Do you recall seeing your first "White Van Man"?

1974 World Cup  final Holland v West Germany.

Wasn't he a villain in an episode of Van der Valk a couple of years before that?

Did "The White Van Man" thing start with the introduction of the "Ford Transit"?

They were, pretty much, always white, and I'm having trouble thinking back before that.

Before Transit there was a Bedford van with sliding doors which you could close rapidly with a dab on the brakes.

I drove both a white Transit, and a green Bedford with sliding doors, delivering vending ingredients on college summer holidays.

They were both clapped out and wouldn't have been allowed on the roads these days!

The Bedford got ridiculously hot in the cab because of the engine being in the middle and the hot weather we seemed to always have back then.
It was necessary to have the door open to get some air but, as you say, it slammed shut on even the slightest braking!

They both had to be hard driven to get any speed at all, and coming down a hill in the transit, on a bumpy wet road I got severe axle tramping,
and the b@stard thing bounced sideways and smashed into a wall!

The tw@t of the owner had to come out and sulked with zero consideration that my life was at risk.
It was discovered that a shock absorber on the rear axle had come adrift and hence the axle tramping.