Best Young Diesel Tech 2026: Meet Coltrain’s 3 Nominees

Fleet Maintenance magazine has wrapped up its first Best Young Diesel Tech of the Year award. Three Coltrain technicians made the field: Austin Lester in Louisiana, Jesse Lovins in Ohio, and Bobby Reed in Central Texas.

On October 5, 2026, Editor-in-Chief John Hitch named Tommy Crenshaw of McKee Foods Transportation the award's first winner. The next day, the magazine published an honorable mention for Austin Lester, Coltrain's Gulf Coast lead technician.

Fleet Maintenance launched the program in March 2026. It was open to ASE-certified technicians under 35 who mostly work on diesel-powered commercial vehicles. Judges from the magazine's staff and editorial board then scored each nomination. They looked at the technician's path into the trade, hard data on their impact, and certifications. Character, teamwork, and what makes the nominee most deserving also counted. ASE, Litens, Wix Filters, and Worldpac sponsored the award.

Three technicians, three states, three different paths into the trade. Still, they all work to the same standard. Find the real problem, fix it right, and confirm it before the truck leaves.

Austin Lester: Best Young Diesel Tech Honorable Mention

Austin is 28. He has turned wrenches professionally since 17, starting on ready-mix trucks in New Iberia, Louisiana, right out of high school. After that, he spent years in leasing shops, at a Caterpillar dealer, and on refuse trucks. Later he moved into heavy equipment and mobile field service. So when Coltrain launched its Gulf Coast operation in September 2025, he came over. His customers came too.

Today he leads six mobile technicians out of Lafayette. He also carries a senior technician's workload. In roughly his first seven months at Coltrain, he logged 765 invoiced tasks across 296 repair orders. Meanwhile, his 2026 efficiency averaged 88.2% through the nomination period, with a peak week of 108.2%.

Diagnosis over parts swapping

His nomination leaned on diagnosis instead of parts swapping. For example, in February an EGR insufficiency code looked like an aftertreatment job. However, the real cause was a section of unsecured air-intake piping. As a result, the customer paid for an air clamp.

In March, a unit came in for a forced regen. Underneath it, Austin found a clogged DEF injector. He performed a NOx sensor relearn and cleaned the injection nozzle. Then he completed the regen and road-tested the unit before releasing it.

Building other techs

Austin builds other techs, too. He trains the eight-mechanic in-house shop at East Baton Rouge Parish School System. Through that work, the parish team has moved from tire-and-lube jobs into electrical, wheel ends, DEF headers, and DPFs.

On a Baton Rouge radiator job, he also drove over from Lafayette to help a teammate. Together they pulled and set a Freightliner M2 radiator. Afterward, Austin insisted the work order credit go to his teammate.

"Austin's not there to make himself shine," said Jeremy Williams, his Mobile Service Manager. "He's there to make everybody else around him shine."

Austin told Fleet Maintenance his motivation has changed over time: "When I first started, it was just so I could be the best mechanic on the block. But as I've grown in my career, and now that I'm a lead, it's mainly about wanting the knowledge to serve others."

Austin Lester's qualifications:

• ASE T8 (Preventive Maintenance Inspection)
• ASE T4 (Brakes)
• ASE C1 (Service Consultant)
• EPA Section 608 (Stationary Refrigerant)
• EPA Section 609 (MVAC Refrigerant)
• API RP 2D Qualified Rigger, 6th and 7th editions
• Delco Remy / Exide Heavy-Duty Starter and Alternator certification
• OEM training through national truck leasing technician programs
• 0 injuries, 0 accidents, 0 near misses

Jesse Lovins: 382 Repair Orders, Zero Reworks

Jesse grew up keeping equipment running on his family's Ohio farm. That meant combines, tractors, hay rakes, tedders, and farm trucks. Later, senior mobile technician Charlie Garnett saw his aptitude and pushed him toward formal diesel training. In 2025, Mobile Service Manager Brennan Elkins joined Coltrain and brought his team, including Jesse, with them, becoming one of the company's very first mobile technicians.

Coltrain began tracking his performance on August 25, 2025. Through the spring 2026 nomination period, Jesse completed 382 repair orders with zero recorded reworks. He also averaged 87.94% efficiency across 1,381 billable hours. For a customer, zero reworks means the truck Jesse fixes today isn't coming back next week.

A seven-hour brake job done to spec

One April brake job shows how he gets there. Jesse found a broken front caliper that had let the pad wear into the rotor. In addition, a rear caliper wasn't adjusting. Because the rotor fasteners were badly rusted, they had to be heated and removed without damaging the hub. Next, the hub threads needed repair. Then the ABS tone ring screws broke off, so each one had to be drilled out and rethreaded.

Seven hours later, everything was torqued to spec with new hubs, hardware, wheel seal, and tone ring. Finally, Jesse road-tested the unit before releasing it.

Customers who followed him

When his manager joined Coltrain, several customers asked the same question: "Is Jesse coming with you?" Those customers included Vineyard Cincinnati Church, Ohio Basement Authority, and Crystal Clean.

Jesse maintains 16 to 17 units for Vineyard Cincinnati Church. According to Director of Facilities Cord Robertson, "He is very proactive with PMs and very reactive with repairs." That approach, Robertson said, keeps his crew working at full capacity with no downtime.

Elkins has managed mobile technicians for decades. Even so, his summary of Jesse was short: "I wish I had two more of him."

Jesse Lovins' qualifications:

• ASE T8 (Preventive Maintenance Inspection)
• ASE T4 (Brakes)
• 0 injuries, 0 accidents, 0 near misses

Bobby Reed: 97% Efficiency, Zero Reworks

Bobby has 15 years in the trade, built one skill at a time. He started in automotive maintenance and later moved into dealer-level heavy-duty repair. After that, material handling work made him a Master IC Technician and Advanced Electric/Warehouse Technician.

In November 2025, Bobby joined Coltrain as a Tech II. Since then, he has earned the role of Senior Mobile Diesel Technician. On a given day, that might mean a 5:30 a.m. reefer no-start and a dry PM on a Mack Anthem. It might also mean an autocrane outrigger rebuild.

From November 2025 through the nomination period, Bobby ran at 97% efficiency with zero recorded reworks. Also, four of his major accounts came with him when he joined Coltrain. For example, one national portable storage company insists Bobby be its exclusive non-warranty technician. At a building products distributor, his work took the out-of-service rate from 35% to 0%.

One crank-no-start, three visits, one correct repair

A March 2026 crank-no-start shows the patience behind those numbers. On the first visit, fuel was reaching the throttle body, but there was no spark. Bobby worked through the controller, fuses, diode, control box ground, and e-stop relays. He fixed a loose ground and a loose relay, yet the unit still wouldn't start.

Rather than guess, he scheduled a second visit with the manufacturer's technician. This time he isolated the Honda engine from the mini-mover harness and got the engine running on its own. However, reconnecting the harness brought the fault back. So Bobby traced voltage through relay 303 and back through the schematic. Eventually he found two harnesses with broken wires.

Two weeks later, he returned for a third visit. He installed new harnesses, rewired the ignition controller, and put the unit back in service.

Ask Bobby why he works that way, and he starts with his family.

"My wife and kids drive down the same roads that my customers' trucks are on. Everyone's life matters. No one's life deserves to be taken away by a $20 wheel seal or a $30 nut that wasn't cared for properly."

Bobby Reed's qualifications:

• ASE T4 (Brakes)
• ASE T7 (Heating and Air Conditioning)
• EPA Section 609 (MVAC Refrigerant)
• Master CAT IC Forklift Technician
• MCFA/MLA Master IC Technician, Advanced Warehouse, and Advanced Electric
• Factory certified on Kalmar equipment
• Factory certified on Princeton equipment
• OEM training on MaxxForce
• OEM training on Cummins
• OEM training on Allison
• OEM training on Eaton
• 0 injuries, 0 accidents, 0 near misses

What Coltrain's Best Young Diesel Tech Nominees Have in Common

Read the three Best Young Diesel Tech nominations side by side and the Read the three Best Young Diesel Tech nominations side by side, and the same habits show up.

• Root cause first. Austin traced an EGR code to loose intake piping, and Bobby traced a no-spark condition to two broken harnesses.
• Confirmed fixes. Road tests and brake checks happen before the truck goes back to the customer.
• Loyal customers. In Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas, accounts moved to Coltrain because of the technician on the call.
• Safe work. All three carry records of 0 injuries, 0 accidents, and 0 near misses.

Kyle Coltrain, co-founder and Co-Executive Officer, wrote about Bobby in the nomination.

"He's never trying to upsell them on something that isn't broken. He's trying to fix the truck accurately and efficiently and get it back in service for our customers."

The same holds true for Austin and Jesse.

Congratulations to Every Best Young Diesel Tech Nominee

Congratulations to Tommy Crenshaw on the win, and to every technician nominated in the first year of the Best Young Diesel Tech award. Fleet maintenance runs on people like them.

To Austin, Jesse, and Bobby: thank you for the trucks you keep on the road and the way you represent Coltrain on every customer's yard. Read more about Austin in here. Meet more of the team in Eli Nettles' Gulf Coast spotlight and Justin Mertz's Cincinnati story.

Want technicians like Austin, Jesse, and Bobby on your fleet? Contact us to set up service. Defend the Road.