The entity in conceptual metonymy which serves to provide access to or to highlight a second entity known as a target. A vehicle is typically encoded linguistically.

For instance, in the following utterance: Downing Street refused comment, the vehicle is Downing Street, the official London residence of the Prime Minister. The vehicle facilitates metonymic access to Prime Minister. This particular metonymy can be stated employing the formula place for person or place for institution in which the vehicle comes first in the formula.