

Drive-thru accessibility, accessible POS heights, audible + visual alarms. Designed to ADA 2010 reach ranges (15-48").

OSHA Retail

Workplace Violence Prevention guidance. Documented coverage, intervention workflow, retention that survives a recordable.

Single site? Start self-serve

Add AI to the cameras you already run.

Running one restaurant? Skip the design-build. Add AI to your existing cameras from $23 per camera per month, with true drive-thru timing and cash-handling exception capture, installed within days.

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From $23/camera/mo · install in days

Questions buyers ask us

FAQ

What does AI QSR security cost per unit?
Cost depends on unit count, camera count, drive-thru layout, POS pairing, and how much usable cabling already runs in the ceiling. A single owner-operated unit and a 50-store franchise group amortize very differently. Tec-Tel walks your units, scopes against your mix, and comes back with a defensible per-unit budget. That scope is the free consultation.
Will this satisfy our brand standard? We're a Dunkin', Subway, McDonald's franchisee.
Yes. Each major brand publishes a camera and POS-area spec. We design and install to the spec on file at your brand portal at the time of work, document the install package, and hand it back for franchise compliance. We've worked with Dunkin' before.
How long does a multi-unit rollout take?
A single unit is fast. A franchise group or national chain runs in sequenced waves by region or remodel cycle, so stores stay open and lobbies stay clear. The timeline tracks your remodel calendar more than ours. We size it against your unit list in the free consultation.
Does it integrate with our POS and exception reporting?
Yes for most modern stacks. POS integration uses event streams or webhook bridges so a void or refund at register 2 auto-clips the camera covering register 2. Talks to common QSR exception-reporting platforms through standard APIs. Direct named integrations depend on your specific POS and VMS.
How do you handle franchise vs corporate units?
Franchise units carry a different procurement and IT story. We deliver a corporate-mandated standard spec that franchisees install through us under master pricing, while leaving the franchisee in control of their own service contract. Corporate-owned units bill and support centrally.

Talk through your site

Tell us about your unit list. We'll come back with a plan.

The Tec-Tel team walks your unit list with you, then comes back with what your brand standard expects, what PCI-DSS requires, and a defensible per-unit budget.

  • Tell us how many sites you run and what's already in place. We'll show you what a build or upgrade looks like.
  • Straight answers from the team that does the work. We're platform-agnostic, so you get the system that fits your sites, not one brand's catalog.

Since 2010 · 1,000+ deployments nationwide · ISN-accredited

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How can we help?

What you're looking for, plus any details. We review it and follow up, usually the same day.