Not to be confused with the Australian grocery company
Milkrun.
A circular transportation route
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.[1] 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.[2]
It may also be the route used to distribute full
milk bottles and collect empties by a
milkman.[3] The route may be sold by one milkman to another.[1]
Transportation
In scheduled passenger airline or rail travel, a milk run may involve a trip with many stops,[4][1] and more generally a slow, tedious trip. It may also be an uneventful trip.[4]
^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).