When Toyota Material Handling Europe announced the winners of its design and engineering competition earlier this year, it was great to see that the winning team was from right here in the UK!

The winning design was AL.PACKER by Hannah Rayner and Matt Putman from Loughborough University, an application that provides a socially sustainable solution to last-mile package delivery. It abandons the traditional supply chain and introduces a micro-entrepreneur third stakeholder that is guaranteed to accept the delivery.

Logiconomi is the word Toyota Material Handling uses to describe its way of thinking – aiming for lean processes, eliminating waste, maximising efficiency and reducing cost. All with the help of innovation and collaboration with like-minded partners.

First launched in 2014, the design competition was initiated to open a dialogue with young designers and welcome fresh ideas. This third edition plays into the trend of consumers not only making decisions online, but also buying online more and more. As e-commerce is becoming the norm, a fast delivery time has become an absolute priority, but is not always a reality due to underlying factors such as traffic. With the theme “Package Delivery. Join the revolution” design students were challenged to abandon the idea of the traditional supply chain and come up with a fast, sustainable and revolutionary solution that facilitates direct delivery and optimises the last mile to customers.

Part of the approach is the Logiconomi student awards programme, designed to encourage fresh, youthful and innovative thinking for material handling. This year the third edition of the Toyota Logistic Design Competition took place.