Toulouse driving schools are swimming in troubled waters
As in the rest of France, the pfuel shortage is acting up in Toulouse. While the strike movement in the refineries hardens, road users, and in particular certain professions, are in difficulty. Among the activities impacted by the fuel shortage, driving schools are at the forefront. The Independent Opinion makes an inventory of the Toulouse driving schools and its periphery.
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A “galley” for driving schools
A Toulouse, driving schools draw an alarming conclusion. Indeed, at a time when fuel is scarce, many instructors struggle to refuel their vehicles. “It was already very complicated last week, but now it’s worse. Nearby, almost no station has fuel”, testifies a driving school north of toulouse. An observation shared by a driving school in the south of the city.
“We managed to refuel our eight vehicles, but it’s not an easy task. We have to refuel approximately every two to three days, but that forces us to queue for an hour and a half, to the detriment of the students” .
L’Saint-Orens de Gameville driving school adds: “The other time, two instructors went to refuel at the same station but only one was able to use it”. At the house of Noemie Permit, agency located on the Lavaur road, “it’s a hassle, we’re getting by until Tuesday, but then it’s become impossible to find fuel. It’s the first time it’s happened”. And to lament: “Our two cars are at a complete stop”. Like this driving school, several agencies have had to resign themselves to immobilizing their vehicles for lack of fuel.
“I had to cancel 35 hours of driving”
A situation that automatically leads to the cancellation of driving lessons. Secretary at Noémie Permis, Marie deplores:
We had to stop classes for the week while waiting to be able to refuel. I had to cancel 35 hours of driving!”.
Further north of Toulouse, a driving school instructor also had to cut a few hours off his driving schedule. “Last week, I had to cancel lessons with the students to finish earlier and get diesel,” he testifies. Same story in the south of the city, with a Mirail driving school : “We had to cancel a few hours to be able to do the waiting files in the petrol stations, otherwise it would encroach on the students’ hours”.
However, like other agencies, the driving school will sometimes refuel on the driving hours of the apprentices, without producing the lesson. This is the case north of Toulouse:
“We sometimes have to go to the resort with the students, otherwise we won’t find ourselves there. There isn’t a lot of room on the schedules so we do what we can,” confirms an instructor.
Some will even refuel outside their working hours to be able to exercise. This was the case for theMuret driving school where “one of the monitors had to go and refuel the company car on one of his days off”.
A situation that is all the more worrying for driving schools and their students as some are in full preparation for the driving license exam. The secretary of Noémie Permis is worried: “We have students who are in preparatory permit, already that there are not many places to present them for the exam, if they cannot even take it. prepare, I don’t know where we’re going…”
Risk of technical unemployment
Indeed, while the strike movement hardens, driving schools have no perspective on the days to come. The manager of the Saint-Agne driving school is considering the worst:
We are in shock until now, but I think that from next week we will no longer be able to exercise. If the situation persists, we will cancel the lessons and it will be technical unemployment for our two instructors.
Same story in Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, where an employee of the driving school wonders: “For the moment, we manage somehow to maintain ourselves, but for how much longer?”. And to add: “We live day by day, we have no projection at all on the rest”. In Haute-Garonne, under the decision of the prefecture, so-called “priority” professions are prioritized at the pump of 11 service stations by defined time slots. For the time being, driving schools cannot benefit from it.
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