What's the best union LTL carrier to work for (UPSF, YRC, ABF)?

I'm trying to get in the teamster's. I like that they have seniority and (hopefully) pension as well as good healthcare and of course OT after 8 as well as PTO, sick days, holiday.

My uneducated opinion (which is mostly likely wrong but what I gather) is as follows:

UPSF: Top pay but you have to start the lowest. You work your way up but when you get to the top of the pay scale you can expect mid to upper 20's/hr and .72/mile linehaul. Benefits I don't know if they pay fully or not.

ABF: From the small sample size I gathered is the freight isn't the greatest. You have to deal with a lot of weird freight like pool tables etc...However you don't have to wait to get to top rate or at the least you don't have to wait as long and top rate is around 24/hr and .64/mile linehaul?

YRC: Crapshoot depending on what may/may not happen come late March with the new contract. YRC could be making a comeback or it could be in trouble. Hopefully the drivers get back the 15% they had to give up in pay and hopefully they can get their pension back to at least 75% but we won't know until the end of March. Pay is 18.80/hr and takes 3 years to get to top pay rate which would be about 21.75/hr (here in Tampa FL anyway)...benefits healthcare paid fully by company which is great.

feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I'm just trying to get a grasp for this. I'm about to be 36 and have a small family and I'm ready for a career and not a job. I have been driving for 10 years now and it's time to get serious.

 

Good to know. Appreciate the insight!

 

So the pension looks like it's going to die out. However the healthcare benefits are still excellent if not much better than non union companies. Do any non union companies have good solid pension plans? I heard FedEx freight does.

I plan on making some smart investments (real estate) for passive income which basically can become my own pension plan if I do things right which shouldn't be hard following the basic model....I would obviously rather have the pension strong though so I can double dip or triple dip counting social security.

If I could get weekends off fairly quickly in a union company I think I would go for it just for the health benefits alone....

It's truly sad that the union isn't what is used to be. My dad was in for many years starting in early 80s and now had a really good pension. Also there were more teamsters companies to drive for including construction as well which he did. I wish there were teamsters construction driving positions here in Florida but that would never happen.