It’s a week before the 152nd Kentucky Derby and trucking tycoon Robert Low is tracking a different kind of shipment. Renegade, a 3-year-old colt raised on Low’s farm outside Springfield, Missouri, has just touched down in Louisville after flying in from Miami, fresh off last month’s triumph at the Arkansas Derby. “I'm just waiting to get a call letting me know that he's all comfortable and settled in. He’s a laid-back character,” chuckles Low in his gravelly southern drawl.

Low and his wife, Lawana, high school sweethearts who wed in 1973, bred Renegade at Primatara Farm, their 300-acre horse breeding operation in the rolling hills of the Ozarks, 15 minutes from downtown Springfield. Over three decades in racing, the Lows have raised hundreds of thoroughbreds there, including former Kentucky Derby contenders Steppenwolfer in 2006 and Magnum Moon in 2018. For Low, Renegade represents the kind of homegrown Derby favorite he has long chased. “We’ve been in the racing business for 30 years and always dreamed of having a horse like this,” says Low, 76.

Primatara Farm is just down the road from the Lows’ palatial 70,000-square-foot home, a monument to the fortune Low made in trucking. Built with imported Bulgarian marble, the house has six guest suites (each complete with its own kitchenette and separate living and dining areas), 17 bathrooms, a 6,000 sq-foot wine cave, a 12-car garage designed to double as a ballroom, and a racetrack jockey club-themed game room. “We have parties occasionally with friends, but it’s more for charities, auctions … as well as politicians that we like,” says Low, who has given $8 million to Republican candidates and PACs since 2000, including $500,000 to Donald Trump in 2024.

The source of Low’s wealth is New Prime, Inc., the refrigerated trucking giant he cofounded in 1970 with his mother and built into one of the largest privately held carriers in America with over $2.5 billion in estimated annual revenue last year. Over five decades, Low turned Prime into a multibillion-dollar empire—and himself into one of Missouri’s richest with an estimated $5 billion net worth. Using his abundant downhome charm, he has inspired an army of drivers who, like him, think they too can run their own businesses. However his unique model cleverly shifts most of the risk and operating costs to his truckers.

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“I eat lunch with them,” says Low, CEO of Prime, which is owned exclusively by him and his wife. “Friday mornings we have a driver meeting where it’s unscripted. They can ask anything they want or make any comment they want.” Some days Low can be found playing pickup basketball at the company gym and or in the company cafeteria.

Low is obsessed with winning and efficiency, but unlike most mega carriers, Prime relies almost exclusively on independent contractors, who comprise 90% of its 10,000-person driver fleet. As owner-operators, they shoulder the expenses typically borne by carriers—truck payments, insurance, vehicle maintenance, as well as administrative costs—that can be burdensome and unpredictable. And while these truckers may be independent contractors, they’re not independent from Prime. They lease and buy trucks from Prime’s affiliate, Success Leasing, which is owned by Low. They also depend on Prime’s logistics network for load assignments, fuel discounts and software. This setup allows Prime to keep labor off its books while maintaining operational control. Prime typically keeps 28% of hauling revenue, leaving the rest for drivers.

“The inherent efficiency of an independent contractor that's buying their own fuel and making their own truck payments and using their own tires at their expense, they just do it more efficiently,” argues Low. “It’s a beautiful model. People naturally become more entrepreneurial, they become more efficient.”

Fostering a model that plays into driver’s desire to be their own bosses sometimes invites legal scrutiny. In 1997, the trade association Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association sued Prime and its affiliate Success Leasing, alleging that........

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