These Compliance Industry Veterans Are Doing Something Unheard Of: Putting Carriers First

Content Sponsored By TIPS


After years of watching small carriers get burned, two transportation professionals decided to build the compliance company they wished existed.

If you’ve ever applied for a DOT number or authority, you know what happens next: the phone starts ringing.
Companies you’ve never heard of calling to tell you that you need their services immediately. That without their help, you’ll fail your audit. That the FMCSA will shut you down. Some of them make baseless claims about their affiliations. Some of them overcharge by hundreds or even thousands of dollars for services that cost nothing to file yourself, or that don’t need to be filed at all.

Samantha Vickery and Bailey Hoak spent years on the other side of those calls. Not making them, but cleaning up after them.

They met at a compliance company in Idaho’s Treasure Valley. Sam started in the administrative department; Bailey came on as a compliance agent not long after. Within a few years, Sam was running the office side and Bailey was overseeing compliance operations. Two sides of the same coin.

“We’ve worked with thousands of small carriers across the country between us,” says Samantha. “We’ve seen what the industry does to people who are just trying to start their businesses and provide for their families. Nothing was being done about it, and every new compliance company that popped up followed the same trends. We knew there had to be a better way.”

In 2025, they founded Total Insight Professional Services (TIPS) out of Eagle, Idaho.

A Different Kind of Compliance Company

BAF Transport is the kind of carrier TIPS was built for. He filed for an authority and was immediately contacted by a company that Bailey and Samantha had never heard of before. By the time he reached TIPS, he’d already been quoted over $6,800 for a package of compliance services. Sam and Bailey took care of all the required registrations, filled gaps the other company had missed entirely, and still saved him nearly $4,200.

“We don’t want to take anyone’s money for something they don’t need,” says Samantha. “Our job is to keep you legal and help you pass your audit. Period. If we can help you do that while spending less, we’ve done our job.”

A passenger carrier has different needs than a flatbed owner-operator. A company running intrastate doesn’t need the same filings as one crossing state lines. TIPS figures out what you actually need, not what they can sell you.

“I Had My Doubts”

 Jonathan Scott almost didn’t answer when Samantha called. He was starting Scott Transport Company in Cordele, Georgia, and he’d seen enough stories about compliance outfits to be skeptical.

 “I had my doubts,” Jonathan says. “But I chose to go with her. Within four hours, she had me all set. And she still checks in to make sure that I got everything and that everything’s in place.”

That kind of follow-through is standard at TIPS. When you call, you get Sam or Bailey on the phone. Not a call center. Not someone reading from a script.

Changing the Reputation

Ask Sam and Bailey what success looks like for TIPS, and they don’t talk about revenue.

“We want to change the reputation of this industry,” Samantha says. “When a carrier works with us, we want them to be surprised that a compliance company can operate this way. And then we want them to tell other carriers, so eventually this becomes the industry standard and not the exception.”

For Jonathan, that’s already happening. “If you’re thinking about starting your own trucking company and getting your own authority, TIPS is the way to go,” he says. “Even if you don’t use them, give them a call. They will help you.”

It’s carriers like Jonathan that remind Sam and Bailey why they started TIPS in the first place.

“Knowing I can help make a difference between a company shutting down within their first year, or becoming a thriving fleet that’s still running half a decade later, that means the world to me,” Sam says. “That’s why we do this.”

“Success shouldn’t come at the cost of your principles,” Bailey adds. “Treating others how you would like to be treated is how we run our lives, and it’s how we run our company.”

To learn more about TIPS or download the free 2026 Motor Carrier Compliance Guide, visit tiprosvc.com/cdllife.

This is sponsored content.