Owning / Leasing trucks to run a business

Hello all,

I've been working in a distribution / operations position for about three years in a company that makes its living shipping hazmat materials. For the past little bit now I have been thinking about owning or leasing trucks so that I could route them and build my own business. I'm not looking to get in with a company or to lease my trucks off. I live in north Texas and feel that this would be a great place to start considering my proximity to Huston and the size of the oil industry that exists here not to mention all of the growing local and instate business that needs trucking. Basically, I'm looking to run anything you can legally put in a trailer and do so with as many trucks as I can. My long term goal is to be able to constantly expand and bring on more trucks. I want to higher drivers as opposed to contracting them. I want to provide benefits and offer a good wage. I want to keep things incentive based so drivers feel motivated and I also want to provide benefits and security that might be hard to maintain on an individual owner operator basis. Just so you know something about me, I plan on being VERY active within my business and am very hard working. I have no problem spending the time to find good runs, developing a customer base, keeping up with mileage, finding good drivers, handling paperwork, tax documentation, or any other aspect of running a trucking business. I have a lot of questions here so I will break them up below. Also, I have read a lot of posts here about lighting money on fire and how hard every thing is in this industry and that you're stupid if you own a truck. If you have nothing more to contribute than that, please don't contribute. I don't care if the work is hard, I'm working hard anyways and the real profit from my labor is going to someone else. I know people can make money here and do so on a daily basis, I want to be one of those people and to connect with others who are doing so. Just don't tell me to set my cash on fire. I really want to hear what your actual experiences are because I'm looking to get out there with you guys. I know this is a long post but, any input would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all!

1) In my opinion, it seems good to start out leasing a vehicle and getting a maintenance plan to keep it up. What have some of your experiences been leasing or owning with a maintenance plan from a third party?

2) what are drivers looking for in terms of compensation when they work for a company and do not own a truck?

3) How useful are load boards for finding quality runs?

3B) what load boards do you recommend?

3C) where are most of you looking for customers and what methods do you find most successful?

4) How do you handle pricing for short distance runs, 30 to 50 miles?

5) what constantly seems to be a problem in day to day trucking operations?

6) what kind of customer do you like to have?

7) What kind of customer do you hate to have?

8) for anyone who owns a truck now, what would you have done differently at the start to make things better for yourself now?

9) for anyone currently running a business like this, what would you suggest?

10) If I own trucks and want to route them would I have to become a freight broker to do so?

11) what are some of the best / most profitable types of materials to run?

12) should I focus more on short or long haul? what makes the difference?

13) what brands of truck are most reliable driver experience aside?

14) what truck industry services have you bought into and liked?

15) what truck industry services have you bought into and hated?

16) what is an absolute DO NOT EVER DO in truck owning

17) what practices do you do that seem to have to most return in value to you?