Trying to help a friend

Hey Guys,

I am trying to help a friend and need some guidance. I have a friend that is thinking of getting his CDL so he is asking me if he should do it. Here is the situation. He is 53 years old and in excellent health, he has a clean driving record and no criminal record. He worked for over 15 years with a restoration company and drove a straight truck (non cdl) daily and prior to that was in the Military. The issue is work history verification. The restoration company he worked for was part of a franchise chain and at the peak of Covid the owner of the business started having health issues and said F it and just shut it down. My friend had some money put aside so he spent the last few years doing the van life and just driving all over North America, his cash reserves has declined to the point where he is wanting to get back into steady employment. He asked me about OTR and that is where I am at. He has the money to pay for the CDL school and is not tied down so my question is how best to help him out?. Are there places that hire without being able to verify work history? The corporate office for the franchise said they do not have employment records for individual locations so no way to verify his employment with the company. He can verify the Military employment but that is a long time ago. Is this a deal killer for him?

 

He has tax records from the franchise time and the DD-214 but nothing for like the last 3+ years. He is in the Dallas area but is willing to go wherever.

 

The retirement angle I had never even considered and I actually mentioned to him just last night that he could stay by me while he is going thru CDL school.

 

The drug testing is no problem. He was in the same Unit I was while in the military so we had regular ongoing testing,