White Van Driver

Have you ever had an “episode” with one of these menaces of the road?!

Here are the hard facts, the truth, inconvenient at that.

Ever since the term “White Van Man” was coined in 1997, by Sarah Kennedy on Radio 2, van drivers have taken on the mantle of what sociologists refer to as ‘folk devils’. Overtaking even the football hooligan in the league table of social undesirability, WVM is now most often viewed as a mobile thug – a dangerous threat to the decent, right-thinking, motoring majority.

Have you ever met one?!

In the media, WVM is variously described as “aggressive“, “tattooed“, and a “tailgater”. He is the “white male” who “never signals”, “cuts up” other drivers and uses the kind of vocabulary that has to be represented by asterisks in newspapers.

“Aggressive and Tattooed”   sound like most people nowadays after a “heavy” night out.

Images of this kind, however, are not always founded upon facts, and false stereotypes are not only unjust, they can be down right dangerous.

So who is WVM, and what is he, or perhaps even she, like? Does he deserve  the accustaions that are   routinely heaped upon him? Or is the average WVM being made to suffer for the activities of a small minority of maniacs and ‘dodgy geezers’?

I don’t want to generalise, but I think most WVM are pretty crazy.

Research carried out by the SIRC (Social Issues Research Centre) suggests, that the WVM could in fact be an intelligent being, thus proving once and for all that he is not a school drop out with a driving license, rather an almost intellectual, loving person, who never strays far from his beloved house.

Here is a small summary of the research they carried out:-

How old is WVM?

Drivers in our sample ranged in age from 18 to 73 years. The average age was 37, and the majority of drivers were in their 30s or 40s.

Are all white van drivers men?

No, but women are in a distinct minority – less than 4% of drivers are female.

Is WVM a single guy?

No – two thirds of drivers are married. Single drivers account for only 24%, and a further 10% are divorcees.

Where does WVM go?

The majority of drivers (around 75%) do not stray too far from home. Most of their business is local and in urban environments. WVM is really a ‘townie’, and he often knows the local roads and streets better than some taxi drivers. This gives him a sense of ‘territory’ – in traffic he is on his own ‘turf’. And like other species of animal, he feels most confident in these conditions. So, a note of caution. When you obstruct the passage of a white van you are often preventing the driver travelling freely on what he perceives to be his road.

Is driving a van all he does?

No – for the majority of drivers the van is a ‘tool of the trade’. Fleet and courier vans account for only about 22% of all vans on the road. The typical driver may be a service engineer, a fishmonger, a roofer, an exhibitions erector, a picture framer or even a theatre director. Many are also self-employed (26%), and the van that they drive is one crucial element of their business.

What does WVM listen to when he’s driving?

There are some drivers who listen to, and even sing along with, tapes of opera or tune to Classic FM. The vast majority, however, listen to the independent local radio stations. We’ve seen that WVM spends most of his time in his local area. His choice of programme is his way of keeping in touch with his home turf. And the traffic news comes in handy as well.

Can he read?

Of course he can. His choice of newspaper is mostly one of the tabloids – perhaps because the broadsheets are less easy to cope with in the cab or at the table of a roadside café. Around 50% of drivers read one or more magazines regularly. These are sometimes related to their work (The Grocer and other trade publications) but more often linked to their hobbies.

There you have it. We are all guilty of an untrue stereotype, which serves no more then to spread “extremism” in the form of our motor way antics, which after my last weekend proved correct, never drive with someone who has mild-severe tourettes, who equally has not had enough sleep !