Penske plans to further introduce alternative fuels into its wider customer base in tandem with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Total intermodal shipments rose 2 percent over last year's Q1 volumes, according to the Intermodal Association of North America, despite port congestion issues that impacted international container traffic. Domestic intermodal loads grew 4.5 percent, buoyed by domestic containers, which rose 6.5 percent in a quarter-over-quarter comparison.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global airfreight markets, showing a modest 1.6 percent rise in volumes in March compared to a year ago, measured in freight tonne kilometers.

APICS and American Society of Transportation and Logistics (AST&L) announced that the boards of directors of both organizations have approved an agreement under which AST&L will merge with APICS upon ratification by an AST&L member vote.

XPO Logistics has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Norbert Dentressangle SA, a provider of contract logistics services with headquarters in Lyon, France.

The global contract logistics market grew by 5.4 percent in 2014, to reach 177.6bn euro ($199bn), according to a report from Transport Intelligence. If prices and exchange rates were held constant at 2013 levels (real growth), then the market would have expanded by 4.4 percent. Overall, contract logistics growth of 5.4 percent compares favourably to growth of 2.8 percent in 2013.

Echo Global Logistics has entered into an agreement to acquire Command Transportation LLC, a privately held truckload broker and non-asset-based transportation provider in the U.S.