In the design course, we explored the topic of vehicles. To that end, I did a one-day internship at the post office to better understand the day-to-day work of mail carriers. I noticed how complex—and at times chaotic—the process inside the vehicle is: In addition to the many streets, names, and routes that must be memorized, letters and packages are often not sorted optimally—and in the day-to-day rush, there’s hardly any time to organize them afterward.

My approach, therefore, was not a futuristic concept, but a practical improvement that could be implemented immediately in existing mail vehicles. I developed the idea of an ergonomic storage system for mail bins that can be mounted on the passenger seat rails. An integrated camera detects which street to turn onto next and transmits this information to the navigation system. At the same time, related letters are collected in a tray, so that the mail carrier simply has to grab them and head out.