Any GTA area DZ owner ops out there? Advice needed.

Long story short...I have been trucking for about 20 years (clean CVOR record)...mostly AZ local in Southwestern Ontario....
Loved the job, but didn't love the pay...in my opinion the local driver's wages out there are for most part borderline criminal

Never cared much for the long haul, as I prefer to sleep in my own bed whenever possible and don't care much for the border crossing either.
For the past 3 years or so, I have been working as a ready-mix driver...decent paying job (almost $28 per hour), but I'm getting tired of the background politics, about which I don't really care to go into much details, since it's not really that interesting anyway.
So I started tossing around the idea, that maybe I should explore becoming an owner operator and do my own thing...(by that I mean owning the truck, but running under someone else's authority and insurance)
I have thought about an AZ tractor at first, but that would likely mean having to do long haul, which I don't really care for and from what I understand, most companies are picky about the age of the equipment...this is bad news for me, since I don't trust anything from the post-emission years as far as I can throw it, despite the big companies reinforcing the government propaganda about how great and reliable they are (I'm pretty sure they get good subsidies to sing their tune, but I heard all about the expensive EGR nightmares etc...).
I'm leaning more towards a straigh truck, because that means mostly local work and from the little research I have done and the ads I have looked at, I got the impression (maybe wrong). that DZ companies are not that picky about the age of the equipment?...
My question to anyone, who has gone this route would be:
Are there any decent DZ companies out there and what kind of rates (or weekly earnings before expenses) should I expect on average?
I'm trying to find as much info as I can beforehand, since I can't really afford to make a bad decision in this matter...I thought this board would be an excellent place to start.
Thank you in advance for any reply's...