When the vehicle is moving, the gauge always hovers around the 11-12 o'clock mark.

But when I am in a short line at a drive-thru, it would move pass the 12, and even as high as 1:00 o'clock mark. The cooling fan comes on and it takes a minute to move back to 12:00...then back to 11-12 when the van is moving again. Does this engine runs hot or what?

It doesn't matter what the weather outside temp is (today it's 50 degree f). The van has 6k miles and seems to work great otherwise.

I included a pic as to what I am talking about....thanks.

 

Can't say specifically because I don't own one but temp gauges on most cars will do that because there is no air flowing through the radiator when standing. Fans kick on providing air flow and it will cool down.

 

I've never seen a car have that much fluctuation in the temperature needle, but as long as the cooling fan comes on and the needle never goes past what you labeled as "drive thru" then you don't have that big of a problem.

As a sanity check, you might want to check if your cooling system is full.