Why do we do these logistic design competitions?

The answer is two-fold: One, we want to find out what’s going on in the heads of design students and graduates around the world, so we can stay on top of our game. Two, we want to identify new talent, and be able to offer these young people a paid internship at one of Toyota’s Design Centers. For their good as well as our own. Simply.

Sometimes it works,
sometimes it doesn't.

For the 2022 design competition, micrologistics, we decided to team up with Toyota Motor Europe for an integrated approach. More than half of the world's population live in urban areas. In Europe the proportion is over eighty per cent. So the issues involved in urban distribution and delivery are a huge challenge. In the Paris region alone, a staggering 4.3 million deliveries are made every week. It's everything from fish fingers to face packs, from pharmaceuticals to photocopiers, from books to boots to beef to bags to batting bats.

For the competition Jacob Abraham of the University of Houston, in the US, decided to focus on how to deliver as the central idea of his design. Dense urban environments inspired Abraham's Oro delivery module, which copes eminently well with things like obstructed pathways and cramped areas. 'The 'Oro's “walkie” function makes it extremely manoeuvrable in narrow spaces,' said Magnus Oliveira Andersson, Head of Design at Toyota Material Handling Europe. Abraham was the overall winner of the 2022 TLDC and was awarded a €5,000 cash prize.

First prize: 5,500€.

Jacob Abraham won gold and €5,500 for delivery module Oro, which can negotiate even the most cramped spaces.

Jacob Abraham
Jacob Abraham, University of Houston, US

First prize: 5,500€

Jacob Abraham won gold and €5,500 for delivery module Oro, which can negotiate even the most cramped spaces.

Jacob Abraham

Second prize: €3,300

Employing a hybrid delivery method, Zsófia Mátravölgyi’s Oasis was awarded silver for her pick-up and drop-off point system.

Third prize: €2,200

Bronze went to Nicholas Orie for Mitsubachi, an autonomous drone fleet designed to streamline the handling of goods.

Special Mention: Marius Cramer

Design guru Ian Cartabiano’s Special Mention was awarded to Marius Cramer for his E-cargo bike, which spares the environment.

Interviews with the winners

We were curious to know what happened to the winners of our logistic design competition – after the event. So, we talked to eleven of the victorious designers starting from the first TLDC in 2014 to the 2022 one.