Indiana leaders seek answers for surging fire truck costs
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A wave of lawsuits accusing fire truck manufacturers of anticompetitive practices is growing, and an Indiana senator wants a federal investigation into an industry he says has become a public safety problem.
Why it matters: Central Indiana's historic August flooding provided devastating examples of how quickly critical infrastructure can be completely destroyed.
- It also put a premium on first responders and their emergency equipment, which is proving costly and difficult for cities to secure.
Driving the news: U.S. Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) filed a joint resolution in July seeking an FTC investigation into alleged price fixing, price gouging, serial acquisitions and monopolization in the fire truck industry.
- The document states three manufacturers control 70% to 80% of the U.S. market.
By the numbers: The resolution notes the cost of pumper trucks about doubled between 2013 and 2023, from $500,000 to nearly $1 million.
- Ladder trucks climbed from roughly $900,000 to nearly $2 million.
- Delivery times have grown from one or two years to more than four years.
Zoom in: Carmel leaders have made noise about the rising prices for the past year, with Mayor Sue Finkam saying last spring the city could build and staff a new fire station faster than it could get a new truck.
- During last month's record flooding, Carmel firefighters were part of a round-the-clock response that included home searches, evacuations and efforts to protect critical infrastructure.
What they're saying: "Our firefighters need this equipment to keep our community safe, and taxpayers shouldn't have to pay excessive prices for it," Finkam told Axios on Tuesday. "Carmel is evaluating our options as the litigation moves forward, and I welcome the FTC's investigation."
- "Every unnecessary dollar spent toward unreasonable private equity profit is a dollar we can't put to work to serve our residents."
Fort Wayne is feeling it, too. In April, the city approved a roughly $2.5 million tower ladder truck with an estimated delivery time of nearly four years.
- In Porter, town officials considered a used 2024 ladder truck this year because a new one could cost over $2 million and take two to three years to arrive.
- The used option, which was approved, was about $1.35 million and available much sooner.
Zoom out: The national legal fight began last summer with La Crosse, Wisconsin, and has expanded into multidistrict litigation in federal court with plaintiffs from California, Florida Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Between the lines: The lawsuits accuse major manufacturers of using market power to restrict production, inflate prices and exchange competitively sensitive information.
- The federal judicial panel says the cases involve allegations against REV Group, Oshkosh Corp. and Rosenbauer America dating to at least 2016.
What's next: The lawsuits are moving through a centralized federal process in Wisconsin, with separate tracks for individual, direct-purchaser and indirect-purchaser claims.
- The Banks and Warren resolution would direct the FTC to investigate and report to Congress within one year of adoption, including recommendations for restoring competition.