Jingle of the ice cream van falls victim to triple glazing
IT WAS a joyous sound for children growing up from the Fifties to the Sevenities, but the jingle of the ice cream van is unlikely to resonate with today’s youngsters.
Ice cream vans are in steep decline – with the number falling from a quarter of a million in the Seventies to fewer than 2,500 today – threatened by a new menace: triple-glazed windows, which means no one can hear their jingles.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Zelica Carr, chief executive of the Ice Cream Association, said: “These windows are so thick that people cannot hear them coming, unless they happen to have opened them first.
“Even if a van is right outside their house, people may not hear them. The whole point is to soundproof homes and keep them warm, but they are not good for ice cream vans.”
The problems hearing chimes come despite the Government move to slash red tape in 2013 by creating rules allowing chimes to ring out for up to 12 seconds a time, as opposed to the previous limit of four. That came despite fierce opposition from the Noise Abatement Society.
The decline in vans has also been put down to councils forcing drivers to change their vans every five years to help reduce carbon emissions, with some even banning them on obesity grounds.
In an attempt to drum up business, van owners are promoting a smartphone app called Vantoot, which alerts ice cream fans with an electronic jingle when vans approach.
While traditional ice cream vans are disappearing from roads, they are increasingly popping up at festivals and street food events, where they tend to be stationary.
Ms Carr says their resurgence at trendy events means they are catering to a new breed of tech-savvy customer and now one in five ice cream vans accepts cashless payments like contactless cards and Applepay.