I thought I was going to retire as a cover driver. A route opened up in an area that I do not hate, it is not my favorite, but not horrible. I bid it and won. This year at peak, I ran the same area I have run for the past 5-6 years, except I had a different package car every day. Several times, I had to fuel before I left the lot or on my way to the delivery area. 1 day, I cleaned out a week's worth of lunch scraps. I got sick of working in pig stys.
I signed the bid and now I regret it. It is boring as hell. I do not deliver to any farms, very few dogs and I have to do some pick ups.
According to our local, once you bid a route, you have to do it for a year and then can either sign a bid to go cover or wait and sign a bid for an open route. The routes that I would love to do are never going to be available for me to bid, but I could go back to doing them 6-7 weeks a year.