White van man
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"White van man", in the United Kingdom, is a stereotype of the hazardous and inconsiderate driver of a smaller-sized commercial cargo vehicle. The name derives from the common practice of painting the sides of such vehicles white to accommodate signs. According this stereotype, the "white van man" is an independent tradesperson, such as a plumber or locksmith, self-employed or running a small enterprise, for whom driving a commercial vehicle is the not main line of business, as it is for a professional freight-driver.
The term White Van Man was used as part of a road safety campaign by the Freight Transport Association 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 in the early 1990s.[citation needed].
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 leaning 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.[1] 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, presenter of ITV's Police, Camera, Action!, in the episode A Lorry Load of Trouble (produced in 1997), had a sequence of footage from police forces in the United Kingdom showing the problems that "white van man" was causing. Between 2001 and 2003, The Sun newspaper used a "white van man" as an alleged representative voice of the people. This feature was subsequently ported[clarification needed] to the Xfm radio show The Ricky Gervais Show, in which Karl Pilkington would answer the same questions as "White Van Karl". An episode of Top Gear featured the White Van Man Challenge.[citation needed]
White Van Man is also a comedy TV series written and created by Adrian Poynton and starring Will Mellor and Georgia Moffett. It was filmed in and around Greater Manchester.