Postmaster General Louis DeJoy knew Oshkosh Corp. recently awarded a contract for the supply of next-generation vehicles to the United States Postal Service, but some members of the United States House of Representatives are questioning that award after it was revealed that someone bought a large share of stock in the company just before the award ceremony was announced.
A letter signed by Carolyn B. Maloney, chair of the Supervisory and Reform Committee, reads:
The night before the announcement of the award, an unknown party purchased 524,400 shares of Oshkosh Corp. worth $ 54.2 million. According to Bloomberg News, “the size of that transaction was nearly the same as the average daily volume in the previous year’s stocks.”
These concerns have sprung from prev concerns about this whole fleet decision. Notably, the fact that only 10 percent of Oshkosh’s fleet would be electric, while the second option, Workhorse Group, could have provided an all-electric fleet. That’s pretty important since President Biden’s January 27 executive order on climate change explicitly calls for “clean and zero-emission vehicles for federal, state, local, and tribal government fleets, including United States Postal Service vehicles.”
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DeJoy was also a bit vague about the exact terms of the deal until it was pressed. Here’s more from the committee’s letter:
Shortly after the announcement, there were concerns in the reports about various aspects of the award. While two competitors’ vehicles had electric powertrains, winning bidder Oshkosh reportedly submitted a prototype with a gasoline engine. Although the initial announcement stated that Oshkosh’s vehicles would be “equipped with fuel-efficient internal combustion engines or battery-powered electric powertrains,” you clarified in a testimonial to the committee that only 10% of the original fleet order would be electric.
The committee is asking for documents related to the selection of Oshkosh as the USPS airline.