Fire departments can't get trucks or truck repair parts because the industry has consolidated to make big profits - Entrepreneur Generations

Fire departments can wait years for a new fire truck.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Firefighters and fire trucks are the backbone of fire protection in most communities, but over time, keeping fire trucks repaired or buying replacements has become increasingly difficult. "Fire engine manufacturing is now largely controlled by three companies," report Mike Baker, Maureen Farrell and Serge F. Kovaleski of The Wall Street Journal. "Some departments have waited years for replacement vehicles while hunting the internet for parts to keep their older rigs going."

Wall Street executives sought to eliminate competition among fire truck makers "in a plan to boost profits from fire engine sales," the Journal reports. "One company, backed by a private equity firm, cut its own manufacturing lines as part of a streamlining strategy and then saw a backlog of fire engine orders soar into billions of dollars."

Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said the pandemic caused production delays, but it isn't the main problem. He told the Journal: "In hindsight, it was masking what ends up being a main driver of higher cost and lag time in production: the monopolizing of fire truck and ambulance manufacturing in the United States. . . . Absent competition, monopoly capitalism is a shakedown.”

With no new competitors in sight, U.S. fire departments have no choice but to order from the three big companies that still make trucks. One of those companies, Rev Group "has created a more standardized vehicle that can be made in less than a year," the Journal reports. "If more fire departments choose this standardized model, said Mike Virnig, a Rev Group executive, it is likely that overall wait times will drop."

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/xVEvTXs Fire departments can't get trucks or truck repair parts because the industry has consolidated to make big profits - Entrepreneur Generations

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