Milk Run

A milk run is a circular logistics route where one vehicle visits a pre-defined sequence of locations, picking up or delivering goods, and returns to base. The term originates from dairy collection routes where a tanker would visit multiple village cooperatives each morning. In Indian distribution, milk runs are the backbone of last-mile delivery, a single delivery van covers 20-40 retail outlets per trip along a fixed route.

Milk runs are the opposite of point-to-point FTL shipping. They trade speed for utilization: instead of sending a half-empty vehicle to one retailer, the same vehicle serves the entire beat. The route is optimized for minimal backtracking using route optimization and drop sequencing algorithms that factor in delivery windows, traffic patterns, and vehicle capacity.

In dairy distribution, inbound milk runs still function literally: chilling centres dispatch tankers at 4 AM that visit 15-20 village collection points, aggregate raw milk, and return to the processing plant by 8 AM. The same logic applies outbound, delivering finished dairy products on fixed routes to distributors and retail chains each morning.