Luton body
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A Luton body is a style of commercial vehicle body incorporating an enclosed box body extended over the cab. It takes its name from the town of Luton, in Bedfordshire, where the Bedford commercial vehicle plant was located.
This style of body was designed to accommodate the high volume low weight loads of straw hats which were part of Luton's industry. Straw hats were wrapped in hessian in long cylinders to fit across the width of the van. It was incidental that it was the home of Bedford although all the early Luton vans were on Bedford chassis.
The body style is common in medium commercial vehicles such as the Ford Transit, as well as larger vehicles especially those used by household removals companies. More modern examples may be streamlined to reduce wind resistance. Some commercial vehicles have a wind deflector on the cab roof, but this is not a Luton body: the Luton is functional and can be accessed from the main body. The portion of the body that rests over the cab is referred to as the peak, also referred to, in some quarters as a Luton, or a kick.
Many commercial vehicles have tilting cabs. To allow for this the floor of the Luton may be hinged, and there may be a hinged flap at the front.