New law lowers hurdles for insulin-dependent diabetics.

For many former and would-be truckers, the new highway funding bill grants a medical reprieve that will make it easier for them to get and keep a commercial driver’s license. Since the 1970s, drivers prescribed insulin to manage diabetes have been forced to give up their CDLs.

Despite several waiver programs, serious and often contradictory hurdles have remained for drivers wishing to return to the road. The most recent exemption allowed diabetics to drive if they could show safe operation of a commercial motor vehicle for three years while on insulin. To qualify, drivers had to operate intrastate, but not every state allowed insulin-dependent truckers to drive commercial vehicles.

Diabetics were also required to provide details of their medical histories, examinations, conditions and treatments from a diabetes specialist. If they received an exemption, they would have to submit to ongoing medical monitoring during the waiver period.

Of the 154 applications FMCSA received since the program began in 2003, the agency had gotten no further than planning to grant exemptions in five cases.

FMCSA announced Sept. 2 that four of the drivers received waivers. The fifth stopped using insulin and returned to the road.