Toyota Bags Design Award with BT Reflex R-Series Reach Truck
20th October 2017
The BT Reflex R-series reach truck model from Toyota Material Handling has been handed the German Design Award 2018. Its clean and functional design scored in the Excellent Product Design category.
The German Design Award is the top international prize of the German Design Council, which consists of an international jury and rewards unique designs that bring added brand value.
“For me, designing forklifts is about placing the human being at the centre. Our challenge in this is expressing good ergonomics in the actual design, so that the driver experiences it to the fullest,” said Magnus Oliveira Andersson, Head of Design at Toyota Material Handling Europe, who has been continuously improving the product since 1995.
The BT Reflex reach truck has a long history, and was first equipped with a simple interior. Following the rise of the philosophy in the 70s and 80s to respond to customer needs across different industries and design products with the user in mind, the updated design from BT was focused on the comfort of the driver. This led to the first iF design award for outstanding ergonomics in 1982 for the BT1350E reach truck. Over the years, the models have been improved according to the Toyota value Kaizen (continuous improvement).
Toyota Material Handling also won the German Design Award in 2016 for the BT Levio P-Series.