Workhorse to Challenge USPS Oshkosh Contract

The saga of the Postal Service upgrading its fleet of outdated delivery vans continues. USPS delivery vans are in desperate need of updating, and earlier in the year, USPS awarded a multi-billion contract to Oshkosh Defense to manufacture the next generation of delivery vehicles. However, this left another company, Workhorse Group, spurned after long rounds of negotiations. Upon losing the bid to Oshkosh, Workhorse met with USPS to discuss why they lost the bid. Now, Workhorse is taking the next steps to file a legal challenge the decision.

What’s in the USPS Oshkosh Contract?

The contract that USPS awarded to Oshkosh could be worth more than $6 billion in total. It lays out expectations for delivery of between 50,000 and 165,000 of the vehicles over the course of 10 years. With Oshkosh working as the manufacturer, the new vehicles will be a mix of internal combustion-powered and battery-electric.

This said, only 10% of the new Oshkosh vehicles will be all-electric; the other 90% will continue to run on gas. Prior to Oshkosh winning the contract, Workhorse had proposed building an all-electric fleet for USPS. Negotiations with the Postal Service went far, and Workhorse even won the support of many lawmakers along the way…including now-President Biden.

An All-Electric USPS Fleet Still May Not Be Out of the Question

In January, President Biden vowed to replace the Postal Service’s fleet of roughly 650,000 vehicles with electric models. At the time, he urged Congress for funding to make the delivery fleet all-electric. Then, in March, Democrats voted to authorize $6 billion for USPS, with those funds specifically allocated for the purpose of updating the USPS fleet to electric vehicles. Finally, last month, the House Committee for Oversight and Reform voted to allocate $8 billion to USPS.

No matter the manufacturer, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has committed to at least 10% of the fleet being electric vehicles. However, he has also stated that USPS could commit to making a majority of the fleet electric within 10 years, as long as the government provides roughly $8 billion to make the new fleet electric-powered to the “maximum extent” possible.

Workhorse will file their protest to the Oshkosh contract in the United States Court of Federal Claims as early as today (Wednesday, June 16th, 2021).