Question: If Bermuda takes more than a decade to revise a bus schedule, how does it manage to solve much more difficult and complex problems?Answer: It doesn’t.The fact that Bermuda has failed for more than a decade to devise a new bus schedule has become a symbol of the Island’s inability to get things done. The combination of factors that have led to this can be seen in countless other examples of inertia.In tourism, hotel projects never get off the ground. In international business, lip service is applied to diversification and the need for “more red carpet and less red tape”, but the policies that are then rolled out are so cumbersome that they are rarely taken up.For years, Bermuda has talked about a single telecommunications licence, but it is still not in place. The list goes on.It is not fair to suggest that nothing gets done. In certain areas, Bermuda has been able to accomplish things, change policies and enact new legislation. But increasingly, that is the exception and not the rule. The bus schedule may be the most egregious example.This newspaper supports the idea that drivers should have input into how the schedule will best work and how they can best serve their customers. As the operators of the vehicles, they will often know some of the pitfalls and possibilities that may arise. Thus, if they believe that it will take longer to turn over control of a bus from one driver to another than the schedule allows, then it should be tested.But this newspaper also supports the idea that drivers and managers should have as their top priority this question: How can we best serve our passengers and deliver the most efficient service possible? Bermuda Industrial Union president Chris Furbert stated on Friday that the latest revised schedule had been rejected for a number of technical reasons, including the number of changeovers, and the number of weekends off drivers should have.“The mere fact that the rosters we have now have been the subject of talks for the better part of five years or more is one of the main concerns. We have rosters done in 1998 that were agreed to so why is it so challenging now?”That’s what everyone would like to know. Mr Furbert added: “I honestly think they’re trying to take a system from another country and make it work in Bermuda.”Not according to David Reed, the Canadian consultant who has devised 25 schedules and rosters for the bus service since 2001 and seen every one of them rejected by the BIU.“I stopped taking it personally after the first 12 or so,” Mr Reed said. “I just took their comments and worked them in.”Twenty-five schedules. All unsatisfactory. But Mr Reed says the schedules would have freed up buses for tourists in the summer and saved $1 million annually.In other words, last year’s catastrophic bus chaos at Dockyard would have been avoided. And the taxpayer would have saved more than $10 million over the last 14 years.But none of them have been good enough.After a while, you have to question whether the problem lies with the scheduler who says he has devised schedules for bus systems all over the world, or if this is more a case of a union that has decided it is going to refuse every idea put forward.Somewhere here, the notion that employees should work a certain number of hours a day and week, and that they should be able to operate in safe and sound conditions under timetables and schedules devised by management to ensure that the public gets the best service possible, has been replaced by a system where only the drivers can determine how, when and where they should work.This is the tail wagging the dog. And this is why Bermuda is in the mess it’s in.