Long lines of cars blocking the thoroughfare. Distracted drivers fidgeting with phones or adjusting the stereo. Road-ragers picking fights with fellow attendees. As a drive-in operator, the last thing you want to do is piss off the law enforcement officers in your area. Yet, it seems like the business model was built to frustrate the local authorities. Hundreds of people in hundreds of cars all show up fifteen minutes before dusk. While that idling sight might conjure up images of old-timey cash register dings! for you, we’re sure the police won’t have the same reaction. But by using the right event ticketing software, you can remedy some of the issues that the police might have with your drive-in theater, and you will likely increase customer loyalty in the process. 

It is an understandable perspective. The local police department might not care for your drive-in theater because of the safety concerns and the impact it can have on traffic when people are trying to enter your operation. And while drive-in theaters are facing plenty of challenges this year, adding pissed-off police officers to the mix won’t help.

With the growth drive-in theaters have seen since the pandemic and the lines of cars waiting for entrance to see the feature attractions, it is no wonder that they came under the watchful eye of local police departments. And while the experience is fueled with nostalgia for many theater-goers, we’re sure that the cops don’t experience the same teary-eyed wistfulness as they spy the long line of idling cars sitting on the side of the road. 

99 Problems but the Cops Ain’t One.

The law enforcement reaction to your business model is certainly understandable!

• Long lines into events can back up traffic on main roads and frustrate local police. 
• These lines often require police to take time out of their schedules to direct traffic instead of doing other tasks related to public safety. 

So rather than complain about these inevitable reactions from police, why not take a moment to see what solutions are offered by your event registration tool? Event ticketing software like SimpleTix has several features built into the platform that can minimize some of the friction that officers face when dealing with the inevitabilities of drive-in theater operations. With timed entry, effective pre-sales, and deployment of mindful QR coding, getting people in the gate faster will be your reward, and happy police officers will be the icing on the cake! 

Get People in the Gate Faster.

One of the easiest ways to reduce a police officer’s stress is to move people along the line more quickly. SimpleTix can help you reduce the friction of slow lines by getting people into the gate faster.  

With SimpleTix as your event registration tool, marketing your movies and pre-selling tickets to those features is easier than ever! Pre-sale tickets allow entry lines to move more quickly because none of those attendees will be purchasing their tickets at the point of entry. There’s no time spent on the exchange of money, declined debit cards, or calculating the total. It is all taken care of at the point of sale. And with upsell options, you can market t-shirts, souvenir cups, and other merch while the customer is still in the app. You could even allow them to pre-order their concessions, so they don’t have to pay for a hot dog or buttery popcorn at the refreshment stand. All of this saves time for your staff and increases the level of customer satisfaction with your drive-in!

Different ticketing options can be selected with SimpleTix. One option that gets people in the gate faster is charging a flat rate per car rather than per person in the car. This makes at-the-gate accounting easier and moves the waiting cars through the line faster. Think about the different pricing tiers that might work best for your operation. A veteran’s or student discount, Mondays-at-the-Movies off-peak pricing, or even a VIP package with bottled water and the best parking spot in the lot are just a few of the options you can offer. The SimpleTix event registration tool is robust enough to handle a myriad of selections with different pricing plans and is super easy to implement on the back end. 

If you choose to go without a flat, per-car rate, the platform can be leveraged in different ways to get your customers through the gate faster. Leveraging an event registration tool like SimpleTix allows for bulk scanning, so one QR code can be presented to admit the entire family or group. By utilizing a single QR code for the entire car, the amount of customer time spent at the ticket gate is decreased, and police satisfaction with your theater is increased. It’s a win-win for everyone involved!

Timed Entry at the late-night, double-feature picture show.

Rather than have a line of cars appear at your drive-in just a few minutes before showtime, why not use the features of your event registration tool to encourage timed entry? Timed entry ticketing lets you put attendees in specified time slots, so they don’t all come at once. Attendees can select arrival times in 10 or 15-minute intervals, making the entry process much easier on their schedule. With this built-in flexibility, not only will they save time that they would have been waiting in their car, but they will have more time to leisurely walk to the refreshment stand to purchase their sodas and snacks, and they won’t have to rush through a maze of vehicles just as the picture is starting.

When properly implemented, timed entry can alleviate those long lines, so you can actually be more effective with your crowd control. SimpleTix can also generate a report showing these timed entry slots and the number of customers and cars in each, which allows you to demonstrate to local law enforcement that the entry process at your theater is organized and safe for patrons. Timed entry is also better for overall safety because it limits the number of people and cars in your location at one time. 

Let the police worry about other things!

With everything else going on in society today, police officers’ efforts can better serve your community when they are focused on places other than the road leading to your drive-in theater. By taking the easy steps described above, you can work towards a more favorable relationship with your local law enforcement officers. 

Obviously, these public safety concerns are not just limited to drive-in theaters. Many different event operations (haunted houses, pumpkin patches, larger concert venues) can impact local traffic as well. It is important for every event planner to examine the friction points of their operations and see where they can proactively address these issues with the right event registration tool. Limiting officials’ trepidations before they field a call from a concerned citizen is the best way to remove a potential police interaction. By deploying the proper event ticketing platform, you can preempt these unpleasant conversations while also ensuring that your guests get to the picture in a safe and timely manner. 

SimpleTix has offered an affordable, premium event ticketing platform that outperforms Eventbrite and similar apps for over 12 years. Compared to the competition, SimpleTix offers better options at a better price point. To learn more, call us at +1 (855) 550-3670 or email us here.