Workhorse Withdraws Next-Gen Mail Truck Bid Protest

FreightWaves
·2 min read
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Workhorse Group is withdrawing its protest of a multibillion-dollar delivery truck contract that the U.S. Postal Service had awarded to Oshkosh Corp. after reconsidering the background of the bid as well as other business opportunities.

"Since I joined the company six weeks ago, we have been conducting a deep and intensive overview of all aspects of our business, including an examination of the history of our USPS bid and subsequent protest filing," said Workhorse CEO Rick Dauch in a statement Wednesday.

"The federal government has announced its intention to replace its fleet with electric vehicles, and we believe that the best way for us to work with any governmental agency is through cooperation, not through litigation. By withdrawing our protest, we can also better focus our time and resources on initiatives that we expect will be more productive for our company."

Workhorse (NASDAQ: WKHS) sued the Postal Service in federal court in June over the government agency's awarding of a piece of its $6.8 billion Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV) contract to Oshkosh (NYSE: OSK).

Workhorse had offered the only battery-electric-powered vehicle among the NGDV contract finalists and was consistent with President Joe Biden's Jan. 27 executive order to make all federal-fleet vehicles — including those operated by the Postal Service — zero-emission EVs.

Workhorse saw its stock plummet 47% on news of the award to Oshkosh.

A group of 13 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to the Postal Service board in March requesting the agency "immediately pause implementation" of the contract until a full environmental policy review could be completed, citing a conflict with Biden's executive order.

Dauch emphasized on Wednesday that he saw "multiple business opportunities" for last-mile delivery trucks and drone systems after attending the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo in Long Beach, California, earlier this month.

"These opportunities include several commercial industry markets as well as a broad array of initiatives designed to modernize and electrify government-funded and owned vehicle fleets across the country at the federal, state, and city level," he said.

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