Team Spotlight: Eli Nettles | Louisiana Mobile Diesel Technician

When the Fire Department Can't Roll, Five Minutes Is Everything

Eli Nettles, Louisiana mobile diesel technician, was midway through a yard check at a customer yard in the Hammond area when a truck flagged him down with a tire issue. He stopped, handled it, and didn't bill for it.

“That one was a freebie,” Nettles said. “But it's all part of taking care of the customer.”

That instinct — stop, diagnose, fix, move on — is the operational rhythm Nettles has built across seven years in the fleet maintenance industry, the last stretch of which he's spent as a mobile technician with Coltrain Onsite Fleet Care out of the Louisiana gulf coast.

The Ponchatoula Fire Department work puts that rhythm in sharp relief. Nettles services equipment that includes tank trucks and medium-duty F-Series units, and he doesn't take the work lightly.

“If they hop in these trucks and they're not at air pressure and they can't roll, that five minutes sitting there building air pressure could be a matter of life or death for somebody,” he said. “Keeping the fire department in order — that's definitely something that weighs on you.”

Background and Credentials

Nettles came up through shop environments before making the move to mobile work, and the contrast shaped how he approaches the job. He holds 608 and 609 HVAC certifications, brake certifications through Bendix and Wabco, Allison transmission training, and coursework specific to Freightliner and Cummins platforms.

The decision to leave a fixed shop wasn't complicated. “The environment of the shop is just kind of hectic,” he said. “There's a lot of different moving pieces. The shop can sometimes make things difficult when you're trying to move through your day in a timely manner.”

Mobile work eliminated the friction — service manager approvals, inter-departmental routing, waiting for a bay. “If you've got issues, they can get with you and you can resolve those in a timely and efficient manner,” he said. “Fastest to get the truck fixed is the best.”

What He Works On

Nettles runs a full-size Ford service truck equipped with Miller welder-generator, waste and fresh oil tanks, organized toolbox setup, dedicated storage for jacks and jack stands, and four-wheel drive — a feature he's found useful both for off-pavement yard access and for pulling equipment when a customer needs it.

His book of business is deliberately broad. Fire apparatus. Peterbilt and Kenworth long-haul fleets. Tanker trailers. Drive vans. He also handles small engine work — pressure washers and water pumps mounted on fire trucks — which he describes without hesitation as part of the territory.

“Pretty much anything and everything we touch,” he said.

On the repair side, the scope runs similarly wide: airbag replacement, DPF service, radiator work, exhaust, DEF pump diagnosis and repair. The carve-out, he notes, is dealer-specific OEM programming. Everything else is on the table.

“That kind of thing that will put you in the shop for a week, week and a half waiting just to be diagnosed — we can handle on site within a matter of less than a day,” he said.

The Customer Relationship

One of the structural differences Nettles points to between mobile and shop work is account ownership. In his market, the customer relationship runs directly through him.

“All of my customers don't deal with anybody but me,” he said. “Any issues they have, I'm on top of them. It makes you empowered through your work because this customer relies on you — specifically you.”

That direct line also changes the economics of a service call in ways fleet managers don't always consider up front.

“Mobile work — when we come on site to your yard — it's actually going to end up being cheaper for you,” Nettles said. “Dealer labor rates, most shop labor rates, are far more expensive than ours. And you're still stuck with a tow bill to get your unit there. Then the downtime alone — you're losing money because your fleet's not running.”

SHIELD in the Field

Nettles uses Coltrain's SHIELD app — Service, History, Inspection, Evaluation, Labor, Documentation — to manage parts procurement, PM documentation, and repair records in the field. The paperless workflow replaced physical DOT sheets and PM forms.

“You can do parts purchases on demand without waiting for somebody to give you approval or sitting on the phone trying to get a PO,” he said. “You can just do it right there inside the app.”

The documentation layer also builds a visual record that travels with the repair order. Nettles photographs defects before and after repair — an air line rubbed through on a frame rail, for example — and attaches them directly to the service record within the app.

“Customers can see not only your three Cs — complaint, cause, correction — but also photos attached to the repair order,” he said. “They can see a before and after.”

Why the Family-Owned Model Matters

Nettles joined Coltrain after working in corporate environments, and the distinction registers clearly for him. Access to decision-makers, he says, isn't a small thing.

“If you've got problems, it's easier to get ahold of somebody that can actually get things settled for you instead of having to jump through the hoops of going to this person, then they have to go to that person, before you can finally get anything done,” he said.

He connects that to Coltrain's culture more broadly. “Everybody's on first name basis with one another,” he said. “It’s a good, family-oriented place where they'll take care of you.”

That resonates personally. Nettles has two daughters and a wife at home. When asked which of Coltrain's core values lands hardest for him, his answer was immediate: family.

“It's easy to be just another name in a lot of corporate companies,” he said. “I've been there, done that. Not an enjoyable experience.”

Where He's Headed

Nettles is candid about his longer-term ambitions inside the company. He's eyeing a move into customer-facing sales — putting his field experience in front of fleet managers directly.

“I'd like to get somewhere where I can be face to face with customers, really show them what our business is and what it means to us, and be able to solve problems they come across in their day-to-day with their fleets,” he said.

For now, the morning still starts somewhere between five and seven, depending on the account. Yard checks. Driver walk-arounds. Filters and oil staged for the first PM of the day. And if someone pulls up with a tire issue, he'll stop.

Defend the Road with Us

Whether you're managing a fleet or looking for your next move as a technician, Eli's story is a good picture of what Coltrain looks like from the inside.

If you run a fleet in the Gulf Coast region — or anywhere Coltrain operates — and you're tired of waiting on shops, tow bills, and diagnoses that take a week, onsite service is worth a conversation. Contact Coltrain Onsite Fleet Care to talk about what coverage looks like for your yard.

If you're a technician who recognized something in how Eli talks about his work — the ownership, the customer relationships, the culture — Coltrain is hiring experienced diesel techs who want to run their own territory. See Coltrain Careers page to learn more.