[Nitro Express]

Greetings everyone, and Happy New Year! Just wanted to say hi. My interest in trucks started when I was a youngster of 9 years. I actually wrote letters to all the major manufacturers to see if they had any free stuff I could have. Pete, KW, and White Frieghtliner (as they were called back then) all responded with cool stuff. I remember Freightliner offered the most stuff with a patch, and tons of 8x10 glossies of their trucks in action. Pete gave me a cool poster. I guess you could say I was obsessed. My goal in life was to become a driver and unfortunately it never worked out that way.. until now. I've decided to get my CDL. I actually have a lot of experience operating semi's. I worked for 16 years in the steel industry and I was in charge of loading and unloading 13 trucks with structural steel tubing. A dangerous job and aside from a couple of smashed fingers, I made it through unscathed. I had to manuever the trucks around the facility and I got pretty good at backing up and making it around tight corners and obstacles. I'm lacking in any actual road time though.

Anyway, I'm hoping to learn a few things here and I'll definitely be checking in as my career as a professional driver is just beginning.

Bill

[GMAN]

Welcome to the forum, Bill. Feel free to post any questions you may have on here.

[hitman]

Welcome Bill. There are alot of good people here with alot of good information. Nitro Express...drag racing fan?

[Roadhog]

[classicxl]

welcome aboard

[Shawnee]

I started out the same way that you did, backing up and manouvering trailers in a very tight yard, long before I ever drove one on the road

That is where you will have an advantage, because backing is the hardest part,

Good luck on your career

[emerlin]

Welcome.

[yoopr]

Welcome-Good Luck and Go for it

[Nitro Express]

Thanks everybody for the warm welcome. Today I am off to pick up my CDL handbook from the DMV. I actually already had a permit at one time and did some driving with a couple of drivers that I worked with. I had this total jerk tester fail me on the airbrake test because I didn't say something exactly how he wanted to hear it. After that I let my permit expire before getting back to the DMV. I regret that a lot now. This time I'm gonna do it though. 8)

[Nitro Express]

Originally Posted by hitman

Welcome Bill. There are alot of good people here with alot of good information. Nitro Express...drag racing fan?

I am, but not where I came up with the name. Back when I was a kid I bought an album of trucker songs and there was one on there called "Nitro Express." Great album and I wish I still had it. There were some classics on there like, Phantom 309, Tombstone Every Mile, Teddy Bear, and Hello.. I'm a Truck. Good stuff!