PENN YAN EXPRESS HISTORY

Robert Hinson started driving and repairing trucks and farm machinery at a young age while working for his father, Jesse Hinson, at his John Deere dealer- ship in Lakemont.  After his father’s death in July of 1941, at the age of eighteen, he started driving for Boyce Motor Lines of Canandaigua, in the later part of 1941. In an interview Hinson once stated, “The minute  I  got  my  driver’s  license,  I  took  off  for Baltimore driving a tractor-trailer rig. Not only had I never  driven  a  truck.  I  didn’t  even  know  where Baltimore was. Someone handed me a map and said get going.” Hinson drove for Boyce until January 5, 1943   at   which  time  he  entered  the  US   Army Quartermaster Corp. He received his basic training at Camp Young in California, which was established in 1942 by General George S. Patton for desert training to prepare troops to fight the Nazis in North Africa.  In

August he was transferred to the 1318th Service Unit at Camp Pickett, Virginia, and on November 2, 1943 was honorably discharged at the rank of Private 1st Class after receiving injuries in a jeep accident.  After returning home to Lakemont, Robert Hinson resumed his truck driving activities for Boyce Motor Lines again on November 22, 1943.

In 1944 he started Hinson Trucking Company in the garage that his father had his farm dealership, with a Ford straight truck that he had built from spare parts and pieces. By October 1945, he sold this truck and purchased his first new tractor, a White for $4,300.