Van Hool Logo: Meaning, History and Evolution

The Van Hool logo is the name VAN HOOL in blue capital letters inside a blue hexagonal frame, with a tall H. Van Hool is a Belgian maker of buses, coaches, trolleybuses and trailers from Koningshooikt, now part of the VDL group.

Van Hool Logo

The Van Hool emblem is a wordmark in a stretched, six-sided outline with pointed left and right ends. The letters are bold blue capitals. The H is drawn taller than the other letters, with two long uprights joined by a short crossbar, and it is the most distinctive part of the Van Hool symbol. The blue and white colour scheme is simple and carries no picture.

This Van Hool car logo is the Van Hool badge of the company’s buses, coaches and trailers. This page offers the Van Hool logo PNG with a transparent background, so the blue lettering can sit on any background.

Van Hool Logo History

Two versions make up the Van Hool logo history. The old Van Hool logo, dated to around 2003, was a black rectangle with a white inner border. The name VAN HOOL was set in white capitals inside it, with the same tall H.

The new Van Hool logo moves the name onto a white background, colours the lettering blue and draws the frame as a hexagonal outline. The design is the one the company shows on its website, and it dates from around 2023.

Van Hool History

Bernard Van Hool (1902–1974) was a farmer in Koningshooikt, near Lier, Belgium. He built his own bus to take workers to his farm, and he founded the company in 1947 after other farmers asked for similar vehicles. It was a family business: of the 22 initial employees, five were related to Bernard, including four of his sons. In 1954 it changed its name to Van Hool en Zonen, which means “and Sons”.

In the early years Van Hool was a coachbuilder that used chassis from other companies. It introduced serial production and exported its products all over Europe, and it has been active on the North American market since the mid 1980s. At its peak the company employed 4,500 people and built more than 1,700 buses and coaches and 5,000 trailers each year.

Van Hool filed for bankruptcy on 5 April 2024 and was declared bankrupt on 8 April 2024. On 10 April 2024 its trustees accepted a takeover bid from the Dutch bus maker VDL and the German semi-trailer maker Schmitz Cargobull, and the business now trades as VDL-Van Hool.