No, wait a minute...there are waivers now. Started that a few years ago.
True, way back in 1996, actually. The waiver program required each participating driver to have at least 3 years of recent commercial driving experience while using insulin, a safe driving record, and a certification by an endocrinologist and an ophthalmologist. That ended in 1996 when the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, in
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety v. Federal Highway Administration, ruled that the Agency's vision waiver program, which used an approach similar to the diabetes program to qualify drivers, was contrary to law. As a result the diabetes waiver program was terminated. Drivers with diabetes waivers at the end of the program were allowed to continue to operate commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce under "grandfather" provisions.
Over vehement objections from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and other blowhard safety groups, in 2001 the FMCSA began the process to once again allow insulin-dependent drivers. That process was completed and was put into effect in 2003 where waivers could be granted. But the hoops that one needs to jump through on an annual (and sometimes quarterly) basis, and the very narrow criteria for exception, make it such that using insulin to treat diabetes is a virtual lock for disqualification. They do approve waivers, absolutely, but they are few and far between. From 2003, when the diabetes waiver program began, until 2005, only four exemption waivers were issued. That was largely due to the requirement that you had to have already been driving commercially for at least three years, which more or less eliminated any new potential CDL holders from obtaining a CDL.
Thanks to the lobbying of the American Diabetes Association, President Bush signed the law doing away with the three year requirement, but that law that also introduced additional criteria for getting the exception, thanks to the lobbying of those who more or less want all trucks off the road (Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety and others). There are in all 57 additional screenings, provisions and guidelines that someone on insulin must pass in order to be granted an exception waiver. Since 2005 they grant like 7 or 8 exemption waivers a year. Not very many.
Ironically, during all of this, one UK study, a couple or three from Europe, three Canadian studies, and I don't know how many from the US,
(this Tech Brief outlines some of it) all more or less showed the same thing, that when comparing diabetic drivers to non-diabetic drivers, the accident rates and severity of accidents (measured in injuries and fatalities) were the same. No difference between the two groups. I do think eventually the restrictions will be loosened a lot.
Interestingly, however, in one of the Canadian studies, when comparing diabetic drivers of large combination trucks to non-diabetic drivers of the same trucks, the diabetic drivers had the same accident and severity rates as the non-diabetic drivers, but when they compared diabetic drivers of
straight trucks to non-diabetic drivers of
straight trucks, the diabetic drivers had a "significantly higher accident rate" than their non-diabetic counterparts. Weird. Lots of fodder for socialogical and psychological speculation on that one.
But as for this guy, as long as he stays away from the web of the big boys, he probably won't even need a CDL or physical at all.
That's what I think, too. Smaller is better, especially if it's a cargo van-only fleet.
