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Can a unit with a dedicated transport start the game in a different transport vehicle?

Here's the scenario...

Say I have a thunderhawk with a transport capacity of 30 models. I put 30 tac marines in it. if each tac squad buys a drop pod, can I still start the marines in the thunderhawk? The reason I ask this is so I can include an equal number of dreads in pods... so first turn, 3 empty pods come down. second turn, possibly a thunderhawk w/ 30 tac marines and 3 dreads all come in at the same time... alpha strike!

Squads are not required to deploy in their own transport vehicle.

The rules forbid you from deploying in another unit's dedicated transport, but it's generally assumed (the rules never explicitly allow it) that units are free to start the game in non-dedicated transports. Having a dedicated transport of their own doesn't alter that.

So yes, you can give a unit a dedicated transport and start them in another non-dedicated transport instead.

If you're playing a Thunderhawk in a standard 40K game instead of Apoc, why justify it by following other rules?

If it's Apoc, just OK it with the other players. They'll have their own cheese to bring to even it out.