Workhorse Meeting with USPS to Discuss Losing Bid

Following the awarding of the new USPS mail truck contract to Oshkosh Defense, commercial electric-vehicle company Workhorse is attempting to throw its hat back in the ring by scheduling a “face-to-face” meeting with USPS on Wednesday, March 3rd.

Workhorse Anticipated Winning the USPS Truck Contract, Providing the Postal Service With a 100% Electric Fleet

USPS announced their new trucks last week, sharing that Oshkosh Defense would be exclusively manufacturing the new fleet. This came after a years-long bidding process which saw the next generation of USPS trucks get delayed time and again. During that time, multiple manufacturers built and pitched prototypes in hopes of winning the USPS contract, which could potentially be worth billions of dollars.

Workhorse was the last remaining bidder pitching to build an all-electric fleet, and many supported USPS going this route. The idea of providing USPS with an all-electric fleet even gained approval from the highest seat of government in the United States; shortly after he took office, President Biden endorsed it with an executive order. This executive order, along with the growing trend towards electric vehicles, shocked many when USPS ultimately went with Oshkosh…even Workhorse executives themselves.

On the company’s earnings conference call on Monday morning, CEO Duane Hughes touched on his surprise.

“This is not the result we had anticipated or hoped for,” he said. “To be clear, we intend to explore all avenues that are available to us.”

Unlike Workhorse’s proposed all-electric bid, Oshkosh’s fleet will only be 10% electric. The other 90% of the new USPS vehicles will still run on gas, like the current fleet of more than 200,000 Grumman LLV’s we see on the road each day.

USPS Still Plans to Move Forward with Oshkosh Mail Trucks

While Workhorse announced the scheduled meeting with USPS, the Postal Service itself provided no comments, which indicates the organization still plans to move forward with the Oshkosh contract. When asked about the upcoming meeting with Workhorse, USPS spokesperson Kim Frum said the following:

“[There is] no information I am able to share at this time.”

Despite the lack of insight on the Postal Service’s behalf, Workhorse investors responded favorably to the news; the company’s share price (NASDAQ:WKHS) closed up over 7% at the time of publishing this article.