Back in 2023 at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, looking over the many show trucks I noticed something unique: “New Testament,” this stunning pearl white 1999 Freightliner Classic mid-roof, stretched to a 300-inch wheelbase under the tutelage of Phillip Couch and his wife, Kerri.
The beauty’s powered by a 12.7-liter Detroit Series 60, with an Eaton 13 speed and 3.42 Rockwell rears.
Talladega double-hump fenders, suicide doors, and a myriad other mods are topped off with 10-inch American Eagle Chino-cut pipes for a truly sleek showpiece that just so happens to also be an exemplary working truck, what I always tend to gravitate toward. The time and dedication involved in getting such a rig show-ready never fails to inspire.
Inscribed in large gold letters on the back of the cab was a Bible verse’s notation: John 8:12.
I looked at the verse: “Jesus said, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.'”
Immediately I wanted to know more about the man behind this one-of-a-kind Freightliner.
Yet when I asked him, “Do you own this truck?”, Phillip Couch looked me in the eyes and said, “No ma’am, I just drive it.”
He pointed upward. “He owns it,” he said.
Kerri and Phillip Couch’s Robbins, Tennessee-headquartered small fleet, Couch Trucking, today stands as their testament to what hard work can achieve with confidence inspired by faith. Throughout this past year’s truck show season, the Couches divided their time between winning awards and growing the business to 23 trucks (8 leased owner-operators, 15 company units) specializing in dump buckets, low boys, flatbeds and some van work.
The “New Testament” 1999 Classic they hope spreads a positive “family friendly” sort of message to the public at shows, as it quickly has become a fan favorite, while working throughout the mid-South region.
It wasn't always so for the Couches.
Tightening bonds forged with friends, family, faith
Phillip and Kerri Couch met more than 25 years ago in their Tennessee hometown. Kerri was 17, spending a weekend hanging out with her best friend in a new Camaro when Phillip rolled up with friends of his own. About a year and a half separated them in age, yet they already knew each other fairly well.
Kerri’s view of Phillip: A good football player with a bad habit of getting into fights, which he usually won.
Phillip’s take on her: A sassy little thing, more or less.
That fateful day, Phillip made the snap decision to lift the young lady into the air, off her feet, in an attempt at flirting -- a spark between them was evident into the night, and after several phone calls the stage was set for a first date.
“Phillip asked to meet my daddy and introduce himself before our first date,” said Kerri, “so I knew he was different.”
I could feel the love and admiration they had for each other, truly.
Kerri leaned in, noting “Phillip grew up dirt-floor poor. Sometimes he had no running water,” she said, and “he dropped out of school early to get a job and help his single mother pay the bills.”
Kerri’s home life was “very different,” she added. “My dad was a dairy driver, and we lived in a nice two-story home. My mom worked for the postal service.”
[Related: Red, white and 'Little Blue': The story of owner-operator Raiko Graveran]
The pair nonetheless found and worked closely together toward a common focus. After their oldest son, Zachary, was born, Phillip obtained his GED, then went on to college while working as a substitute teacher. Kerri entered graduate school for nursing when she was pregnant with their second son, Joel.
All the while, “Phillip wanted to buy a truck,” Kerri said. “He wanted to truck around home but not go out over-the-road. It wasn’t long before he ended up going out anyway, and our son learned how to walk while he was gone. That hit him pretty hard.”
Phillip found true success in business, and it became obvious that he either had to hire help or Kerri needed to step into the role of office manager and bookkeeper as the fleet grew. She stepped away from her nursing career to focus on their shared dream -- owning a successful, growing trucking company.
“The first big truck I ever drove was a Kenworth,” Phillip said, recalling his early days trucking. “I had several family members who drove trucks -- I think that greatly influenced my decision to become an owner-operator.”
He'd own several trucks over more than a decade in business before purchasing the 1999 that would become the Couch Trucking flagship in "New Testament."
The 1999 Freightliner as it was around the time of its purchase almost a decade ago now.
He recalled the time of his purchase of the Freightliner, “sitting at the kitchen table with everyone gathered around trying to decide on the best name for the truck,” he said. “Then all the sudden the name ‘New Testament’ just came to me. That is the part of the Bible that changed my life and gave me a brand-new start, and this truck was going to give me another one, so we transformed it from dark to pearl white.”
“I chose John 8:12 because it has had the greatest influence on my faith,” Phillip said.
Phillip didn’t grow up in church, he said, and “due to some pretty poor choices, I almost went to prison. I am thankful that I have a praying wife, and for people like our pastor that never gave up on me or judged me, even if I showed up at church Sunday morning with a hangover from Saturday night.”
Eventually, his dual lifestyle came to a head.
After a particularly eventful weekend, he said he was transformed through faith. “I went to bed on a Sunday night feeling like a dead man in a casket, and by Monday morning I had never felt more alive.”
Phillip and Kerri Couch remain hard at work growing their trucking company, now new grandparents to Katelynn Rose.
When I asked them what was next, Phillip clearly relished the turn from reflection: “We never look in the rear view, its only onward and forward,” he said.
With luck, work, perseverance, and their faith, the pair look to expand Couch Trucking's reach even farther in 2026.
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