Notes
What I’ve learned building the systems businesses run on
No listicles and no AI slop. These are the questions clients actually ask me on the first call — costs, trade-offs, and the compliance details nobody warns you about — written out properly so you can decide before you ever contact me.
Everything here comes out of work that is currently running in production: a custom transportation management system a US carrier dispatches on every day, an AI voice agent that dials newly registered broker authorities, and the operations software behind several smaller businesses. When I quote a number, it is a number I have invoiced or paid. When I describe a failure mode, it is one I have had to fix at 2am.
-
Choosing a freight broker TMS: six things that matter, and the demo glitter that doesn’t
A buyer’s checklist for freight broker TMS software from someone who builds it: the six capabilities that move margin, the demo features that don’t, and the questions that expose both.
Read it → -
What an AI voice agent actually costs to run — the budget, not the pricing page
Per-minute pricing is the smallest line in an AI voice agent budget. The real costs — usage, telephony, data feeds, and the human time nobody budgets — with worked math for a cold-calling agent.
Read it → -
Rate confirmations, explained: what’s on one, who signs it, and where the money leaks
What a rate confirmation actually is, the seven things every rate con must contain, who signs it and when — and the five rate con mistakes that cost freight brokers real money.
Read it → -
AI cold calling for freight: the compliance parts nobody demos
DNC scrubbing, calling windows, consent and AI-voice disclosure — the unglamorous requirements that decide whether an AI voice agent is an asset or a liability.
Read it → -
Per-seat software pricing is a tax on growing your team
What a 10-login cap really costs a 60-person company: shared passwords, shadow spreadsheets, and a hiring decision your software vendor gets to make for you.
Read it → -
What a custom TMS actually costs (and when it beats renting one)
Real numbers on building your own transportation management system: what drives the price, what a first build should include, and the payback math against a per-seat SaaS bill.
Read it →
What these notes cover
Three subjects, because those are the three places I actually have scars. If a topic isn’t here, it’s because I haven’t shipped enough of it to write anything you couldn’t get from a search.
The economics of software that fits
What a build genuinely costs versus what you are already paying in subscriptions, where per-seat pricing quietly starts making staffing decisions for you, and how to run the payback math honestly — including the cases where renting wins and you should not build anything. Start with the custom vs. off-the-shelf TMS comparison, then run your own numbers in the calculator.
Logistics and TMS builds
Dispatch boards, load lifecycles, driver settlements, document handling and the integrations that carriers and brokers live inside. Written from maintaining a TMS that has carried thousands of shipments for a working fleet, not from reading vendor marketing. See the SHM Transport case study for the long version.
AI automation that survives production
Voice agents, call compliance, workflow automation, and the difference between a demo that impresses a room and a system that runs unattended for months. Mostly: what breaks, what it costs to run per month, and which parts still need a human in the loop. More on the AI automation page.
Who writes these
I’m Rajan — a software engineer and founder with over a decade of building, and more than 200 projects delivered for clients across the US, UK, Australia and India. I don’t run a content team, and nothing here is ghostwritten or generated. New notes go up when I actually learn something worth passing on, which works out to roughly one or two a month rather than a publishing schedule.
If a post answers your question and you never contact me, that is a completely fine outcome — it is most of the reason I write them. If it raises a question instead, say so directly and you’ll get a straight answer, usually within the hour.
Got a question these don’t answer?
Ask me directly — I answer within the hour, and I’ll tell you if the honest answer is that you don’t need me.
Prefer email? hello@buildwithrajan.com — a real answer within the hour.