Joel Svedebring is Team Leader for Grupp Väst and responsible for exporting and importing on routes from and to Sweden via Switzerland, Italy, and Germany.

– We work with a haulage company from Macedonia that has around 30 cars rented by Begoma. We have a great relationship, and I try to visit them once a year, Joel says.

Joel has been working for Begoma since 2013. Previously, he worked as a chauffeur in his family haulage company for nearly 20 years, with the whole of Europe as his working space.

With the significant competition from the Baltics and Poland, it became impossible to run and grow the company. We sold our last truck in 2013. At Begoma, we work with forwarding, and as we don’t own the trucks, we are not in the same vulnerable situation. The experience of being a driver in Europe has given me a lot. For example, I speak English and German fluently and know what it’s like on the supplier side. No driver can tell me what is possible or not, he continues. At Begoma, you have to act directly, be able to make quick decisions and deal with stress.

– If you wait 10 minutes, the deal can be gone. Then you have to piece together the goods that are loaded in several places so that everything fits and at the same time stays on the budget. The fact that there are inquiries from different parts of the country makes the job fun and varied. I also appreciate that Begoma is a family-owned company. You get to know everyone, and it feels a bit more personal.

Joel lives in a turn-of-the-century villa in Lomma, with his wife and two children. Besides working on the house, he has a great interest in wine and has taken several courses at Munskänkarna.

– I also train a lot. Every year I compete in” Toughest”. It’s an obstacle course race that requires a lot of strength, agility and fitness. Joel celebrated his 50th birthday by completing Toughest with a personal best.

Both Joel and his wife love to travel. When he was 18, he made his first round-the-world trip. Since then, he has tried to travel as often as he can.

– Nowadays, we have a camper van that we travel with every year, Joel concludes.