🚐 Delivery van
Also known as: delivery van, milk delivery van, milk float, milk van, electric milk float
A vehicle that takes packaged milk and dairy products to shops and doorsteps, with an insulated body for chilled goods.
A delivery van (milk float, milk van) takes packaged milk and dairy products from the dairy to shops and doorsteps. For pasteurised milk the body is insulated; for sterilised milk it does not have to be. The best-known ancestor of today's vans is the quiet British electric milk float.
An FAO study of milk distribution takes a 5-tonne chassis as its standard and lays out three bodies. A closed uninsulated chamber is for UHT and sterilised milk. A closed insulated chamber is for pasteurised milk. An insulated tank serves vending machines. Pasteurised milk goes out in one eight-hour shift, and the empties are collected on a second. The deliveries in that study went to retail points; doorstep delivery was not analysed.
Milk first travelled by horse. The Science Museum in the UK holds a box-type horse-drawn delivery van from about 1953, used by United Dairies. Horse-drawn floats were the most common method from the mid-19th century. Battery floats replaced them slowly. Express Dairy was first, in 1932, with a small fleet in London that proved a success. Battery floats became popular around the 1950s.
One of the oldest survivors is the 1947 Brush Pony, built by Brush Electrical Engineering and on sale from 1946. It ran at 6–7 mph. That is about 10–11 km/h. Fully loaded it covered around 15 miles. The cab was open so the milkman could hop out with a crate. A different record belongs to Electric Blue: built in 1969 and refitted in 2006 with batteries from Bolton, it is billed as the world's fastest milk float.
A milk tanker is a different job from a van. It carries raw milk from farm to plant, and its insulation keeps the load cool; milk in cans is barely cooled, so speed matters most. A van carries finished packs. For the wider picture, see delivery and the courier.
Facts
| Main use | Taking packaged milk and dairy products to retail points 1 |
|---|---|
| Temperature | Pasteurised: insulated body; UHT and sterilised: uninsulated 1 |
| Duration | Pasteurised milk is delivered within one 8-hour shift 1 |
How it connects to milk
🚐 Delivery van → kind of → 🚚 Milk transport, storage and sale → kind of → 🥛 Milk
Links
- What it does
- 🚚 Delivery
- Who works with it
- 🛵 Courier
- Part of
- 🚚 Milk transport, storage and sale
Frequently asked questions
How is a milk van different from a milk tanker?
A tanker is an insulated tank that hauls raw milk from farms to a plant. A van takes packaged milk from the plant to shops and customers.
Why does pasteurised milk need an insulated body?
In the FAO distribution study, the standard for pasteurised milk is a closed insulated chamber, while UHT and sterilised milk use a closed uninsulated one.
When did electric milk floats appear?
According to the National Motor Museum, Express Dairy was the first to use them, in 1932, with a small fleet in London that proved successful.
How fast was an electric milk float?
The 1947 Brush Pony ran at 6–7 mph (about 10–11 km/h) and had a range of around 15 miles fully loaded.
What was the world's fastest milk float?
The Science Museum Group describes Electric Blue as the world's fastest. It was built in 1969 as a Morrison Type F and refitted in 2006.
Similar
Sources
- FAO. Packaging, storage and distribution of processed milk, розд. 6 «Transport»
- Science Museum Group. Horse-drawn box-type milk-delivery van
- National Motor Museum (Beaulieu). Brush Pony electric milk float
- Science Museum Group. Electric Blue Milk Float
- FAO. Dairy production and products: collection and transport