Lament for Lorry Drivers The dispute which brought out over
13,000 lorry drivers in a strike against the decision of the Road Haulage Executive to expand the system of mobile patrols conforms to a pattern which is becoming monotonous. The Executive, having for- feited the advantages of direct contact between employer and employed which exist in smaller organisations, can only solve the problem of supervision by further extending its bureaucratic apparatus. The Transport and General Workers' Union, having become the largest trade union in the world, finds diffi- culty in keeping its members informed of the action which it takes on their behalf. The men, cut off from genuine under- standing on both sides, take the law into their own hands and strike. It is still not clear whether the increase in the number of inspectors, whose task is said to be the assistance and super- vision of drivers on the road, is really necessary. The men clearly do not want the assistance and resent the supervision. And indeed, unless most of the 40,000 drivers employed. by the Road Haulage Executive are reasonably honest and efficient the system will not work at all. Unless pilferage, unauthorised journeys and other serious irregularities—the authorities deny the accusation that they are concerned with spying on petty offenders—are on a considerable scale the expense of increasing the patrols will not be justified. If the best is to be made of a bad job the facts must first be established. Then the men must be told those facts. It is a significant comment on the situation that this last step was so long delayed. But none of these improvements will remove the roots of the trouble,. which have long been known to economists as the diseconomies of large-scale operation.
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