I don't consider it a nightmare, so you're off base. You don't seem to grasp that other contractors are more successful than you were in hillbilly country.
The OP asked for advice on how to get the HD from an incompetent contractor that refuses to sell. Bailing that contractor out won't likely get the results OP is looking for. If the bad contractor is perpetually understaffed and terminal management allows it through the good will of OP nothing will change. There need to be consequences and failure to force a change. OP can use the promise of help as leverage to force a sale or free acquisition of the desired area. Helping just to help out doesn't benefit OP.
I take umbrage with that remark. It is a NATIONWIDE carrier and there are parts of this country where there is enough affluence allowing this business model to function well. At the same time there are just as many if not more areas where the area itself is simply too depressed has too little in the way of population and discretionary income to work with any degree of consistency . BUT, somebody has to go out there and provide the service.
The trouble the multi routes had was that they never took into consideration the weakness of the economy in my area and the limitations therein. Therefore the greedier they got the more they set themselves up for failure.
There are parts of this country where the best management practices in the world simply will not overcome a bad economy when the entire business model is consumption driven.
In this situation the OP should not be immediately pointing the finger at the contractor calling him "incompetent" instead he should be looking first at the economic conditions of that particular area Why? Because the amount of money they give you people to operate on is based on their operating cost assessments which are always based on a best case scenario.
In fact IWBF it wasn't more than a couple of weeks ago when you were "waaing" about the money.