The health crisis has led to an extension of the waiting times for obtaining a driving license. One year after the first confinement, the problem persists, especially since certain departments, such as Calvados, are sorely lacking inspectors.
Behind the wheel, Oumnia is quite at ease. If the young woman is stressed, she hides it well. At his side, his driving school instructor does not find much to complain about. The student begins to accumulate the kilometers on her experience meter. But for all that, she still does not have the precious sesame. “I validated my white license on March 15 and if all goes well I must take the exam on June 8“, says Oumnia,”It’s starting to take a long time. I am a student, I have a lot of things to do. Having to push back, push back, push back when I need this permit, it’s not terrible.”
And better for the young woman that she obtains it the first time like 65% of the first-time applicants in Calvados. “If I don’t have it, I was told I would have to wait six to eight months, that’s huge. I might have my license in 2022.“Each driving school has a quota of places for the exam which it then allocates as it sees fit. And ‘new’ candidates are privileged. But this practice in no way explains the length of waiting times which have, depending on the profession, reached an unreasonable level.
The weight of the first confinement
According to Patrick Mirouse, president of UNIDEC (National Union of Driving Teachers), this situation, which can be found in several departments, results from the first confinement. “Driving schools were closed for ten weeks and exams only resumed a month after reopening, and not at full speed at first.” According to his estimates, nearly 325,000 examinations could not have taken place during these three months of interruption. (there is an average of 1.3 million new driving licenses each year).
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And the health crisis, in addition to the significant delay accumulated in spring 2020, continues to weigh on the conduct of examinations. “The inspectors take longer to examine the students, it is necessary to ventilate and clean the vehicle. Instead of reviewing nine candidates per day, they only review seven“, indicates Emilie Denis, representative of UNIDEC in Calvados and manager of a driving school in Carpiquet.
“There, we are going straight into the wall”
But in Calvados, this health crisis has worsened an already very complicated situation. “In theory, there are 13 inspector positions in the department“, explains Loïc Kerzrého, also manager of a driving school in the Caen conurbation and member of the CNPA (National Council of Automobile Professionals),”But in the field, there are about seven on average, between the vagaries of life, such as illnesses, but also holidays. Without counting three vacant positions and the delegate and his assistant (editor’s note: supervision) who are not 100% in the field.”
According to these professionals, this situation has been going on for several years. But it remained bearable, before the pandemic occurred. “A year ago, we had reinforcements coming from other departments. Since the health crisis, other departments no longer have the right to send them to us“, deplores Emilie Denis.”In the immediate future, it is absolutely necessary that the Road Safety Delegation (DSR) give us reinforcements, immediately, immediately“, considers his colleague Loïc Kerzrého,”We arrive in the summer period, where we have the most young people to train because they are on vacation. There, we are going straight into the wall.“
The critical nature of the situation did not escape some local elected officials. The mayor of Hérouville-Saint-Clair, Rodolphe Thomas, recently challenged the prefect on this subject, asking the representative of the State to “unlock additional resources“to his services.”The shortage of driving license inspectors in the Calvados department is a major obstacle for users, young people and adults, whose professional future is conditioned by obtaining a driving license, in order to follow training or obtain a job.“, underlines the first vice-president of the agglomeration of Caen-la-Mer, in particular in charge of employment.
A vicious circle
Xavier Rouet, mobility manager at the Caen agency of Infrep, a training organization involved in professional integration, confirms this: “mobility is a barrier to employment. There is a vicious cycle: no job, no license, no car, no job“. This structure is trying to”give the necessary toolbox“to its beneficiaries to pass the permit: help with passing the code, help obtaining micro-credits to complete the financing of their permit but also support in administrative procedures.”To be able to pass your code, you must have a number that you will find on the ANTS (the National Agency for Secured Titles) and that is not necessarily easy for people far from employment and digital technology.“
With the health crisis, a second vicious circle began. “We have beneficiaries who had their exam date scheduled, who had completed the entire code and conduct course and who were forced to postpone“, says Xavier Rouet,”To postpone means to send someone for the exam who has had a bad behavior for a while, it is bound to fail. Suddenly, we have to reprogram hours and then there is the financial aspect. And on this level, they do not necessarily have the means to follow: they could not work between two because they had no means of locomotion. We start from zero. We make an oven.“
At the highest level of the State
The lack of inspectors is not specific to Calvados. “It is a national problem. There are departments where everything is going well and others which are in great tension, such as Calvados.“Patrick Mirouse, president of UNIDEC, also quotes in the conversation the cases of Seine-Maritime and Brittany. The problem seems to be taken into account at the highest level of the State since the Minister of the Interior has recently asked the Inspectorate General of Administration (IGA) for a report proposing measures likely to rapidly improve the situation.
The conclusions of this report were communicated at the end of April to professional organizations during a meeting with the Road Safety Delegation. Among the measures proposed, the renewal of the 90,000 places for additional exams granted in spring 2020, the reorientation of the tasks of delegates and assistants towards exams for the B permit (as is already the case in Calvados) or the constitution a reserve of inspectors, made up of gendarmes and retirees. “With the Covid risks, it’s a bad idea“, Judge Patrick Mirouse.
Recruit at La Poste?
For the president of UNIDEC, the priority is recruitment, a process that seems to have broken down today. “Recruiting civil servants today … I don’t know if it’s very fashionable. Our organization is very attached to the fact that the examination of the driving license remains a mission of the State, for questions of safety already. And then this is the first exam in France: 1.3 million per year. It is not absurd that the State keeps this passage and this solemnity.“
So his organization made a proposal that was retained in the report of the General Inspection of Administration. “You have to recruit inspectors, but not necessarily civil servants. It could be contract workers, from the public service, the time to make up for the delay. And we have a perfect target: people who come from the Post Office. La Poste has already got its foot in the door by passing the code exams“, indicates Patrick Mirouse.
In fact, this proposal is already a reality: around thirty agents have been recruited in this way. “But it would have to be at least five times more, it would take 150 across the country to be able to absorb the current stock.“The IGA report is on the table of the Minister of the Interior. It is now up to him to decide.
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