Informality and lead firm dominance in the sub-contracting chain: The case of Tanzanian trucking firms

Abstract

This article makes the case for broadening the analysis on power relations in value chains by focusing on the structure and nature of domestic sub-contracting in Tanzania's road transport trucking sector. Using the framework of Organisational Geographies of Power I identify the rise of Tanzania's lead trucking companies and the sources of their on-going dominance in the sub-contracting chain. Building on critical literature which has theorised subcontracting relations as ‘rentier’ in developed countries, I highlight the role of informality as a source of economic rents in developing countries. Tanzania's trucking industry is a site of intertwining formal and informal capital accumulation. Sub-contracting relations accentuate the political and economic power of lead firms in instrumentalising informality and strengthen their dominance in the road transport sector.