United States Attorney General Pam Bondi and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson have a new letter on their desk. It’s from the International Association of Fire Fighters as well as the American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopoly group. The letter is a call to action, as the two organizations are asking the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the FTC to investigate the consolidation of fire vehicle manufacturers. They believe that said consolidation has caused ladder trucks to quickly double in price, up to $2 million apiece, plus wait times that can stretch up to four and a half years for delivery.
The letter states that the industry, which once consisted of more than two dozen manufacturers, is being dominated by just three manufacturers: the private equity-owned REV Group, Oshkosh, and Rosenbauer. U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jim Banks of Indiana have already been investigating private equity’s role in the skyrocketing costs of fire trucks, writing to the IAFF in April about their concerns that companies are “padding shareholders’ wallets at the expense of public safety.” This is the main point that the IAFF hammers home in its cry for help to the feds.
A market research report claims that the REV Group captures roughly a third of the $3 billion in annual U.S. fire truck sales, with Oshkosh—which the letter labels “a serial acquirer”—nabbing around a quarter. Rosenbauer takes home a smaller 8% cut. Still, these manufacturers collectively claim more than two-thirds of the national market.
While this raises concerns about a short list of superpowers controlling prices, the IAFF and AELP’s letter also warns of the consolidation’s effect on order wait times. They claim that these higher prices aren’t accompanied by quicker deliveries but rather by brutal backlogs. One of the letter’s footnotes links to a Reuters report from January, which contrasts the fire truck industry’s boom to the rest of the nation’s manufacturing downturn. It cites data from REV Group itself, as it reported a record $3.6 billion backlog in its fire and emergency vehicle division at the end of 2024. Oshkosh had an even greater number of $5.3 billion, showing the great demand that couldn’t be immediately met, given the company’s production capacity.
Finally, the IAFF and AELP point to the real-world consequences of these hang-ups. The organizations claim that when January’s disastrous wildfires decimated Los Angeles, more than 100 of the LAFD’s 183 fire trucks were out of service. Of that fleet, “dozens” of the trucks were custom-built by KME, a 70-year-old independent company that was acquired by REV Group in 2016. Five years after the acquisition, in 2021, REV Group announced plans to shut down two of KME’s manufacturing facilities.
“We are paying the price for all these corporate decisions,” IAFF President Edward Kelly said. ” It serves the investor well, but it doesn’t serve the public when you call 911 and the ladder truck is out of service.”
The Drive has reached out to REV Group, Oshkosh, and Rosenbauer for comment. We will update this story with their responses.
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