I don't know about you, but before I filled out my first city bid sheet I was told by HR that I am bidding on a start time only which meant that I would run where they needed me to run at that designated start time. Every city run is unique with it's own traffic patterns, street and intersection setups, docks vs. no docks, stem times, etc....In my time as a city driver I see routes assigned based mostly on driver proficiency. Some DSR's are better at running a single zipcode with tightly packed stops where others are better at rural routes with more road time and less stops. Some drivers are better at handling stops that involve inside deliveries like to malls and residents. It's hard, IMO to make a case that there is a lot of favoritism going on in route assignments when the routes are as diverse as the drivers' abilities to complete them successfully. In my place, we have the same guy go out every day on a lift gate trailer, not because he's being punished but because he's the best driver to get it done. We have over half our people going out on the same runs everyday because they're good at it and it keeps most of our work force happy. You're always going to have grumblers when it comes to route assignments and some of those grumblers are going to think that they are being showed favoritism, but I'm here to tell you that I simply don't believe that's the case, not when I have management coming to me asking about the new hires I've trained and asking me where I believe they will be able to best perform in the city.