However, a drive up requires staffing. So closing them reduces labor costs.
At BoA, before they dropped drive up service, and at 5/3rd, the tellers that staff the windows in the lobby run back and forth between their windows and the drive up desk. In a 5/3rd branch that was newly built a few years ago, the pneumatic tubes from the drive up come out right behind the lobby tellers, so they don’t need to move more than a couple steps. Closing the drive up window increases lobby traffic, so the teller work load only shifts. I’m not in PNC enough to observe how they run their drive-up.
I did have a box, some twenty years ago. I noticed that, while the branch looked like it has been built in the 70s, the boxes were in a housing that looked ancient, on the order of 1920s or 30s, that must have been moved there from a closed branch. That branch was closed and torn down maybe 15 years ago. I haven’t checked to see if any other branches I use have boxes.
Also, I suspect that the type of customer who rents a box is a good demographic for the bank. One who has jewelry, car titles, property deeds,
Judging by the signage I see in bank lobbies, that isn’t the business banks are seeking. They are trying to sell loans and “investment products”. That is what got Charles Keating in so much trouble, using his S&Ls to pedal “investment products”, and misrepresenting their risk.
Why not fire off an e-mail to shareholder relations, see if you can get an answer out of them, other than “that was the judgement of upper management”.
Steve