From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishvanvan /væn/ ●●● S2 W3 noun [countable] 1 
TTCa vehicle used especially for carrying goods, which is smaller than a truck and has a roof and usually no windows at the sides a delivery van a van driver2 American English a large box-like car that can carry a lot of people3 especially British EnglishTTT a railway carriage with a roof and sides, used especially for carrying goods a luggage van4 → be in the van (of something)
TTCa vehicle used especially for carrying goods, which is smaller than a truck and has a roof and usually no windows at the sides a delivery van a van driver2 American English a large box-like car that can carry a lot of people3 especially British EnglishTTT a railway carriage with a roof and sides, used especially for carrying goods a luggage van4 → be in the van (of something)Examples from the Corpus
van• Brave Sam King saw Scott Long, also six, run down by a van.• You will certainly need to make arrangements for the siting of the outside broadcast van and the laying of cables.• a moving van• Bernard reversed straight out of the new garage into the road and hit a passing van.• Police found at least a dozen spent shell casings around the van.• A hosepipe was attached to the exhaust pipe leading into the interior of the van and the engine was still running.• We washed three vans, one mini and 28 cars and we all got soaking wet.Origin van (1800-1900) caravan 