LBX and Equipment Sales & Service Win First Place at the 2025 Global Skills Contest
LBX and its dealer Equipment Sales & Service won first place at the 2025 Global Skills Contest, hosted by Sumitomo Construction Machinery in Chiba, Japan. The event, held every two years, brings together top service technicians from around the world to showcase their technical expertise and dedication to safety.
This year participants from 11 countries competed in five areas of service excellence:
• Safety – while there was not a specific safety event, each contestant was monitored closely to ensure that safety was the highest priority in everything they were tasked with.
• Troubleshooting – Machines were faulted in various ways. The technicians were monitored by two judges, who were evaluated on their ability to follow procedures, accuracy, and time.
• Engine Repair – Tasked with replacing injectors while adhering to procedures, torque specifications, and time.
• Maintenance Proposal – Inspect a machine and determine what issues need to be addressed. This was based on a 162-line-item checklist. The contestants had one hour to complete.
• Written Test – A 25-question test relating to all areas of service.
Earlier this year, Grant Kirk, LBX service training manager, worked closely with LBX dealers to identify and select the technician who would represent LBX and North America at this prestigious event. After a thorough evaluation, Jesse Lariviere of Equipment Sales and Service (ESS) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was given the opportunity to compete.
“Jesse is a shop technician with 15 years of service,” said Kirk. “He was highly motivated and driven to excel at the 2025 Global Service Skills Contest. Over the last eight months, Jesse and I have met multiple times to reinforce his product knowledge on the 210 X3 excavator. I could not have chosen a more qualified candidate.”
Jesse’s enthusiasm and determination, supported by Grant’s technical expertise and training experience, proved to be an outstanding partnership. Together, they brought home first place overall, a tremendous achievement for both LBX and ESS.
This accomplishment reflects the dedication of the LBX team and the strong support of its dealer partner, Equipment Sales and Service.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.