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Why attend? Tension is building. As leaders attempt to scale pilots while managing the effects of growing trade imbalances, capacity & costs, their efforts are increasingly trapped within 1:1 discussions, legacy KPIs, tightening customer demands and reactive crisis management. But… [Agenda].
Who should attend? Leaders & their teams who recognise that the commercial implications of the sector’s evolution — and the opportunities that creates — depend on what we do, with whom and in what form today.
Invitation to F&L community from Roger Alm & Marie Carlsson. Volvo was one of the original founders of F&L in 1994.
Meeting date & location. 18-19 November 2026, Gothenburg. 18 Nov – leaders’ round-table discussion agenda. 19 Nov – practical problem-solving stations, drive a truck around Volvo’s challenging test track, choice of visits to important industrial sites.
What to expect. Constructive practitioner-led debate, panels, workshops & site visits; a discussion rather than a powerpoint agenda. F&L competition law & antitrust compliance policy. Confidential. All participants will meet everyone present. Agenda & participation list will grow around participant interests – please register early. You will only be able to enter with an advance ticket.
Costs. €450 card at registration / €500 payment by invoice + relevant VAT. These discounted rates apply to F&L members: non-member companies pay €2,000 + VAT. F&L is a confidential, neutral & not-for-profit community leveraging knowledge, skills and collaborative opportunities across the freight logistics sector to drive improved standards, learnings & the success of Members.
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Tension is building
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Tension is building
A confidential, high-level strategic commercial dialogue across industry sectors and transport modes between a diverse senior international community of supply chain & logistics leaders
in-person only | Chatham House Rule | Everyone will be able to drive a truck around Volvo’s challenging test track
How do we move the logistics sector from reacting & responding to enabling our businesses to be more competitive, more resilient, more profitable, more environmentally sustainable? As trade imbalances, capacity constraints, costs & customer expectations intensify, leaders face a critical challenge: turning promising pilots into scalable solutions, moving beyond crisis management, 1:1 discussions and legacy KPIs. Meanwhile competitors are forging alliances and change is accelerating – and the trouble with constant delay is that we are left out in the cold. What can we do together to move faster? How do we ensure that sustainability delivers both economic and environmental value, rather than trade-offs? In Gothenburg, senior leaders and their teams meet in F&L’s neutral, independent and confidential forum to share perspectives across the ecosystem, challenge assumptions and collectively consider looking beyond individual priorities to the future we all want to build. The opportunity is here. But for how long?
18 November 2026 (Wed)
08:30 - 17:00, Gothenburg
The agenda is led by attending senior leaders including ... (see 'Attending' tab)
The impact of our actions
Welcome from the F&L team and our host; Volvo Trucks. Understand the form and speed of transformation of the sector alongside the value we each create within that transformation.
- Q&A with Roger Alm, President Volvo Trucks
- Welcome to F&L (invitation from Roger Alm & Marie Carlsson)
- Visualising what’s next
The state of the global logistics market: changing?
Signals from the marketplace reflecting where logistics is heading; triggers for change – but also commercial realities. Are we “on schedule” with transformation?
- Focus, dependencies & ambition, Wallenius Wilhelmsen (Magnus Ödling, VP Supply Chain Solutions Development)
- Europe’s transforming supply chains driven by economic realities – impact on logistics industry leaders
- Global transition progress briefing, Prof Alan McKinnon
Where do you fit in & how big is the elephant in your room?
If actions speak louder than words, what is required to make actions viable? Supply chain models and innovation have rapidly progressed – but where is the collaboration to get to our destination? ETA?
- Discussion led by industry leaders
Catalysts & multipliers – tools for problem-solving
Industry leaders’ panel and breakouts: how do we maximise the benefit of accelerating technological development whilst re-skilling to ensure optimal outcomes? Led by industry leaders
- Understanding barriers to change – “it’s not the assets or the technology; it’s the people”
- AI in modern logistics – “moving from assistance to authority”
- Exploiting technology for gain – “energy manager – I can do it myself”
- Forecasting for financial benefit / risk – “how do you persuade your CFO?”
What next? Actions agreed for and by those present
Reflections & audience challenge – our position in the changing world of freight logistics led by Cargill (Rob Moen), EY (Joost Vreeswijk), Toyota Materials Handling (Iva Zarev), DP World (Juan Manuel Santiago), MB Energy (Saskia Weis), Prof Alan McKinnon
- What does your future transformation model look like?
- Making the model work – a different way for everyone to view the new financial reality & how it impacts all KPIs
- Conclusion – what next? Are tomorrow’s KPIs the same as today’s, or will external forces prove stronger and change our business models? What relationship should there be between different stakeholder groups?
19:30 – 22:30, Gothenburg
- Evening networking dinner programme, sponsor tbc
19 November 2026 (Thurs)
08:30 - 14:00 or 16:00, Gothenburg
Workshops
Closing the knowledge gap through external perspectives & insight. Coffee mid-morning!
- Test-driving Volvo trucks utilising a mix of fuels – to understand practical realities of operationalising new technology, performance, charging & driver experience.
- Cyber security & digital resilience – the more that fleets, infrastructure & supply chains become digital, the more business-critical this becomes but how do we secure resilience and build trust across value and supply chains?
- Safety drives innovation & peak performance – shared values, attitudes, perceptions & behaviour for growth & competitive edge.
- Sustainable logistics in practice – a priority today rather than a future ambition; key learning points from Volvo’s own journey to make transport operations ‘sustainable’ for all customers whether they are driving last mile or all the miles.
- Driver performance – how do we create and maintain a high performance workforce through an environment where everyone including drivers contribute to our business success? Recruiting & retaining drivers included.
- Productivity & up-time – details to come.
12:30 Workshop conclusions & lunch
14:00 first private airport bus to Gothenburg Landvetter
Afternoon – choice of visits to important industry sites
14:00 choice of visits TBC
16:00 airport bus to Gothenburg Landvetter
“I suddenly understood the problem, when I started talking to peers and leaders outside my industry and expertise”
“What one sector hails as a “breakthrough” is often just standard practice from an industry that has been doing it for decades”
“What got our businesses here today will not get the results we are looking for tomorrow, but it’s not as simple as swapping diesel for an electric plug”
“Like compound interest or the Chinese bamboo tree, actions we take today change tomorrow…”
“If we re-perceive energy system transformations as a series of potentially fast, opportunity-rich, modest cost and demand-led tipping points of uncertain timing – rather than just a single, slow-moving, costly and supply-led ‘hard slog’ – then we might start getting somewhere”
The issues that supply chain and logistics leaders & their teams are tackling today – from the impact of multiple separate yet interconnected global crises, to environmental degradation, to the future of Europe and of our own companies – are systemic. Tackling these in isolation can lead to unintended consequences and/or simply shift the burden elsewhere.
“…this changes the core strategic question from “should I gear up to move quickly or slowly?” to “Given that the precise timing of disruptive take-off can never be predicted, is it wiser to err on the side of potentially moving too soon or potentially moving too late?”
Tension is building
This meeting is for senior business leaders & their teams; people who are actively leading industry today. You are advised to register now because at F&L we build agendas to match the interests of those in the room; many F&L Member companies will be present.
Confirmed participants include:
Cargill
DP World Logistics Europe
duisport
Eraneos
EY
Heriot-Watt University
K2Mobility
Kühne Logistics University
Leica Biosystems
LKW Walter
Loadar
Logivity – Volvo Group
LOTS Group
MB Energy
Milence
Nike
North Sea Port
OG Clean Fuels
Owens Corning
Pioneer Point Partners
Port of Calais
Port of Gothenburg
Russell Group
Samskip Multimodal
Seerefine
Stora Enso
Terberg Benschop
Tesisquare International
Toyota Material Handling Europe
Trimble (Transporeon)
UIRR
Unit 45
Vega International
Vinturas
Volvo Trucks
Wallenius Wilhelmsen
Wärtsilä
Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC) / MIT Global Scale Network
- Participant list for “Türkiye: Important Customer, Supplier & Partner“
- Participant list for “Priorities & Choices: stuck in Crisis Mode?” (Apr 2026)
- Participant list for F&L at Nike (Oct 2025)
High level overview
We are hosted by Volvo Trucks Experience Center
VTEX, VTDC, 423 52 Göteborg, Entrence via TLA-porten, Pressvägen 2
- Tues 17 Nov – relaxed dinner approx 19:00 (central Gothenburg, walking distance from hotel)
- Wed 18 Nov – F&L agenda 08:30 – 17:00 & dinner (return transport organised for those in Elite Hotel / plenty parking at Volvo)
- Thurs 19 Nov – F&L agenda 09:00 – 13:00 hosted by Volvo Trucks HQ in Gothenburg and including practical ‘stations’ & driving trucks around Volvo’s test track (return transport organised for those in Elite Hotel)
Venue addresses
- Sleeping hotel – 17 & 18 Nov – Elite Plaza Hotel 4* in Gothenburg is centrally located at Västra Hamngatan 3, 411 17 Göteborg, Sweden. 15% discount details in the registration confirmation email.
- Welcome dinner 17 Nov – walking distance of Elite Plaza Hotel, location will be confirmed.
- Meeting venue – 18 & 19 Nov – Volvo Trucks Experience Center VTEX, VTDC, 423 52 Göteborg, Entrance via TLA-porten, Pressvägen 2.
- Networking dinner 18 Nov – location will be confirmed and transport will be included.
- Parking is available at both the hotel (below) & at Volvo but we will travel from the hotel to the meeting and both dinners together.
Dress Code & Questions
- General businesswear and any F&L members‘ products!
- Questions welcome – please get in touch.
Volvo Trucks is part of the Volvo Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks, buses, construction equipment, and marine and industrial engines. It supplies complete transport solutions through a full range of medium- and heavy-duty trucks and offers customer support through a global network of dealers. Volvo trucks are assembled in 12 countries across the globe.
Stora Enso is a leading provider of renewable products in packaging, biomaterials, and wooden construction. With a long history of innovation, resource efficiency and long term thinking, the company’s goal is to be its customers’ preferred partner for renewable materials, creating value without compromising the needs of the future.
OG Clean Fuels directly contributes to a cleaner and more sustainable world by thinking big but also helping customers to take action now. Offering a choice of five clean fuels – and support to make the right decision based on specific needs & operational challenges – OG Clean Fuels offers every transport company a suitable fuel option.
Port of Gothenburg is the largest port in Scandinavia. An important feature is the port’s highly efficient rail network. Geographically, the port is uniquely positioned within a 500 km radius of 70% of Scandinavia’s population and industrial base. The port is directly connected to over 2 million square meters of modern warehouse and logistics park space, making it a natural hub for centralised Nordic distribution.
A different goal...
… F&L was created in 1994 by shippers & logistics providers who realised that they could not tackle logistics issues alone in their companies, or within a commercial structure. They created a neutral, independent not-for-profit platform for senior logistics leaders and their teams to utilise cross-industry peer exchange to – judge today’s trade-offs – identify new opportunities for resilience and growth – catch blind spots – de-risk decision making – and determine facts, helping everyone build on real world experience to develop more practical, durable solutions and choose their own paths forward, together and separately.
Mission – to drive improved standards, learnings & the success of Members by leveraging the multi-stakeholder international community to spark knowledge sharing & tackle obstacles from every possible vantage point.
How is this achieved? F&L is structured as a neutral (independent), not-for-profit, confidential, antitrust compliant Members’ forum and is registered in Belgium as an ASBL. Multi-stakeholder membership is deliberately balanced to ensure a variety of perspectives across a host of variables. F&L does not lobby but it does have strong relationships with policymakers and many other institutions and communities for its Members’ benefit.
Members are global / regional heads of logistics & supply chain, CEOs & senior management focused on freight logistics across the supply chain, asset owners, founders of critical solutions, all industry sectors and transport modes, based across Europe & globally (list). Unlimited licences are provided for leaders to share the membership with colleagues (no charge).
“The important thing is to avoid the ‘narrow’ trap & the echo chamber”
“Access to informed external views & sheer breadth which it is not possible to organise by yourself”
“Where else can you ask questions openly and listen to others doing the same?”
“Learn, benchmark & challenge”
“We make better, more informed, more robust decisions”
