Every week, the five instructors who work with Séverine Guyard meet to discuss the progress of each of their students behind the wheel. This small driving school in the Jura guarantees it: no student takes the exam until all the instructors consider him perfectly prepared to take the driving test.
“Some students are not so happy with this method… But it works!” defends the co-director of this Champagnole driving school, which defines itself as “the first driving school in the Jura.”
With 88.24% success in the driving license exam in the first quarter of 2024, Champa Auto-école appears well in the BFM ranking of the best driving schools in France, according to official data from the Ministry of the Interior. Out of 51 candidates, XX obtained the prized ticket on the first attempt.
>> Where to get your driving license? The ranking of the best driving schools
“Present the students ready!”
What is the secret of success? During driving lessons, Séverine Guyard explains that her students never have the same instructor. “It’s a matter of taking it or leaving it and I think it contributes a lot to our success,” explains the 47-year-old instructor, who sees it as an advantage.
The goal is for students to never get used to a person’s habits or way of doing things. “It is what best prepares them for the big day, where they will be sitting next to an unknown inspector,” defends the professional.
Furthermore, the decision whether or not to register the student for the exam is made in a collegial manner: “For us it is a team effort, we discuss together and we know all the strengths and points to improve of the future candidates, and this allows us to Only present them when they’re really ready.”
“It is not up to the students to decide when they are ready or not,” adds Mathieu Blanchet, co-director of the Blanchet driving school in Durtal (Maine et Loire), “proud” of its success rate of 90.24% in the first quarter of 2024 .
“Present students who are prepared and do not let yourself be ‘eaten’ by those who pressure you to have an exam date as soon as possible!” he tells his classmates.
Accompanied driving, the most
This instructor, a reserve gendarme at the same time, attributes the good results of his driving school to its high level of demand. “I take my job very seriously. As a police officer, I have seen deaths on the road. I do not forget that when driving, students have a weapon in their hand and that my role is for them to master it as best as possible.”
For many professionals, the most effective tool for this remains accompanied driving. At the Talon driving school in Delle (Territoire de Belfort), more than half of the students follow this system, which “makes all the difference”, according to director Aurélia Talon. “It is the best way to get it right on the first try after only a few hours of driving,” explains the 47-year-old instructor, who can boast of having achieved an 86.9% success rate on the test for the 61 candidates at the start of the year.
The other secret of her success, according to her, is due to her refusal to operate “at fixed prices.” In recent years, more and more driving schools offer a predefined number of hours of driving lessons (often 20, 25 or 30 hours) after obtaining the highway code. A package to which individual lessons can then be added, if the learning is not completed at the end of the package.
“I find this approach complicated because it brings together two things that should have nothing to do with each other: money and training,” explains Aurélie Talon. She explains that she only works by scheduling individual lessons according to the individual needs of each student.
“We work in a tight flow”
Your other creed? Anticipation. Unlike other professionals, Aurélie Talon does not want to hear about exam calendars booked three months in advance. She refuses to work “blindly” trusting that so-and-so should be ready to license by a certain date, without taking into account the actual development of her progress.
“I can’t work like this,” he justifies. “Here we work with a reduced flow, it is more tiring for us, but the figures are proof that it works.”
The instructor finally mentions a certain requirement when it comes to learning the code in addition to driving. “We don’t hang around at home, that’s clear!” jokes Aurélie Talon. “I want the student to get the most out of each session, so I’m not ashamed to say when I feel things need to move forward. That’s a real kindness to me: making sure it costs people as little as possible and that they don’t get stuck there unnecessarily.”
Like the majority of establishments that top the BFM ranking, all of these driving schools are small family establishments, most of them located in rural areas. And despite their excellent results, they denounce a significant difficulty, the hiring of qualified instructors, together with another structural problem: that of the chronic shortage of available inspectors, which irremediably increases the number of exam places and the deadlines that are expected to be overcome. . the license.
Source: BFM TV
