“Those who write these kinds of laws are not on the ground,” denounce driving school managers

While driving from 17 years old is possible from 2024, driving school managers, already lacking resources, are apprehensive about the reform.

It is now possible to get your driving license and drive from the age of 17. This is one of the major changes for this year 2024. Until now, it was possible to get your license before the age of 18 but it was forbidden to drive a car. A big upheaval for driving schools. They are not yet overwhelmed with candidates but are apprehensive about reform.

In Aubagne, near Marseille, in Béatrice Tabuto’s ECF driving school, requests for licenses at 17 are not yet pouring in. But already, the professional fears the answers she will have to give to some: “The problem is that I’ll have to tell them, ‘No, I can’t get you your license.’ Because at the prefecture level it’s not keeping up and we don’t have the necessary number of places. It’s a recurring problem in all big cities, particularly in Bouches-du-Rhône: it’s jammed.”

Recruitment of new instructors

This risks getting even more blocked with the lowering to 17 years. In Bouches-du-Rhône, there are only around forty driving license inspectors. And in Béatrice Tabuto’s driving school alone, there are a little over a hundred students: “Today we are almost a year away because I only have 12 places per month. Those who create this type of law are not on the ground and in the reality of the facts! It is not 12 places that I would need per month but 35 or 40 to cover all the Covid, all the failures and all the new arrivals!”

To try to absorb the already numerous number of candidates, Béatrice Tabuto will also recruit an additional instructor. We must adapt to demand also recognizes Gérard Khennouf, boss of a driving school in the city center of Marseille: “It changes our recruitment of instructors a little structurally. For several years we have had difficulty recruiting instructors.”

Security Questions

Beyond logistical questions, professionals also ask themselves more moral questions about putting a 17-year-old teenager on the road: “It’s excellent for turnover because we have a few more students registering but ethically it’s not great. In the sense that the maturity of the youth is not yet adapted at 17. At 17 you’re still a teenager, there will be a lot more problems on the road.”

This is why all driving schools continue to encourage their young candidates to first turn to accompanied driving. In 2024, 860,677 young French people will be 17 years old, according to INSEE.