It was another busy week in the world of supply chain and logistics. Here’s our short list of what caught our attention this week:

• Freight Transportation Services Index (TSI) Rose 0.4% in January from December
• Retail Container Traffic to be Up 13 Percent in March
• Schneider National Deploys Next Generation In-Cab Technology
• Descartes Reports Fiscal 2010 Fourth Quarter and Year End Financial Results
• Descartes Begins Testing With European Union Customs
• Obama outlines strategy to boost exports
• Open for Business: The Google Apps Marketplace

The data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the National Retail Federation is encouraging. As the chart below shows, although the Transportation Services Index is still well below 2007 levels, it seems to have bottomed out last spring and is slowly recovering. Regarding the rosy forecast for import container traffic, NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said, “These numbers show that retailers continue to anticipate improvements in the U.S. economy. This is very different from the past two years when merchants were continually cutting their imports in an effort to manage inventory.” Data released by the U.S. Commerce Department this week showing a drop in inventory-to-sales ratio from 1.12 months in December to a record low of 1.10 months in January seems to validate this outlook.

BTS Transportation Services Index (Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics; click to enlarge)

Schneider’s news caught our attention because it aligns with ARC’s vision for “next generation” fleet management. As my colleague Steve Banker outlined in the Fleet Maintenance Systems market study that we published last year, next-generation fleet management brings together routing and scheduling, telematics, and fleet maintenance, and it leverages GPS, cellular networks, and mobile devices. Steve posed the following question in the study: How can ‘connected vehicles’—i.e., vehicles connected to navigation satellites, communication networks, and other vehicles—transform fleet maintenance, routing, and safety? He commented on this topic in “Fleet Management and ‘Connected Vehicles’.”

In a nutshell, Schneider is currently installing Qualcomm’s Mobile Computing Platform 200 Series (MCP 200) units in all company-owned and owner-operator tractors. According to the press release, features of the new system include text-to-voice functionality (allowing drivers to hear messages and directions while driving, eliminating the need to stop and read messages and new work assignments); navigation (turn-by-turn directions that can be previewed pre-trip and via audio en-route, comparable to an automobile GPS system); Internet and personal e-mail account access; electronic logging and on-demand in-cab training (for specialized hauling requirements like bulk and chemical loads and ongoing, semi-annual training — eliminating the need for drivers to be routed to an operating center for training). You can watch videos of Schneider drivers commenting on the technology here.

It’s been hard to keep up with all of the press releases that Descartes (an ARC client) has been issuing the past few weeks. I’ll quickly comment on two from this week. First, Descartes posted very positive financial results for Fiscal Year 2010 (which ended January 31, 2010). Revenues increased 12 percent to $73.8 million, gross margins increased to 69 percent from 66 percent in FY09, and Adjusted Net Income rose 19 percent to $20.3 million. Descartes ended the fiscal year with almost $95 million in cash and cash equivalents, some of which will undoubtedly be used to fund more acquisitions this year. Descartes is a very different company today than it was five years ago. The company’s decision to focus where most of the competition was not—i.e., global trade management from a freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and carrier perspective—and executing several key acquisitions in this market has been a key contributor to its success. Descartes announcement this week that it has successfully filed its first Import Control System (ICS) test messages with European Commission’s Taxation and Customs Union underscores the company’s focus on global trade management.

Finally, Google’s announcement this week of its Google Apps Marketplace is just another example of how alternative software deployment and payment models continue to evolve.

As we’ve written about many times before, “an apps store for logistics software” is coming and it will address the white space that traditional software implementations, and even current software-as-a-service offerings, are not addressing (see “An App Store for Logistics Software” and “TMS for iPhone: There’s an App for That!” and “Software for the Masses: The iPhone, Crowdsourcing, and Logistics”).

Have a great weekend!