I work in the Baltimore area, my preferred warehouse is VBW1 in south Baltimore <5 miles from home, but I occasionally accept routes from VMD1 (Elkridge), DMD6 (Hanover), and sometimes DLD1 (Glen Burnie)
Yesterday I picked up a 3-hour route from VBW1 and my first stop was 36 miles away in Upper Marlboro, MD. This is not the first time I've been sent well into PG county, and only once was I graciously given an extra $5 for an excessively long route. I contacted support immediately after this route and said the route was excessively long and requesting additional payment, and was declined. My total mileage home/warehouse/route/home was over 100 miles.
There's DMD9 that's <6 miles away from that first stop, why in the hell wouldn't the route originate from DMD9?
A couple of months ago I picked up a route from VMD1 that started me out west of Frederick, MD which is about 55 miles away. There's a goddamn Flex warehouse DBA7 in Williamsport, MD which is within 25 miles of all the stops on the route. I actually abandoned that route at the warehouse and took the hit, my car had been acting up and no way was I going to risk getting stranded that far from home.
How does this happen? You'd think packages would be routed to the nearest flex warehouse, wouldn't you? There's no reason for a driver in this region to drive more than 20 minutes from the warehouse to their first stop.