Who to work for...need advice

Hey all,
I'm taking my CDL driving tests in 4 days and really need to pick an employer so I can get to work right away.
Right now I'm pre-hired with Werner, Stevens and US Xpress. Who would you choose if those were your choices?

I do have a family so Stevens is my least desirable since you are on the road 4-5 weeks at a time. Werner has a bad rep but I supposed I could live with anyone for 6-12 months to get the experience I need to work for a better company. US Express seems like the better of the three but I'm not to keen on the idea of driving an auto-shift.

I've driven manual transmissions all my life and have had NO issues learning to drive a manual shift big-rig. Do you think I'd have trouble getting on with manual shift companies if I put my initial time in with USX? I'd have no problem proving to them I'm capable of doing my job....

Oh I could probably get on with CFI too, I'm not pre-hired but the recruiter said my application looks great and for me to call him when I have my CDL in hand to setup an orientation date.

Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks...

Truckin916

 

Thanks for your input Chrome. I don't like the idea of electronic logs either. It has the 'sound' of being nice since you wouldn't have to take the time to do a paper log but I can foresee headaches galore with that system.
I'll probably be calling CFI this week, they pay trainees well granted you get miles and I can deal with anyone I think for a year....

 

Roehl was one of the first I looked into but are not hiring out of my area.

I did talk to a Schneider recruiter and think I may go with them, they offered a West Coast Regional position and their pay scale is increasing on 9/30/07!! Only thing I didn't like is that they pay household guide mileage....does that make that big of a difference?

 

Yea I scratched USX off my list officially. Don't like several things about them and I think Schneider national is probably a better choice at this point since they are W Regional and just raised their payscale.