White van man
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
by the journalist Jonathan Leake, then transport editor at The Sunday Times, to describe drivers of light commercial vehicle
Van
A van is a kind of vehicle used for transporting goods or groups of people.In British English usage, it can be either specially designed or based on a saloon or sedan car, the latter type often including derivatives with open backs...
s such as the Ford Transit
Ford Transit
The Ford Transit is a range of panel vans, minibuses, and pickup trucks, produced by the Ford Motor Company in Europe.The Transit has been the best-selling light commercial vehicle in Europe for 40 years, and in some countries the term "Transit" has passed into common usage as a generic term...
.
Such vehicles are commonly painted white in order to facilitate easy sign-writing on the panelled sides. The stereotype represents the drivers of such vehicles as often self-employed or the owner of a small business
Small business
A small business is a business that is privately owned and operated, with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships...
such as builder, carpenter, or plumber. The term White Van Man was used as part of a road safety campaign by the Freight Transport Association
Freight Transport Association
The Freight Transport Association traces its roots back to 1889: its mission is to represent the views and interests of over 13,000 companies: from large multinationals and household names to small and medium businesses...
to imply poor driving skills and / or an aggressive and inconsiderate manner.
United Kingdom
The term may have been in use earlier but the first recorded use in the British press according to the Factiva database was in an article published by The Sunday Times on May 18, 1997 written by Jonathan Leake, that paper's then transport editor.Under the headline Number is up for White Van Man - scourge of the road, Leake wrote:
' "HE is known as White Van Man and is the most feared driver on the road. But he is about to be tamed. Transport watchdogs plan to crack down on the young male van driver who looms in your rearview mirror, comes within feet of your bumper and usually makes obscene gestures until he forces his way past.
The phenomenon of White Van Man - a tattooed species often with a cigarette in his mouth, who is prone to flashing his lights as he descends on his prey - has been identified in a report by the Freight Transport Association (FTA).
It says his bullying antics have now become a threat to all motorists, and it believes the problem is so serious that a nationwide re-education programme is needed, possibly backed by legislation.
"White van syndrome sounds like a joke, but it is an increasingly serious problem. These drivers are bringing the whole haulage industry into disrepute," said John Hix of the FTA, which represents Britain's biggest freight movers. He believes van drivers should be forced to undergo extra training, use tachographs and attach stickers to their vehicles with telephone numbers which aggrieved motorists can use to register complaints.'Researchers found that the white van was one of the fast est growing forms of transport. There are about 2m light vans on the road, mostly white, suggesting anyone travelling often in busy city centres is likely to have an "aggressive encounter" with one.'
The whole article was freely available on the Timesonline website for some years. It has since been archived but is still available from The Sunday Times or Factiva
The term is said to have actually been coined by Leake and Geoff Dossetter, an executive at the Freight Transport Association FTA during a lunch at Rules' restaurant in Covent Garden. Dossetter was launching an FTA camapaign to raise standards of driving in light goods vehicles and was looking for a catchy phrase - which Leake supplied.
However, it is uncertain whether Jonathan Leake actually invented, or just reinvented, the phrase. There are suggestions it may have been previously used by comedienne Jo Brand
Jo Brand
Josephine Grace "Jo" Brand is a BAFTA winning British comedian, writer, and actor.- Early life :Jo Brand was born 23 July 1957 in Wandsworth, London. Her mother was a social worker. Brand is the middle of three children, with two brothers...
in the early 1990s..
Leake's article was, however, responsible for making the phrase widely popular. It was followed-up next day by most of the British tabloid newspapers and the term rapidly entered common usage. The Sun newspaper ran a regular "White Van Man" column for some years in which the driver of a light goods vehicle was interviewed in his van on the issues of the day. These columns were accompanied by a picture of whichever driver had been interviewed leading out of his cab.
Later in 1997 it was also used by BBC Radio 2's Sarah Kennedy later in 1997. In 2005 Sarah Kennedy was made honorary president of the First Ford Transit Owner's Club. White Van Man is a trade mark registered with the Trade Marks Registry under the Trade Marks Act 1994 of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Alastair Stewart
Alastair Stewart
Alastair James Stewart OBE is an English journalist and newscaster. Stewart is currently employed by ITN where he is a main newscaster for ITV News.-Early life:...
, presenter of ITV's Police, Camera, Action!
Police Camera Action!
Police, Camera, Action! is a police video programme made by Optomen Television for ITV and broadcast on the ITV Network and ITV4. The program was originally commissioned through Carlton Television....
, in the episode A Lorry Load of Trouble (produced in 1997), had a sequence of footage
Footage
In filmmaking and video production, footage is the raw, unedited material as it had been originally filmed by movie camera or recorded by a video camera which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work...
from police forces in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
showing the problems that "white van man" was causing. Between 2001 and 2003, The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
newspaper used a "white van man" as an alleged representative voice of the people. This feature was subsequently ported to the Xfm radio show The Ricky Gervais Show
The Ricky Gervais Show
The Ricky Gervais Show is a comedy audio show in the UK starring Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington, later adapted into an animated televised version debuting for HBO and Channel 4 in 2010. The show started in November 2001 on Xfm, and aired in weekly periods for months at a time...
, in which Karl Pilkington
Karl Pilkington
Karl Pilkington is a British podcaster, author, television personality and former radio producer. He is best known for the Sky travel series, An Idiot Abroad, which was also presented in the United States on the Science Channel, in Canada on Discovery Channel and in Australia on One HD, and The...
would answer the same questions as "White Van Karl". An episode of Top Gear
Top Gear (current format)
Top Gear is a British television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars. It began in 1977 as a conventional motoring magazine show. Over time, and especially since a relaunch in 2002, it has developed a quirky, humorous style...
featured the White Van Man Challenge.
White Van Man
White Van Man (TV series)
White Van Man is a British sitcom created by Adrian Poynton and first broadcast on BBC Three and BBC HD in 2011. Will Mellor plays Ollie, a man with business dreams who has to put them on hold while he takes over the family handyman business from his father Tony played by Clive Mantle. It was...
is also a comedy TV series written and created by Adrian Poynton
Adrian Poynton
Adrian Poynton is a British screenwriter, playwright, stand up comedian and actor.He is the creator and writer of BBC Three sitcom White Van Man starring Will Mellor, Georgia Moffett and Clive Mantle. It began screening in March 2011 becoming the highest rated launch ever for a sitcom on BBC3...
and staring Will Mellor
Will Mellor
William "Will" Mellor is an English actor. He is known for his roles as Jambo Bolton in Hollyoaks, Gaz Wilkinson in comedy, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps...
and Georgia Moffett
Georgia Moffett
Georgia Elizabeth Moffett is a British actress. Moffett was born in West London, the daughter of actors Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson....
. It was filmed in and around Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
.