Phil, no one here believes you would spend real money to test a theory like this.You have a category on your spreadsheet for "found money", for heavens sake. And truly, back when you drove for FedEx, you flapped the corporate pompoms wider and louder than anyone else here.
Why do you feel the need to stir the pot?
Of course I would spend money to test a theory like this. If I suspected a company was cheating me out of a fair opportunity, and I had the ability to find out for sure by spending the money, absolutely I'd spend it. That does not mean I'd drive a day or hundreds of miles, but if it was within reason, absolutely I would. I would because I'd want to know the truth.
Yes, I was a big promoter of the company in question for most of the several years we ran with them. But when it became evident that the said-to-be-fair dispatch system had been undermined by a preferential dispatch system, we made the decision to leave soon after we knew that for sure. At that point, I stopped being a company promoter and became a company critic. I told the truth about our success and happiness with the company when the company treated us fairly. I continued to tell the truth when the company started treating us unfairly and gave us reason to leave.
That is not to say that the original poster is being treated unfairly. The purpose of my post was to simply suggest a way he could determine what was really going on. I don't take kindly to being lied to and cheated. If I was in his shoes, and if I felt suspicious about the loads in question, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'd act on the suspicion and spend the money to learn the truth. An unresolved issue that is left to fester only gets worse over time. The money would be well spent because it would help resolve the issue, one way or another.