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.^[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

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]

Military aviation

For United States Army Air Corps and Royal Air Force aircrews, a milk run was a mission posing little danger.^[5]

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:

• Several Alaska Airlines routes connecting smaller Alaskan cities to Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Seattle.^[6][7]
• The Rex Airlines Milk Run in Queensland, Australia.^[8]
• Kwajalein and Majuro
  .

In logistics, a milk run is a circular route.^[12]

References