Driving license at the time of confinement, Interview with Romain DURAND, Lepermislibre

The Lepermislibre platform develops new content to enable driver’s license applicants to prepare for their code exam. And for good reason, following the announcement of the re-confinement, the auto-schools and candidates can no longer ensure the driving hours … On the other hand, code and driver’s license tests are maintained. Two-speed decisions that disrupt the classic course of training and the impact of which may be felt over many months. BORDEAUX Business spoke with Romain DURAND, Managing Director of Lepermislibre.

Lepermislibre, “New candidate space: the same but better!”

What constraints do you have when you apply for a driver’s licence and a driving instructor?

For candidates, the main constraint is not being able to drive. The concern is that this has several direct consequences on how their driving learning goes. Currently, driver’s licence exams are permitted. It makes sense for code but not for driving. They must be postponed because without the right to take driving hours before the exam, the risk of failure is drastically increased. Obviously, when you’re a monitor, you don’t want to send your students to the pipebreaker. The goal is for them to get their licence. This has both financial and temporal consequences. Financial because candidates pay to take the exam and take extra driving hours. Temporal because the delays induced by the containment will create a traffic jam at the exit in December.

The second indirect consequence will be the traffic jams at the exit of the containment. They will probably be worse than for the first containment because candidates are allowed to do the code and then move on to driving. We will then end up with those who were unable to pass the exam because of the re-confinement, those who already had to pass it at the end of the confinement, those who start taking driving lessons because they were able to pass their code during confinement. At Lepermislibre,to do the job, we will have to double the number of people.

For monitors, the consequences are more moral than financial. They can still benefit from the solidarity fund. It’s not comfortable but at least we’ll get over it. On the other hand, re-containment will have repercussions in retrospect when the cork arrives and it will have to be resumed. They will have to go from 8 hours a day to 10-12 hours to make up for the hours that could not be held in November.

What are the economic implications for professionals?

For the self-employed, as I said, they can benefit from the solidarity fund. For platforms, there are partial unemployment schemes. The structures for which re-confinement is most difficult are small auto-schools. SMALL and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are generally the hardest hit. For Lepermislibre, it is rather the opposite to tell the truth. As everything is done online, we have more requests.

Containment, and then re-containment, give a very clear reading of the market. When auto-schools don’t go digital, they pay full pot. Inevitably, who says no open premises says no registration. As in every crisis, the misfortune of some will make the happiness of others.

Permit Review Driving Young Woman Car
Lepermislibre releases a new, more complete candidate interface to allow registrants to prepare for their exams.

What solutions propose Lepermislibre to enable as much as possible the training path of candidates for driver’s licenses?

We have just released a new website with more live, exercises, new quizzes. A whole improved system to allow candidates to go faster in their code training. As far as driving is concerned, we are deploying to offer availability closer to the candidates. This, of course, means increasing the number of teachers throughout France.

Other projects are underway, including a new code platform that is expected to be opened very soon; as well as a second related to the driving, which will arrive later.

How will the immediate recruitment of new teachers help as driving lessons are prohibited?

Teachers must be recruited now as it takes them 1 to 3 months to become operational. There are several steps to follow before you can start on Lepermislibre. They have to become independent, get a vehicle, understand how the platform works… Recruitment as early as November is aimed at anticipating the sharp increase in activity linked to the deconfinement.

Today, we are preparing to manage a double problem: managing the growth of the platform and anticipating the increase in activity related to deconfinment. In both cases, this means recruiting. You should know that a teacher follows between 50 and 70 candidates per year. So it takes a lot of teachers to solve a plug created in just one month.

Unfortunately, it is the consumer who pays the price: delays that increase, the cost of additional driving courses…

Speaking of the growth of the Lepermislibre platform, what is the approach behind your partnership with Cdiscount?

Cdiscount is a relay of growth, sales, audience. They sell what we sell but through their platform. The driver’s license is the first test in France so is it not a consumer good that can be sold online? In addition, this allows us to reach another type of customer. Currently with Lepermislibre, we advertise on Facebook and Google. The main focus is on 18-25 year olds. With Cdiscount,the emphasis is very different. We enter the field of view of customers who would not have thought about the online permit or who are further back in country areas… Cdiscount is between 60 and 70 million unique visitors each month. It is a very interesting growth relay that would be wrong to overlook.

new space screens candidate driver's license lepermislibre
The candidate space Lepermislibre is intuitive. In particular, it allows you to assess your progress and get in touch with car-school instructors.

What are the development prospects for Lepermislibre?

Currently, Lepermislibre has 350 teachers. By comparison, there are about 32,000 teachers in France. So we are a drop in the bucket. At present, we are being developed in large urban areas. And we are being developed in secondary settlements to get closer to more rural areas. As such, our real competition is always traditional auto-schools. They’re the ones that mesh the whole territory. Our direct competitors, such as En Voiture Simone, do not overshadow us, as we do not give them either, because they are also another drop in the bucket given the number of car-school instructors on the French market.

Lepermislibre’s ambition is real and enormous. Thousands of teachers will be able to join the platform. To give you an idea, today we recruit 30 teachers a month. From January, we will welcome between 50 and 60 each month.

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