Abstract In this contribution, we present first experimental results for the deuteron pickup transfer in the ¹⁶O+²⁸Si system at E _lab. = 240 MeV. This reaction populates states in the ²⁶Al target-like nucleus. In the same experimental campaign we have also measured the one-proton transfer ²⁸Si(¹⁶O,¹⁷F)²⁷Al and one-neutron transfer ²⁷Al(¹⁶O,¹⁷O)²⁶Al at the same beam energy. Comparison between the energy spectrum of these transfer reactions indicate that: i) the one-proton and one-neutron transfers favor the population of the low-lying states; ii) deuteron transfer to the ground state in ²⁶Al is highly suppressed; iii) the cross-sections for deuteron transfer that populates low-lying states in ²⁶Al are roughly 3 times less than the one-neutron transfer.