Lawsuits accuse fire truck makers of price fixing

While many news reports on antitrust accusations center on the live concert or local news industries, allegations are flying in another, lesser-known sector: fire apparatus manufacturers.

In the past year, several lawsuits have been filed accusing fire truck manufacturers of monopolizing the industry, leading to higher prices and longer wait times for vehicles crucial to the safety of communities.

The issue hits close to home, with Carmel Mayor Sue Finkam using her position to draw attention to the problem. She told the Indianapolis Business Journal last year that the city could finance, build and staff a new fire station before the Carmel Fire Department could get a new truck.

“If we decided today that we wanted to design and build a fire station, we could probably get it up and operational in conservatively three years and probably under that,” she told IBJ. “And, certainly, a year or so to recruit and train and position firefighters in the building. But then we don’t have the apparatus to fill it, and that’s just troubling.”

Finkam last year wrote to Indiana’s congressional delegation, raising concerns about rising costs and delivery delays for emergency vehicles.

Several lawsuits have since been filed nationwide over the manufacturing crisis, accusing many of the country’s most notable players of fixing prices and monopolizing the market, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters. And those lawsuits mention Finkam’s concerns.

The lawsuits

Last April, U.S. Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana joined a bipartisan effort to investigate how private equity consolidation is impacting the firefighting manufacturing industry. In a press release announcing the probe, Banks lauded Mayor Finkam for vocalizing the issue.

“I appreciate Carmel mayor Sue Finkam for raising the issue and drawing attention to the threat private equity roll-ups of essential manufacturers pose to public safety,” Banks wrote. “Growing cities like Carmel need fire stations that are fully equipped and prepared.”

The city is not involved in any of the ongoing litigation surrounding the issue. Mayor Finkam did not specify whether the city would join the lawsuits in the future.

“Protecting lives and ensuring national security depends on equipping our first responders. Long delays and rising costs in securing critical equipment put communities like Carmel at risk during emergencies—from natural disasters to acts of terrorism,” Finkam told The Indiana Lawyer in an email. “While not a party to the lawsuit, I appreciate the attention this legal action has brought to the issue, which follows earlier actions by Senator Jim Banks to support the resources municipalities urgently need.”

Last May, the International Association of Fire Fighters and American Economic Liberties Project sent a joint letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, urging them to investigate the consolidation of fire and emergency vehicle manufacturing companies by private equity firms.

The letter alleges that private equity firms like American Industrial Partners have “aggressively” consolidated a market that was once diversified across two-dozen companies but is now dominated by three manufacturers: REV Group, Oshkosh Corp. and Rosenbauer America LLC.

The organizations cited an article by antitrust lawyer Basel Musharbash, who made a potential connection between the consolidation of manufacturers with the Los Angeles Fire Department’s inability to keep up with the wildfires that roared through the area in January 2025.

In early April, the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation announced that 12 lawsuits filed across the East Coast and Midwest would be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin for litigation. Despite their geographical differences, the lawsuits accuse the same handful of companies of anticompetitive practices.

Because the lawsuits across the country were recently consolidated into one suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the defendants have not yet had to file responses to the allegations.

In City of Revere v. AIP, LLC, et al, filed in November in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts city alleges that American Industrial Partners (AIP) executed the acquisitions of multiple fire truck manufacturing businesses to consolidate the market and place its own manufacturing company, REV Group, as a dominant force in the industry.

The lawsuit also accuses REV Group of conspiring with Oshkosh Corp. and Rosenbauer America LLC to increase the prices of their products and restrict the supply of them.

REV Group, Oshkosh Corp. and Rosenbauer America LLC control around 80% of the U.S. fire truck market, according to the lawsuit.

“The allegations in this lawsuit are without merit, and we are defending ourselves in court,” an Oshkosh spokesperson said in a statement to The Lawyer. “Oshkosh remains focused on delivering safe, high-quality fire trucks while continuing to reinvest in our U.S. operations to meet record demand.”

REV Group and Rosenbauer America LLC did not respond to The Lawyer’s request for comment in time for publicaiton.

The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction against the companies to cease all further anticompetitive practices as well as damages.

Scott Gilchrist is an attorney with CohenMalad LLP in Indianapolis who’s handled several lawsuits on the antitrust front, including litigation involving the alleged price-fixing conspiracy among ready-mixed concrete suppliers, drywall manufacturers and manufacturers of automobile parts.

While he’s not involved in any of the fire truck manufacturing lawsuits, he told The Indiana Lawyer that the allegations are eye-popping, noting how drastically the prices for these emergency vehicles have changed over the last few years.

As with many of the lawsuits, City of Revere cites several hallmark antitrust allegations in its complaint. In particular, the plaintiff accuses Rosenbauer of minimizing competition by assigning non-overlapping territories to its dealer network across the country.

Those types of actions can be a less obvious way for companies to pursue price-fixing, Gilchrist said.

“It gives them monopoly power within some subsection of the market,” he added. “It gives them pricing power because if you’re the only seller of widgets in the west half of the country, and you disagree with your competitor, they’re not going to come in with you, then you basically set the price.”

City of Revere also accuses the manufacturers of refusing to increase production to meet high demands for emergency vehicles. In some cases, the lawsuit alleges, manufacturers have actually shut down production facilities. In September 2021, REV Group shut down manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania and Virginia, reducing its total manufacturing footprint by one-third, according to the complaint.

“If one of these companies doubled their production, that would push prices down, because now there would be a lot more supply and, presumably, there would be more competition in the market,” Gilchrist said.

‘Cascading’ effects

Fire stations around central Indiana have been feeling the effects of the manufacturing issue for several years.

According to reporting by the Indianapolis Business Journal last May, manufacturers told the Indianapolis Fire Department that they were taking orders for delivery four years down the line.

Carmel Fire Department Chief Joel Thacker told The Indiana Lawyer that some firefighters might not even be around when some of these vehicles get delivered.

“We’re having to order trucks now that some firefighters won’t see because they’ll have retired off before then,” he said.

Thacker said the department noticed a significant change in pricing and manufacturing times in the last few years.

In 2009, the average cost of a ladder truck was around $990,000 with a 15-month manufacturing turnaround. By 2020, the cost had risen to $1.29 million with a 20-month wait. But in just four years, the cost of a ladder truck jumped to more than $2 million, and the manufacturing turnaround hiked up to around five years.

Compared to many communities in the state and across the country, Carmel’s fire department is fairly well off, Thacker said. The department has its own apparatus maintenance facility that can fix problems in town, rather than sending equipment to a third-party company for service.

Some fire equipment is designed to meet specific requirements based on a department’s geographic areas and general needs. Carmel doesn’t have those specific needs, Thacker said.

However, the longer manufacturing times means old equipment is on the road for longer while the department waits for replacements. That can have negative cascading effects, Thacker said.

“As the trucks age, it’s harder to find parts, and when you do find the parts, they’re more expensive because they’re older parts,” Thacker said.

While Carmel has apparatus in reserve that can fill in when frontline equipment breaks down, not every community can afford those backups, he said.

But for all the problems Thacker has seen play out in the last few years, he’s starting to see a glimmer of hope, at least when it comes to how long the department must wait for new equipment.

Thacker said the department is getting ready to order two additional engine trucks and another ladder truck. Worst case scenario, the wait time for the ladder truck will be around 47 months — less than four years — he said.

He credits the improvement to how much attention the problem has gotten in the last year, thanking Mayor Finkam and national players like Sen. Banks for their work to find solutions.

While he hopes the ongoing litigation won’t slow down the progress he’s seeing, Thacker said he’ll be following the cases and is interested to see what happens next.•