Milkman

For other uses, see Milkman (disambiguation).

A British milk float

An Indian Milkman on his motorbike

A milkman is a person, traditionally male, who delivers milk in milk bottles or cartons.

Summary

Milk deliveries frequently occur in the morning and it is not uncommon for milkmen to deliver products other than milk such as eggs, cream, cheese, butter, yogurt or soft drinks. Originally, milk needed to be delivered to houses daily since the lack of good refrigeration meant it would quickly spoil. The near-ubiquity of refrigerators in homes in the developed world, as well as improved packaging, has decreased the need for frequent milk delivery over the past half-century and made the trade shrink in many localities sometimes to just 3 days a week and disappear totally in others. Additionally, milk delivery incurs a small cost on the price of dairy products that is increasingly difficult to justify and leaves delivered milk in a position where it is vulnerable to theft.

In the United States, houses of that era often had a "milk chute" built into an outside wall, a small cabinet with a door on the outside for the milkman to place the milk bottles, and a door on the inside for a resident to retrieve the bottles. Thus the milkman could deliver the milk without entering the home, and the resident could retrieve the milk without going outside.

American milkman, circa 1925

In recent times, British, Irish, and other European milkmen have traveled in an electric vehicle called a milk float, except on rural rounds. Earlier milkmen used horse-drawn vehicles; in Britain these were still seen in the 1950s. In Australia the delivery vehicle was usually a small gas or diesel engined truck with a covered milk-tray. In hotter areas, this tray is usually insulated.^{[citation needed]}

In India milkmen usually still use milk churns that are no longer used in western countries. On the road they are put on any kind of vehicle. In big cities like Mumbai those milk churns are often transported in luggage compartments in local trains.

Companies In Milk Delivery

• Dairy Crest - United Kingdom
• Express Dairies - United Kingdom

In popular culture

The frequent deliveries by milkmen to homes during the day has led to a high level of familiarity with many homemakers — often female — which has made the occupation a central figure in numerous milkman jokes.

In the Uganda region an often used title for "king" is "Omukama", which means "superior milkman/milk bringer": a title that refers to a) the role of the leader as a feeder of the people and b) the historical tradition, that the ancient ruling class of some Ugandan kingdoms was of Hima-tribal stock (the Hima were cattle-holders).

The lead character of Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye, is a milkman.

A short story in the horror anthology Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, called "Morning Deliveries (Milkman No. 1)", concerns a milkman who kills people by leaving "surprises" (poison, toxic gas, venomous spiders, etc.) in their milk cans. "Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman" is a comicbook character created by David Boswell which first appeared in 1980.

The comedian Benny Hill had a hit novelty song about Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West).

See also

• Lloyd G. Davies, Los Angeles City Council member, 1943–51, fought a proposal to limit the hours of home milk delivery
• Milk delivery
• Dairyman

External links

• "Here Comes The World's Milkman", April 1931, Popular Science photo essay