Alliance Nationwide Exposition Strengthens Compliance Readiness Through English Testing for Truck Drivers
With eSkill, Alliance Exposition was able to test both existing drivers and prospective candidates for English comprehension, creating both the proper documentation and establishing in-house confidence that their drivers comply with updated FMCSA enforcement regulations.
“I think we probably went above and beyond what a lot of companies are doing right now and we're confident with [our process]. If we were to be challenged, I'd be 100% comfortable providing our results."
Tim Meehan, Vice President of Transportation, Alliance Nationwide Exposition
Alliance Exposition is an employee-owned company with over 20 years of experience in producing events and trade shows across the US. Based in Florida, they specialize in small- and mid-size hotel-based events, executing over 1500 events each year in over 1000 venues nationwide. They call themselves The Hotel Show Pros, and they’ve earned it.
Alliance Exposition has over 200 employees, and their transportation branch employs upward of 85 drivers, including a handful of CDL holders.
When a 2025 executive order and the US DOT pushed for stricter enforcement of English language guidelines for drivers, the company stepped up to the plate to ensure their drivers were compliant and they had the proper documentation to support compliance claims. With help from eSkill, they knocked it out of the park.
Tim Meehan, Vice President of Transportation for Alliance Exposition, and Sean Chiarodo, Transportation Manager, are at the forefront of making sure Alliance’s drivers are in compliance with new FMCSA enforcement guidelines for English fluency and road sign recognition, which gives them the confidence that their drivers will stay road-ready.
The Challenge
With executive order 14286 calling for stricter enforcement of English language rules for truck drivers and following related mandates from the FMCSA, Alliance Trucking wanted to get ahead of the issue to ensure they had the proper documentation for their drivers and the assurance their drivers would be confident during truck stops on the road.
A failed roadside test has massive ramifications. One failed roadside check can sideline a truck, which leads to missed deliveries and operational stress on already stretched logistics — far more than just a fine.
“We basically just wanted to take action right when we heard about it, just to avoid any issues with it. It was an existing standard. It was just being more consistently enforced,” Meehan explains.
The company operates across ten states, with remote workers and various warehouses. As a result, they needed a program that not only tests for proficiency, but that had remote proctoring and monitoring options as well. With that in mind, the team began searching for solutions.
“Through various internet searches we came across eSkill, with pretty much that offering,” says Meehan.
The Solution
Meehan mentions that while the team met with multiple providers that claimed to offer English testing, very few provided exactly what they needed.
“I think that they were just jumping on the bandwagon as far as [viewing it as an] opportunity for selling additional services,” Meehan surmises. “We called a few different companies and just kind of peeled the layers of the onion back a little bit on how they would monitor and manage [testing]. And eSkill was the only one to come up with solid answers that reassured us that this testing would be monitored, that it would be documented and that we would maintain our compliance with FMCSA and DOT.”
They were impressed with the eSkill platform’s customization options — including the ability to set their own test length and pass/fail thresholds — and further potential use cases given the robust nature of the platform.
The Implementation
Given the ambiguous nature of the English proficiency standard, the Alliance Exposition team wanted to ensure they laid out a clear testing procedure that was still fair to their drivers.
“We wanted it to be a very fair test and not be kind of like a ‘gotcha’ type moment with any of the questions. We wanted them to be accurate and just legit across the board,” Meehan explains.
Proctoring
The team also enabled proctoring, and further pushed for test integrity by randomizing the question bank and order on each test.
“We're trying to ensure that our guys are proficient in English and the last thing we really wanted was a cookie-cutter, cut-and-dry scenario where one person would get ahold of answers and it would kind of filter its way through. It's a roadside situation and there's no assistance whatsoever. We had to be sure that what we were testing for, we were getting legitimate results,” Chiarodo explains. “Because let's be realistic. We're all human and people will do whatever they can to get by.”
“We're trying to ensure that our guys are proficient in English and the last thing we really wanted was a cookie-cutter, cut-and-dry scenario where one person would get ahold of answers and it would kind of filter its way through. It's a roadside situation and there's no assistance whatsoever. We had to be sure that what we were testing for, we were getting legitimate results.”
Sean Chiarodo, Transportation Manager, Alliance Nationwide Exposition
The eSkill Assessment Expert
They also found working with their eSkill expert, Chance Shilling, was a great boon to their process.
“We would explain our needs to Chance and he would come back with some solutions, which culminated in the final test — which we now use for new hires as well,” Meehan says. “Anything Sean or I would ask Chance to create, he was able to do it. Anything that we've asked to be done, he was able to complete without a problem.”
Ongoing testing
Once they tested their current fleet of drivers, Chiarodo and Meehan began including English testing in their onboarding process for incoming drivers as well.
“The mandate doesn't end with just our current drivers on the roster. So once we established that, we put [the test] in the hands of HR as well so that they're aware that anybody that gets hired moving forward that may be driving a commercial vehicle would be subject to that test,” Meehan explains.
The team allowed each tester two chances to pass the test. Meehan notes that drivers that claim to be proficient in English and yet fail the test are required to call and reschedule their second attempt, which provides another chance to confirm English proficiency. They’ve found that for the most part, their fleet of drivers was absolutely up to par. For new hires that weren’t, many self-selected out of the hiring process.
“We've had a couple of applicants that weren't capable of passing it. I believe we had one that didn't really even take it, once they opened it and realized, ‘Oh, this is for real.’ So on that end of things, we just made it part of our process,” says Meehan.
The Results
With eSkill, Alliance was able to feel confident that they had the proper documentation to back up both their existing drivers and prospective hires, ensuring they do their due diligence.
“You know, the FMCSA and DOT aren't always necessarily super clear on exactly what they're looking for. So I think we've covered everything they could possibly expect us to do,” concludes Meehan. “It's become part of the process.”
Chiarodo agrees. “It did everything we needed it to do and if someone were to come back and ask us to provide the data, it's there. We've acted in good faith. It's all that you could ever be asked of when doing something like this.”
“I would say we're probably in a much better position than most as far as this mandate goes,” Meehan adds. “Just in accomplishing this part of the testing, I think we probably went above and beyond what a lot of companies are doing right now and we're confident and we're comfortable with it. If we were to be challenged on it, I'd be 100% comfortable in providing our results.”
With compliance testing and a tried-and-true hiring and vetting process in their back pocket, the transportation team at Alliance Exposition rests assured that their drivers are qualified to drive on US roads, ready to make deliveries and put together excellent hotel events.
“It did everything we needed it to do and if someone were to come back and ask us to provide the data, it's there. We've acted in good faith. It's all that you could ever be asked of when doing something like this.”
Sean Chiarodo, Transportation Manager, Alliance Nationwide Exposition
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