The Stifel Logistics Confidence Index increased for the fifth consecutive month in March, according to the latest survey undertaken by Transport Intelligence. The index for the current and expected situation combined was up 0.4 points to 52.5 in March compared with 52.1 in February.

DB Schenker Logistics has increased the number of its service locations with Qualified Envirotainer Provider (QEP) accreditation, geared toward serving the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.

Lufthansa Cargo has inaugurated MD-11 freight service to Guadalajara, Mexico.

Analyst Insight: The top reason field service agents are not able to resolve a customer issue the first time when on site is due to not having the right part to solve the problem. Thus in order to ensure that customers are happy, and beyond, top-performing service organizations in Aberdeen's recent Convergence of People and Parts research have focused on strategies to integrate field service with parts management to meet the needs of the customer and ensure profitability. - Aly Pinder, Senior Research Associate, Aberdeen Group

DHL Express has introduced a "carbon-neutral" envelope for U.S. customers.

Analyst Insight: While much has been written about demand driven, daily demand variability drives operations crazy. Most current inventory planning and optimization applications are disconnected from daily reality resulting in operations relying on custom spreadsheets and tribal knowledge to reconcile the gaps between plan and actual. In addition, the inventory planning applications are often disconnected from the optimization applications (if implemented at all), further exacerbating the operations conundrum. - Rich Sherman, Supply Chain Discipline Expert at Trissential