Postmaster General Louis DeJoy recently awarded to Oshkosh Corp. a contract to supply the United States Postal Service with its next generation of vehicles – but some members of the House of Representatives are questioning that decision after it was revealed that someone bought a large share of the company’s stock shortly before the award was announced.
A letter signed by Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, says the following:
The night before the announcement of the award, an unknown party purchased 524,400 shares of Oshkosh Corp. in the amount of $ 54.2 million. According to Bloomberg News, “the size of this trade was almost as much as the average daily volume of shares in the previous year.”
These concerns originated from previous concerns about this entire fleet decision. Specifically, the fact that only 10% of Oshkosh’s fleet would be electric, while the second option, Workhorse Group, could provide a fully electric fleet. Which is important, as President Biden Executive Order of 27 January on climate change it explicitly calls for “clean, 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 little vague about the exact terms of the deal until he was pressed on them. Here is more of the Committee’s letter:
Shortly after the announcement, reports raised concerns about various aspects of the award. While two competing vehicles incorporated electric motors, winning bidder Oshkosh reportedly presented a prototype with a gasoline engine. Although the initial announcement stated that Oshkosh vehicles would be “equipped with low-fuel internal combustion engines or battery powered electric engines”, you clarified in a statement before the Committee that only 10% of the initial order for the fleet would be electric.
The Committee is requesting documents related to the selection of Oshkosh as the carrier of the USPS.