Help petition government to review unfair diabetes Law
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I AM A 32-year-old man working as a deputy manager for a cold storage company. My passion is, and always has been, to drive HGV Class 1 vehicles.
This has been a dream job for me since an early age. My dad and uncles were HGV drivers, so as a child I used to accompany then from time to time on days out trucking across the country. From doing this, I knew that I wanted to drive HGVs. On leaving school. I worked for various courier companies driving vans, then at 19 I got my first 75-tonne driving job. I progressed to a different company and started driving nationally.
I knew that by the time I reached the age of 21 I would be able to apply for my HGV licence; unfortunately this day never came. Four days before my 21st birthday 1 was told I had Type I diabetes, which meant I had to start injecting insulin from then on.
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cence. On top of that, I had to surrender my 7.5-tonne licence unless I paid £200 a year to keep it. This seems a little steep, especially as the wage for a '75-tonne driver is not brilliant.
In my view, and I recently wrote to the Department for Transport about this, why can't they adopt a scheme for Type 1 diabetics who wish to drive HGVs? Type 2 diabetics are allowed to carry on driving.
Working in the warehousing industry. I deal with a lot of truck drivers on a daily basis, some of them arc heavily overweight, have walking impairments or are elderly. Surely these are classed as health issues?
In my opinion, the government should review this law. The last time I checked there were around /5,000 unemployed truck drivers with TYpe 1 diabetes, primarily due to them having to surrender their licenms.
I would like to start a petition to try to get the government to introduce a one-year licence for all diabetics. After one year, the licence would be reviewed along with doctor's notes and either reissued or revoked. As a diabetic, I have several health checks throughout the year as requested by the doctor or hospital. This is something all diabetics have to do, so why can't the government take these checks into account?
Dan Carter Chesterfield
Derbyshire Ed's note: If you wish to contact Dan in regards to his petition, email christopher.walton@rbi.co. uk and we will pass on your message.