A truck driver of 32 years proved his deep love for all things trucking by changing his name to “Diesel Trailer Truck” and shedding his birthname completely.

56-year-old Diesel lives in Junction City, Kansas and has known he had a deep love of trucks from the first moment he saw one.

“A Mack COE pulled into my family’s driveway to make a u-turn back when I was a little kid playing in the yard,” Diesel explained to Truckers News.

“I thought it looked and sounded like a monster. Ever since that day I have been attached to trucks. I think the good Lord picked me to do it.”

But Diesel says that, despite his obvious love for the big rigs, his path to trucking wasn’t easy.

“There were 10 of us and we came up rough… We didn’t have a good mother,” Diesel said, explaining how even as a teenager he knew he wanted to shed the name given to him in order to escape his unfortunate past.

“I just said when I get older I’m going to switch my name to something I love that makes me feel good,” he said. That’s why, in the 1980s, during his career driving trucks in the military, Diesel abandoned his old name and applied for a new one “Diesel Truck.”

“A receptionist at the office suggested I add “Trailer” as a middle name,” Diesel explained.

“I liked that idea. The name change was approved and made official a week and a half later.”

Diesel, who now drives for Werner, then joined the military and credits a lot of his trucking industry success to his time spent driving trucks in the military.

“That helped me out a lot. I’ll never, ever in my life open my mouth and say I regret going into the military because the military was a blessing to me. It gave me everything I wanted because I was less fortunate. The military taught me everything. It taught me how to drive a Jeep, back in them days, to a big ol’ semi like what I got now.”

What does Diesel have to say about those who dislike his decision to change his name?

“It doesn’t bother me. I’m going to die with this name. This is me and I’m going to die with this name because I like it,” says Diesel, who is so committed to the name change that he no longer identifies at all with his given name, and would not even disclose what that previous name might be.

Diesel says that his goals now are to reach 4 million miles driving as part of Werner’s fleet (he’s already at 3.5 million) and to keep adding to his collection of toy trucks, which is already more than one thousand pieces strong.

“I’ve got so many trucks they won’t fit in my house. He who dies with the most toys wins,” he laughed.