IJust a century ago, young people leaving military service obtained the conversion of their military certificate, green in color, into a civilian driving license, pink in color. To stem the increase in road accidents, the latter was introduced by the decree of December 31, 1922 known as “highway code” : the requirements and tests were significantly strengthened compared to those of the “certificate of capacity” instituted in 1899.
A decree published on October 27, 1923 defines the training and evaluations enabling military personnel, including conscripts, to obtain the “certificate of ability to drive military vehicles”. This same text established the possibility for the “release of the holder” to request from the prefect the issuance of the civil permit by equivalence. The conversion from “green” to “pink” also applied to terms (categories and types of vehicles, including passenger transport vehicles).
For the army, these provisions had the advantage of encouraging conscripts to get involved in driving and, by continuing the practice in civilian life, to build a pool of drivers in the event of mobilization. For the French automobile industry, they participated in a democratization of the “car” (and for a long time of its masculinity, only young men performing military service).
For transportation companies, and for the economy as a whole, young drivers trained by the military also provided a labor pool. This pool grew numerically as the army’s needs grew with the number of combat vehicles and transport of equipment and troops. This system has persisted despite multiple license reforms, notably that of 1954 which lays the foundations of today’s major categories (the B auto license, and the professional C licenses for goods, D for the transport of more than eight passengers).
Professional opportunity
For seven decades, obtaining the “army permit” constituted for generations of conscripts a key promise of military service. At the turn of the 1990s, around 180,000 young men obtained their driving licenses, including several thousand in categories C and D. These were valid for five years and extendable after a medical examination.
For a young person with few qualifications, a D permit offered an easy professional opportunity to join public services and companies with attractive social conditions, and to escape, from the mid-1970s, the pangs of unemployment. The annual flow of D permits issued thus reached a total of 20,000 in the mid-1980s.
You have 35% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.