Contact! The hour of recovery has struck for the 13,000 French driving schools. Despite a 48-hour delay in lighting due to poor drafting of the implementing decree, the Interior Ministry and the Prime Minister finally instructed the prefect to authorize the trainers to resume service as of this date. Wednesday.
Frédéric Martinez, director of the first French driving school network, the ECF, talks about the measures taken for its 1,180 branches.
No more than ten students in the classrooms
To receive the pupils in particular who came to take their traffic code lessons, Frédéric Martinez evokes a situation "fairly easy to manage": waiting outside for someone to come and open you, hydroalcoholic gel available, no more than ten people in rooms, distance of more than a meter, wearing of a mask for employees.
Masks and visors in cars
In ECF vehicles, the teacher will wear a mask and a visor. "This is what we recommended to further strengthen the feeling and reality of security," explains Frédéric Martinez. Students, front and back, will also be equipped with a mask. After each driving lesson, the vehicle will be cleaned. A "more complete" disinfection will take place at the end of each day.
Pending the job description
Frédéric Martinez does not know what measures will be applied by the other driving schools in France. "For the moment, the job description has not been released," he notes. The Ministry of Labor has embarked on this complex and somewhat complicated mission. We don't know what it will impose on us. So we got ahead of that. "
A gradual recovery
“We are not going to restart with a whirlwind with the schedules full and all the teachers at work, warns the director of the ECF. It will also be necessary to follow the will of the students to return, even if there is a high demand. It will gradually increase in pressure in the coming weeks. Hopefully by the end of May or mid-June we will again be, I hope, 100% of our production capacity. "
The scheduling puzzle
The confinement period obviously suspended all the courses initially scheduled. It is therefore necessary to reorganize the schedules, which is not easy. “It's heavy, recognizes Frédéric Martinez. You have to restart all the students. But it is also necessary to manage the situation of the trainers. "We don't have them all," he adds. Some teachers have childcare issues, others are considered vulnerable according to one of the eleven criteria defined by the decree of May 5. Not everyone will be able to resume. And there, teleworking is not possible… ”
Lack of high schools, very demanding young people
With increased availability due to the closure of high schools, Frédéric Martinez expects to see many young people register. "And in addition we feel the demand to travel by individual means," he says. It is not only the car since there are all the soft journeys like the bicycle, the scooter, or on foot. But it is also the car. Public transport is interesting but shows limits during peak hours in terms of proximity. It is therefore likely that there will be a slightly higher demand linked to those who say to themselves: I will take this opportunity to pass my driving license because I also want to travel individually and I may have some -to be needed this summer because I will not be able to fly to go abroad… ”
“Binding” consequences for teachers
If the measures taken in particular in vehicles are simple enough, they promise to be "restrictive", according to the director of the ECF. "I think of the teacher above all. The student will wear his mask for an hour, an hour and a half or half a day. But the teacher is going to be seven hours a day, five days a week. The good weather arrives, it will start to get a little warm again ... For those who wear glasses, there will be the problem of fogging. It will also have to be heard clearly. All this is not neutral. I think it will still be a bit heavy for our teachers to bear this. But we don't have much choice. "
The first exams not before June
At the time of resumption of courses, the calendar prospects for the first driving license exams remain unclear. “In my opinion not before June 2 or even June 8, breath Frédéric Martinez. Today the health protocol for the organization of driving license exams has not been released. As long as it is not accepted by both the professional organizations representing the permit inspectors and the administration, the deadlines will continue to go back. It had to start on the 18th but it seems to me to be well compromised. "
