Hey,
Check out: http://inside.ipapilot.org/tools/jumpseats/index.php
&
flightaware.com (UPS only and specific airports only give a lot of info)
See what your commute would look like to SDF to start with. Plan on 1-2 commutes per 4 weeks but keep in the back of your head that you may need 3 commutes per month or need to head to ANC, ONT, or MIA for a relatively short time as a new hire. With a small amount of seniority you can live and commute from a whole lot of places. With a little more seniority you could live anywhere in the world and make it work.
There are some easy commutes. Look where UPS has a high frequency of flights. Out of SDF, the NE (PHL, EWR, BDL, MHT) has flights 7days a week and multiple times per day with a good amount of passenger flights to sdf as well. Orlando is another that has a bunch of flights. Hub to hub (SDF-ONT or OAK) stuff can get you to and from the west coast pretty easily. Cities within driving range (6hrs) of a domicile w/ UPS can be good too especially if they have passenger flights (ORD, ATL)-use the car as an emergency backup.
On ups flights we have an online jumpseat reservation system on a first come first served priority system and a standby list if the planes are already full. Planes have a minimum of 4 jumpseats, 5 on MD, and 7+ on 747. If you flight cancels, mechanicals, gets delayed, regardless if it's on a UPS or a commercial flight you are commuting on, you won't be subject to any administrative issues or harassment from the company. You will lose pay for what you miss though.
Much easier being able to reserve a JS on company. Timing of the flight won't always be perfect but it is the closest thing you can have to a paid ticket. We also have quite a few lines with either position or depositioning dead heads which use commercial flights that you can deviate from and go right from your home airport. Doing this enough will give you a nice chunk of airline miles that you can then use to get to work or back home if other options don't look so hot. And you can also buy a ticket here and there. I've found some really cheap flights one way that were too good to pass up and with the pay you'll get after year 1 it's really not a dent in the wallet at all.
There are crappy commutes: if you live a couple hours drive from your closest airport that only offers pax service (no UPS or FedEx) and it's a regional airport that will require a two leg commute to SDF or wherever - unless you are buying tickets that would be downright horrific especially as a newhire. ANC is shaping up to be a royal pain in the behind due to the huge volume of guys that are doing it. There are some easy back doors depending on where you live though. And if your city has a UPS flight but no good pax options things can start to suck pretty quick as a junior guy too: most domestic UPS cities only get service during weeknights so if you have a weekend start or finish, UPS isn't an option.
At the end of it all, the biggest factor is really the schedules you can hold that will determine how your commute will end up being. Best is hometown overnights followed by commercial tickets on either end or both. Next are trips that you can jumpseat directly into and/or out of (no major wait in between work and commute). From there it starts being tradeoffs for whatever works best for you and your family. Guys will say that your QOL will increase significantly with living in base. Well, your time at home will increase significantly. The quality of that time won't if you and your family hate living in that base, aren't close to friends and family, etc., YMMV but there a ton of guys who commute at UPS for those reasons, it's a commuter truckingairline.
Hope this helps a litte.