Nearly half (43 percent) of UK businesses regard reducing the cost of running warehouse operations as their most critical challenge for business improvement - even more critical than speed of fulfillment.

With the current economic business pressure, reducing costs in the service supply chain without compromising customer satisfaction is a challenge which must be faced head on. Managing this balancing act requires business intelligence, which refers to the applications, tools, infrastructure and best practices that enable raw data to be transformed into significant information, and as such can be utilized to improve outdated processes.

Logistics "must generate the necessary platform of opportunities so that firms can widely develop their activities through efficient logistics networks," according to Santiago Bassols, director of Barcelona Catalunya Centre Logístic (BCL).

EU proposals to return to the days of supply chain management following the abolition of milk quotas in 2015 have been fiercely rejected by the dairy industry.

DHL Supply Chain has launched the SmartPOD app, a solution that provides DHL's drivers and third-party haulers with a simple way of capturing real-time data and electronic POD information.

DHL has introduced a second road/rail multimodal routing option for its overland service connecting Asia and Europe. Customers based in Chengdu can now board DHL's once-a-week service, which departs every Friday from Chengdu to Europe along China's West Corridor rail line through Kazakhstan and via DHL's intermodal hub in Małaszewicze, Poland.

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) has announced a program to engage and shape young executives to be the trucking industry's next great generation of leaders.

Experts warn that provision of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services to the aerospace and defense industries will be severely impacted.

Retailers will drive demand for up to 270 million square feet of warehouse space in Europe, including 33 million square feet for e-commerce, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle.