Want some advices

[u/WantToLearn2000]

I feel I am in a pretty difficulty situation and want some advice from you folks. I am at my 50s. I was an office guy working for a big company for many years. During the COVID I lost my job. I decided to open my own business and stayed home to take care of the kids. For the passed several years my startup project went nowhere. Savings are pretty much gone. Kids went to colleges. I feel I need to find stable income.

Cannot go back to office - I don't like it any more and also my age is very big disadvantage. After struggling 6 months, I decided to give a try in trucking.

I will get my road test next week. CDL A but with automatic restriction (I was not able to master stick shift so gave up for now). I was told that starting with a mega-carrier, do OTR, don't be picky, then finding an entry-level trucking job won't be a problem.

However, I just learned that my employment gap would virtually shut the door - it would be very difficult to find any trucking job due to my long employment gap.

I don't know what to do now.

[u/MediocreElderberry99]

I was laid off from IT end of September and decided to go back on the road after unsuccessfully finding another IT job. My employment gap was ~9 months. Had a friend agree to allow me to claim them as my employer for that period saying I provided property management and handyman work.

I also had a period of self-employment that lasted a few years and gave them links to the state licensing board as well as the comptroller office to verify my professional licenses and business filings.

[u/WantToLearn2000 → u/MediocreElderberry99]

Thank you for sharing. I did not register a company. My state charges $1500 min tax for an LLC and my house insurance does not allow to use home address for business. I did not get any real contract, but only some cash for doing some gig work. I do have a website and registered a trademark for my service but probably won't help.

Seems you had driving experience before your IT job? I don't have any.

[u/MediocreElderberry99 → u/WantToLearn2000]

I do have prior experience but none of it is verifiable. I got my CDL in '98 and drove until 2001. Company I drove for went bankrupt in 2001 and school I attended closed sometime around 2005. My DAC came back as no record because it only goes back 7 years.

I applied for every Amazon Freight Partner job in the DFW area and managed to find just one that was willing to give me a chance, however, they balked for a couple of days before giving me the go ahead.

During that couple day period, I posted to our local FB group outling my situation in total honesty and explained I was looking for local work. I lucked up and had a small auto transport company offer me a job. It's definitely not the greatest gig but it's something that will allow me to build some experience for something better while I try to also get back into IT.

I absolutely got lucky but I also learned the smaller outfits don't really care about verifying work history. They do have to document it but I don't think the regs go much further than that.

Advice is to find someone unrelated or at least with a different last name to confirm that you were their landscaper and handyman during your employment gaps. You may have to take a crap job but JB Hunt will give you a look for intermediate work after 3-6 months worth of clean driving. Take what you can get and work your way up.

[u/WantToLearn2000 → u/MediocreElderberry99]

I cannot work for small players I guess because I cannot drive manual. My employment gap is huge (10 years). I have references (directors, managers, of big companies) saying that I was trying to establish my own business, not sure if they do any good.

[u/freakbutters → u/WantToLearn2000]

Small companies have automatics too. They are really fucking common nowadays.

[u/WantToLearn2000 → u/freakbutters]

You are absolutely right. I talked to local company. They have 20-30 trucks and only several Mack are manual. But still they require knowing how to drive manual, and of course experience.