Milk run

A milk run, milk round, or milk route is the fixed route taken to pick up milk from dairy farmers, or to deliver milk to consumers, as part of a milk delivery system. In extended usage, it may be a transportation service that has many stops. Metaphorically, it may be a slow or tedious trip, a military air mission posing little danger, or any circular route.

Dairy use

Milk runs are documented in the American Upper Midwest as early as 1917, where it was a train that made frequent stops to pick up farmers' milk cans for shipment to local dairies for processing and bottling.

It may also be the route used to distribute full milk bottles and collect empties by a milkman. The route may be sold by one milkman to another.

Transportation

In scheduled passenger airline or rail travel, a milk run may involve a trip with many stops, and more generally a slow, tedious trip. It may also be an uneventful trip.

Military

Originally from United States Army Air Corps and Royal Air Force aircrews in World War II, a milk run was typically used to refer as a mission posing little danger, the mission could be either a bombing run or a convoy on secured routes (i.e Highway 1 in Vietnam).

Commercial aviation

In the airline industry, a "milk run" is a multi-stop, regularly scheduled passenger flight operated with a single aircraft. Current examples include:

An historical example of a transcontinental airline milk run in the U.S. in 1962 was National Airlines (1934-1980) flight 223 operated daily with a Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop aircraft on a south and then westbound routing of Boston - New York City - Jacksonville, FL - Orlando - Tampa - New Orleans - Houston - Las Vegas - San Francisco. According to the March 2, 1962 National Airlines system timetable, flight 223 departed Boston at 7:30 am and then arrived in San Francisco at 8:42 pm on the same day with seven intermediate stops en route.

Logistics

In logistics, a milk run is a circular route.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "milk run, n. meanings, etymology and more | Oxford English Dictionary". www.oed.com. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
  2. ↑ Wegner, A. C. (February 3, 1917). "A Heavy Freight Carrying Railway". Electric Railway Journal. XLIX (5): 207f. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  3. ↑ Werner, Hartmut (2008): Supply Chain Management. Grundlagen Strategien Instrumente und Controlling /// Grundlagen, Strategien, Instrumente und Controlling. 3., vollständig überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Wiesbaden: Betriebswirtschaftlicher Verlag Dr. Th. Gabler | GWV Fachverlage GmbH Wiesbaden
  4. 1 2 "MILK RUN (noun) American English definition and synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary". www.macmillandictionary.com. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  5. ↑ Ammer, Christine (1989). Fighting Words from War, Rebellion, and Other Combative Capers. BookBaby. p. 14. ISBN 1626759669.
  6. ↑ Smith, Gaddis; Karnow, Stanley (1984). "Vietnam: A History". Foreign Affairs. 62 (4): 1014. doi:10.2307/20041946. ISSN 0015-7120.
  7. ↑ "The Milk Run is a hop, skip and a jump along Southeast Alaska's coast". Alaska Airlines Blog. 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  8. ↑ Kirkland, Erin (2014). Alaska on the Go. University of Alaska Press. p. 9. ISBN 9781602232211. Retrieved 2018-05-01.
  9. ↑ "The end of an era: Alaska retires unique cargo-passenger 'combi' planes". Alaska Airlines.
  10. ↑ Pfleger, Jacob (2 December 2016). "The True Aussie 'Milk Run'". Airline Reporter. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  11. ↑ "National Airlines - System Timetable". Archived from the original on 2014-08-13.
  12. ↑ "SOUTHBOUND Atlantic coast: Boston—New York—Philadelphia—Washington—Florida—Havana". Archived from the original on 2014-08-13.
  13. ↑ "TRANSCONTINENTAL WESTBOUND Havana-Florida—New Orleans-Houston—Las Vegas—California". Archived from the original on 2014-08-13.
  14. ↑ Meusel, Winfrid (1995): Realisierung eines Logistikberater-Arbeitsplatzes für das Frachtkostencontrolling mit wissensbasierten Elementen. Nürnberg, Univ., Diss.--Erlangen, 1995. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin: Lang (Europäische Hoch-schulschriftenReihe 5, Volks- und Betriebswirtschaft, 1755).