What to do..what to do...

Hmmm. Decisions, decisions, decisions... I have discovered 2 trucking companies that are hiring.

The first outfit runs Wisconsin and the surrounding states. Advantage: NO east coast, NO winter mountains. Drivers are home every weekend! Disadvantage (maybe): LTL loads meaning multi-stop trips. The pay is based on a % of the line haul. How do I know what I'm earning prior to seeing my settlement check? Is there enough freight to earn a decent living?

The second outfit runs all 48 states (not so good, see previous advantage) but they do pay $0.34 off the hub. Advantages: paid for every mile traveled. Disadvantage: long trips = less home time.

Both companies have newer (but not fancy) equipment and refrigerated trailers. They both use paper logs which I'm accustomed to and have a computer log program that'll impress the heck out of their log department. Both back haul (or if need be deadhead) their trucks home for another trip outbound.

My third option is to switch back to a company truck with my present carrier. Advantage to option #3: familiar with company and procedures. Disadvantage: they pay book miles which are usually 8-10% short of actual miles traveled. That may not sound like much but when I apply that shortage to 150,000 annual miles (for example), that's a lot of driving for NOTHING.

I realize that every company is in business for themselves. Everything they do is for their benefit and betterment. Trucks and drivers are just disposable assets used to reach their objective (profit). Same can be said for just about any other business entity. The days of employees being treated like they're worth something are long gone. Or are there isolated companies that still treasure their workers?

I'm not totally unhappy with my present work situation, but I worry that NOT have health insurance could be a major financial problem if something serious happened. So the benefits package is almost more important than the pay program or the method of operation. I plan to further explore these options and hopefully make the correct decision soon, as I'm not getting any younger.

Retire by 65!
L8R
M

PS: How  do I get rid of the backgrond stuff?