A modern milkfloat for a modern milkman thanks to Burnley company

The Modern Milkman, which started out as a local milk round in Pendle proved so appealing to environmentally conscious households, the company has opened additional hubs in new areas, delivering a local service to some 20 towns and cities across the North West

Recent investment has enabled them to expand their reach further still and they needed 125 vehicles to manage demand and delivery.

Through fellow Lancashire business, XLCR, a vehicle management business, the founder of The Modern Milkman, Simon Mellin, was introduced to Burnley company, CoolKit, a specialist in temperature controlled solutions.

CoolKit’s sales and marketing director Glenn McCulley said: “We have never before been asked to convert a vehicle to help milkmen deliver a range of fresh groceries in darkness, but as company recognised for our R&D and innovation, we knew we could present The Modern Milkman with the solution they needed.”

CoolKit identified the Fiat Doblo as the perfect model on which to work and after discussing the specifications with Mellin, set about building a prototype model for him to trial.

The prototype was tested on various routes around Greater Manchester over a few months and following a few enhancements to the original prototype vehicle, Mellin was very happy with the final product.

He said: “Our milkmen and women are the backbone of our business - they’re on the front line, so it is really important to us that they are comfortable and happy!

"The design we chose was the most ergonomic for our drivers and will help make their job easier, especially now we have a wide range of products. The two-section design will allow our drivers to deliver more products to even more customers, whilst making it easier than ever before.

“We were really happy with CoolKit’s design process. The ability to see a prototype of the custom build modernised milk float made the decisions easier as we could visualise any opportunities or barriers to the design.

“The collaborative process was unique and it felt like CoolKit were ready to help at all stages, which meant the final design was even better than we expected.

“As our business continues to grow, the custom build milk floats will allow us to further expand our range of return and reuse groceries to encourage even more customers to help us reset our throwaway society.”