OK, Boonie, I'll throw in my worthless two cents.
I was a feeder driver for most of 32 yrs on parcel side. Will try to cut this down. Started out as package driver, signed feeder list until finally called, worked vacations/sick days/scheduled day off/etc for another 6 yrs, mostly crap jobs. Move yard trailers, afternoon pickup, and if I did get to cover a run, it was always night. Finally got a bid job but you can imagine what kind of bid it was, I was the lowest in senority. As my time grew, so did choices for bid jobs but still, almost exclusively, night jobs or afternoon or night shifting jobs.
It finally got to where I could bid a "day" job, if you want to call it that. Maybe start at 8,9,10 Am, drive someplace come back and get sent out to make 1,2 or more trailer pickups (some hubs or centers forbid that), get done at 8,9,10 PM. No thanks. That ain't no "day" job to me. So, I always bid night runs. Worked better for me. Spent most of my 32 years running cross country at night, but, yes, was back home most everyday. EXCEPT, for the time I was on UPS sleeper team. Different story altogether.
UPSF? Here, they have two boards, city and road and can't cross over. That means their city people deliver and pickup all day and into the eve, freight is sorted at terminal, loaded on trailer and driven to a relay meet or laydown run by the road drivers, to return the next day, almost always at night.
There's lots more that goes on but that's it in a nutshell.