New DVLA rules: lorry and bus drivers with Type 1 can now use CGM
From November 2025 the DVLA allows Group 2 (bus, coach and lorry) drivers on insulin to use continuous glucose monitors, aligning them with car drivers.
If you drive a bus, coach or lorry for a living and have Type 1, this is a genuinely good change. From November 2025 the DVLA allows Group 2 drivers (the licence for large vehicles) who use insulin to monitor with a continuous glucose monitor, the sensor worn on the skin, bringing them into line with car drivers who could already do so. It does not loosen the safety rules. It lets you meet them with modern kit instead of a finger-prick every single time.
- A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is a skin sensor that reads your glucose continuously and sends it to a handset or phone.
- The change aligns Group 2 (bus, coach, lorry) rules with Group 1 (car) rules, and applies across England, Scotland and Wales.
- Conditions apply: you must be stable on insulin and have a yearly review with a specialist.
- You still keep a finger-prick kit and must use it to confirm a low reading or when glucose is changing fast, because the DVLA still requires that check.
- You check before driving and at least every two hours on the road, exactly as safe practice already asks.
What the DVLA has actually allowed
Until this change, professional drivers with insulin-treated diabetes who held a Group 2 licence had to rely on finger-prick blood tests and could not use a glucose sensor to meet the driving rules, even though car drivers had been allowed to use CGM for years. The November 2025 update closes that gap, so a lorry, bus or coach driver can now use a continuous glucose monitor as part of meeting the medical standard for their licence.
This matters because for a professional driver the licence is the job. Having to stop and finger-prick before every shift and repeatedly through a long day, when a sensor on your arm could show the same information, was a real friction that set larger-vehicle drivers apart from everyone else on the road. The rules now recognise the technology that most people with Type 1 already use.
What still applies, and it matters
This is an easing of the method, not the standard. The safety rules for driving on insulin still hold, and for a Group 2 licence they are strict for good reason. You need to be stable on your insulin, have a review with a specialist each year, and keep a finger-prick kit with you. The sensor does not replace the finger-prick entirely: you must confirm with a blood test when your monitor shows a low, when it is changing quickly, or when how you feel does not match the number.
The everyday glucose rules for driving are unchanged. The long-standing guidance is to be at 5 mmol/L or above before you drive (often remembered as five to drive), to eat something first if you are between 4 and 5, and not to drive at all if you are below 4 or feel low, treating it and then waiting at least 45 minutes after your glucose is back to normal before setting off. Check before you drive and at least every couple of hours on a long drive, and always carry fast-acting sugar. For the exact current wording of the medical standard, your specialist team and the official DVLA guidance are the authority.