It just depends what you like. I had every kind of route possible while I was in PC. Combo suburban bus/resi routes. Country routes, and my last route was right in the center of a busy metropolitan area.
Combo--Pros: A little bit of everything, making the day varied and not too boring, See quite a few people. Cons: these are, by far, the worst routes during peak. Everything explodes, making load quality the first thing to hit the crapper.
Rural--Pros: driving routes, which makes for an easier day. Almost w/o exception, people are much, much nicer than in the city and suburbs. They just don't seem to get as worked up about things like city folk do. Still some creepos, but very rare. Cons: Call it mini-feeders. Lots of drivers get fat on rural routes if they're not careful. All you tend to do is drive. I drove over 220 miles on my rural route a day. You can get complacent on these driving routes if you're not careful. You can start to take things for granted since you don't see a lot of traffic. Finally, if your RR is got a lot of gravel or dirt, it is MISERY. I most likely would have retired on my RR, were it not for the gravel. I wore a face mask and goggle sunglasses to try and stop the dust from my insides, but it didn't help much. I would drive for a while on a gravel road, then stop, open my bulk head door, and the inside of my truck was CLOUDY. Closing the doors while you drive does nothing. You will go home everyday with dirt and dust in every crack of you and your belongings.
Metro--Pros: Ideal route for a single person. Especially for a man. There is more pretty women per square inch in a high rise route than anything else combined. Great, great scenery. The days fly by on metr0 routes. These routes used to be the routes you could get off the earliest on, but with the dumbasses doing the dispatches now, there is no telling what kind of add/cuts you might get day-to-day. While these routes always look the worst in the AM, they normally empty out the fastest too. Mine looked like a mental breakdown at 9:00AM, but turned into easy street by 1PM. Of course, many days I would fill it right back up. Metro routes don't typically change a whole lot during peak. I mean, offices get a lot more snackies and such, but not nearly like a resi route would. Cons: If you don't like a packed truck in the AM, a lot of air packages and city traffic, you may want to leave it be. These tend to be more physical routes. If you want to lose some weight, this is your route. The day FLIES by on metro routes. Many days, it seems like you're always behind. There are a lot of wackos in the city, and you have to have some thick skin. You will ALWAYS have to go get your misloads off other drivers, since they usually just a few streets away.
Anyway, this is just my experience in package car. All of these routes have there pluses and minuses. It just kind of depends what your priorities are.
But, ask any feeder driver, and he/she will tell you that the worst run in feeders is better than the best route in PC. Something to remember when that list comes up in the spring and fall.
