I've been a truck driver for 8 years now. I'm a car hauler so I don't touch the same freight, but I do hear a lot of things on the road. From what I understand fed ex has a couple of different offers out there. The more popular one I see is you would lease a truck, make truck payments, pay for your own fuel, and insurance. In other words your starting your own business. You get all the fun trucker tax write offs and all. The down side to that is you have to follow their rules. They govern your truck, you have to use an electronic log book. I'm not sure they offer the buy your route through them.

Ups has a similar offer, but instead of leasing your truck to own, you already have to have your own truck. But there they don't govern it, and you can run log sheets. I do believe at ups you can buy your own routes. I've actually heard of people starting their own trucking company going that route. Get a couple of beat up frightliners and start buying their routes. Then start building from there. I'm not sure if it's intermodal or not.

Trucking is a shit ton of work. It will get dangerous, it will get scary, and you will get in unbelievably tired. On the plus side it is a rewarding job, running the open road is kinda nice, no one to give you shit. You are the captain of your own vessel. I will also tell you this there are a lot of people getting out of trucking (including me), due to DOT regulations, the cost of trying to run your own truck, having to spend time away from your family and the list goes on and on and on.

One last little piece of personal info. Everyone that I know that tried the fed ex route has failed, putting their family through some rough times. Great company to work for, shitting company to try and work with. I only know one person that went with ups and I believe he did fairly well before he sold out.

Unless things have changed, and they very well may have. I know companies have really changed their leasing programs, trying to keep men in the trucks. Your best bet would be to call each company's cooperate office. I'm sure they would love to fill you in on their programs. A little FYI if you talk to a recruiter just remember they will lie to you, especially if it come to money. Good luck. If you have any questions about the trucking industry I'll be glad to answer.