They say building a house is one of the toughest tests of any relationship. Becoming owner/operators "took that stress a step further," say Joy Colbeck and Jeff Green of Wolverine, Mich. Leased to Mercer since November 1999, the couple have not only built a house - they have also built new careers.

Along the way, they say, they came upon plenty of detours, roadblocks and wrong turns that at times threatened their dream. "But it's been worth it," says Joy. "Without trucking, we couldn't have what we have."

About three years ago, Jeff was driving a dedicated local route hauling mail from Gaylord, Mich., to Lansing. Joy was tending bar. They weren't happy with their work, and felt they weren't getting anywhere.

The more owner/operators Jeff talked with, the more convinced he became that it was a road to a better life. When he and Joy discussed it, she agreed. "When I was little and my folks would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up," she recalls, "I'd tell them a truck driver."

Looking back, the couple admit they plunged into the venture with little backup capital and a lot of gaps in their knowledge. They pooled their few resources to buy a used Peterbilt tractor. Jeff taught Joy to drive - "The hard knocks school," she says with a laugh. "I got up in that extended-hood Pete and the hood seemed to go on forever. I didn't think I'd ever be able to drive it." But Jeff had confidence. "I told her she could do it and she learned quickly," he says.

They spent a season haul-.ing produce from northern Michigan into the Midwest. "We were supposed to get home every night, but we didn't quite manage that, because we were running so hard," she says.

Then they bought a flatbed trailer and hauled agricultural equipment, steel and similar loads across the same region. "We were doing as much deadheading as paid miles, and sitting all day at steel mills," she recalls. Time for a Change

The lack of paid miles, the long waits and the small paychecks convinced them they needed to lease to a new company. A freight agent recommended they look into Louisville, Ky.-based Mercer Transportation. They got some literature, but most of their research involved interviewing Mercer contractors.

"Once we heard about Mercer, we stopped every Mercer driver we saw. All of them said it was a good company and told us all the good things about it," Joy says. When they contacted the recruiting office, the couple were ready to sign on.

That was in November 1999, and it turned out to be a life-changing experience for Jeff and Joy. "Mercer is the best. They are there for you and give you what you need. If we have a flat and need money to fix it, we call Mercer and they take care of it." They say they get plenty of loads for their flatbed, plenty of paying miles and quick payment.

Mercer pays a fuel surcharge and handles the tax allocations. Jeff and Joy buy bobtail and truck insurance through the fleet, and sock money away for retirement in the company-sponsored 401(k).

Mercer also offers health insurance, but only Jeff's children have it. He is an ex-Marine who has coverage as a veteran, and Joy has opted to self-insure. As owner/operators, they can set their own schedule and generally go over the road for two weeks, then come home for a week or two. That gives them time with Jeff's children by a previous marriage - Cole, 8, Levi, 7, and Quentin, 5.

While the couple are on the road, the children stay with Jeff's ex-wife, who lives nearby. The schedule lets them spend extended periods of time with the children, especially during the days - something a 9-to-5 kind of job wouldn't allow.

Lessons Learned

Three years down the road, Jeff and Joy can look back and smile, somewhat ruefully, at how green they were when they started out as owner/operators. Jeff's time as a company driver taught him how to handle a rig, but even he didn't know much about the details of the business.

"We weren't making anything before we started, and we didn't have much in the bank," Joy says. "We figured we could make it about two weeks.

"That's when we thought the check would come from our first run. But it was about five weeks, and we had to get a loan on our house to keep going.

"It's best to have a nestegg - you have to have something set aside for repairs and breakdowns and getting sick. What we did was pretty stupid," Joy reflects. "If we had waited until we were better funded, though, we would never have been able to do it."

Neither of them understood about deductions that nibbled away at the 85 cents a mile their pre-Mercer runs promised. Nor did they realize how expensive maintenance and repairs can be - that a blown tire can wipe out an already thin profit margin and then some.

They also learned quickly how important it is to do as much of your own maintenance work as possible, both to keep the rig running well and to use scarce dollars for big maintenance or repair jobs.

They also recommend thoroughly researching a fleet before contracting with it, and specifically noted how important it is to have insurance and retirement benefits.

Despite the uncertainties, false starts and hardships, Jeff and Joy have prospered. They replaced their first Peterbilt with a newer model, which they showed at last year's truck show in St. Ignace, Mich. They have a comfortable home and a small cabin in the Michigan woods where they go hunting every autumn.

They have also learned the ropes of trucking as a business, and they run very hard. "We love it and wouldn't change it for the world," she says. We do what we want to do and have better quality time with the family and with each other."