La Poste to take on driving role

STAFF at La Poste are being retrained as driving instructors to cope with a backlog of drivers waiting to take their tests.

Fifty staff have been chosen for the role of driving examiners from 200 applicants and will start their training next month before taking on the new job on February 1, 2016.

They will be based at Paris, Lyon and Marseille.

More than 1.4 million candidates take their driving test each year.

The government wants to reduce the waiting time for a driving test from the current 96 days to an average 45.

Reducing the wait is also supposed to reduce the cost of learning to drive by limiting the number of top up lessons needed to keep up practice while waiting for a test.

The plan is part of the loi Macron, a series of reforms designed to boost the economy, which the government says will be 80% in force by the end of the year.

Photo: Flickr/Steve Parker