If you want to be truck drivers, that would be another forum.
The problem with buying your own trucks is that if you have enough hives to justify the cost, you still can't justify driving time. We paid approx $11400 round trip per semi from central Wisconsin to Chowchilla, CA this year. We have sent up to 6 semis a year each way and never considered buying a semi. We've had friends that tried going that route and quickly changed their mind after spending weeks on the road that could have been spent caring for the bees. Leave the trucking to the truckers, one less headache to worry about ( or at least less of one).
As for how the bees do on long hauls, I have heard people throw around a 10% queen loss on every move but I have no clue where that number comes from, we have not seen it. Hives are going queenless all the time and will do it on the road, sitting in California, TX or MN. The better wintering conditions and the pollination check more than make up for the stress of the trip. Compare your 20 hours of moving to 20 weeks of below minus frigid temps and snowdrifts. It is our experience that bees do MUCH better either wintering in Texas or California and we aren't even talking that pollination $$ yet. Tough to think about making up winter losses in a year like this one here in the north country. Our California bees come back about 3-4 weeks ahead of anything wintering in Wisconsin. Holding bees back in MN to "make up losses" does not make sense to me. First, you will have less losses from colonies sent somewhere warm (all things equal) and you will have better hives and better weather in which to split..
There is a reason commercial keepers (typically) don't winter in WI, MN.
Also, we've never had any spray losses though we know those that have, not from pesticides but fungicides. Didn't kill the hives but killed some brood.
It is usually a good idea to not put all one's eggs in one basket and doing lots of "firsts" in one year throws lots of variables into that basket. Are you piggybacking on another keeper in Texas? Do you know where you are getting syrup, cells, sub from in TX? Grower or broker in California? Listening to and learning from those who've done what you want to do is your best option for success. Don't try to reinvent the wheel.
Sheri