Something else that has to be understood is the delivery companies don't normally deliver for just one airline. So Southwest might give them 10 bags to deliver at say 9am, and United 3. United has no way to know that Southwest is bogging down the delivery company. Or it could work the other way. It just depends on how much each airline gives the delivery company at one time, and at that, how much to each area. If you have 4 drivers, each going the 4 basic directions from the airport (N, S, E, and W) If 9 of those 13 deliveries are going north, it will take longer for some of them then any of the other 4.
The part about leaving off bags to save fuel is not true. Each bag will cause some extra fuel to be burned, but the cost of one delivery alone could kill any savings of probably 4 or 5 bags left behind, or maybe even more. It depends on what the delivery charges are, and how long the flight is (fuel used). And each city is different. When I did baggage service in Tampa, we actually had some of the lowest delivery rates of any city. But here's a comparison. I had times that I had to send a bag to Sarasota (about 1.5 hours drive). For us to send a bag there was $45. But for Sarasota to deliver a bag to Tampa was $65 and up. Even a local delivery in Tampa was $12-$25. And those numbers are for each stop. So if I deliver a bag to you, and then another to your next door neighbor, that's two charges.
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