diff --git a/tests/test_torchserve.sh b/tests/test_torchserve.sh
index 9ee81358..4aff7fc3 100755
--- a/tests/test_torchserve.sh
+++ b/tests/test_torchserve.sh
@@ -2,11 +2,10 @@
 
 set -e
 TMPDIR=/tmp
-sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y curl wget
+sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y curl jq wget
 sudo pip3 install torch-model-archiver
+cp torchserve/custom_handler.py $TMPDIR/
 cd $TMPDIR
-git clone https://github.com/pytorch/serve -b v0.8.2
-cd serve/examples/object_detector/yolo/yolov8
 # TODO: use gamutRF weights here.
 wget https://github.com/ultralytics/assets/releases/download/v0.0.0/yolov8n.pt
 torch-model-archiver --force --model-name yolov8n --version 1.0 --serialized-file yolov8n.pt --handler custom_handler.py
@@ -15,4 +14,6 @@ mv yolov8n.mar model_store/
 docker run -v $(pwd)/model_store:/model_store --net host -d iqtlabs/gamutrf-torchserve timeout 60s torchserve --start --model-store /model_store --ncs --foreground
 sleep 5
 curl -X POST "localhost:8081/models?model_name=yolov8n&url=yolov8n.mar&initial_workers=4&batch_size=2"
-curl http://127.0.0.1:8080/predictions/yolov8n -T persons.jpg
+# TODO: use gamutRF test spectogram image
+wget https://github.com/pytorch/serve/raw/master/examples/object_detector/yolo/yolov8/persons.jpg
+curl http://127.0.0.1:8080/predictions/yolov8n -T persons.jpg | jq
diff --git a/torchserve/custom_handler.py b/torchserve/custom_handler.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c2d35f85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/torchserve/custom_handler.py
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+# based on pytorch's yolov8n example.
+
+from collections import defaultdict
+import os
+
+import torch
+from torchvision import transforms
+from ultralytics import YOLO
+
+from ts.torch_handler.object_detector import ObjectDetector
+
+IMG_SIZE = 640
+
+try:
+    import torch_xla.core.xla_model as xm
+
+    XLA_AVAILABLE = True
+except ImportError as error:
+    XLA_AVAILABLE = False
+
+
+class Yolov8Handler(ObjectDetector):
+    image_processing = transforms.Compose(
+        [
+            transforms.Resize(IMG_SIZE),
+            transforms.CenterCrop(IMG_SIZE),
+            transforms.ToTensor(),
+        ]
+    )
+
+    def initialize(self, context):
+        if torch.cuda.is_available():
+            self.device = torch.device("cuda")
+        elif XLA_AVAILABLE:
+            self.device = xm.xla_device()
+        else:
+            self.device = torch.device("cpu")
+
+        properties = context.system_properties
+        self.manifest = context.manifest
+        model_dir = properties.get("model_dir")
+        self.model_pt_path = None
+        if "serializedFile" in self.manifest["model"]:
+            serialized_file = self.manifest["model"]["serializedFile"]
+            self.model_pt_path = os.path.join(model_dir, serialized_file)
+        self.model = self._load_torchscript_model(self.model_pt_path)
+        self.initialized = True
+
+    def _load_torchscript_model(self, model_pt_path):
+        """Loads the PyTorch model and returns the NN model object.
+
+        Args:
+            model_pt_path (str): denotes the path of the model file.
+
+        Returns:
+            (NN Model Object) : Loads the model object.
+        """
+        # TODO: remove this method if https://github.com/pytorch/text/issues/1793 gets resolved
+
+        model = YOLO(model_pt_path)
+        model.to(self.device)
+        return model
+
+    def postprocess(self, res):
+        output = []
+        for data in res:
+            result_dict = defaultdict(list)
+            for cls, conf, xywh in zip(
+                data.boxes.cls.tolist(), data.boxes.conf, data.boxes.xywh
+            ):
+                name = data.names[int(cls)]
+                result_dict[name].append({"conf": conf.item(), "xywh": xywh.tolist()})
+            output.append(result_dict)
+        return output