Editor’s Opinion | Chris Mc Loone
We are enduring a very frustrating few-year stretch right now when it comes to purchasing fire apparatus. My mantra has been to exercise patience, that this would pass. I still believe it will, and I still am on the patience kick.
However, the longer this takes to rectify itself—the combination of lead times and pricing—the more opportunities arise to point fingers, complain, and theorize on social media how and why we got here. Most recently, as of this writing, a class action suit has been filed against three manufacturers and an industry association, alleging that the four organizations conspired to fix prices and impact supply.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out what lawyer would look at those allegations and say, “Yep. I can work with that.” I can’t figure out why three apparatus manufacturers would get together to try to do that. I’ve toured manufacturing facilities many times, many of them multiple times. I’ve done this on both the apparatus side and apparatus component side, as well as the equipment side.
In every single facility, the workers assembling the products considered themselves an integral part of saving lives. The businesses themselves and their corporate officers also consider themselves important parts of emergency response. Why would any or all of them, considering how they see their role in what we do on a daily basis, intentionally make it more difficult for their customers to purchase the life-saving vehicles and equipment we use every day? To me—and I could be naïve— the answer is: They wouldn’t.
We live in an era where many of us get much of our information from less-than-ac- curate sources. Social media is a quintessential example of how bad playing the game Whisper Down the Lane can be. Everyone has an opinion; everyone has a platform to express that opinion; and, as with many things, the ones that get the most attention are the negative ones.
As an industry, for those of us who are responsible for influencing, approving, or spec’ing apparatus and equipment, it is time for us to take a collective step back and really consider what’s being said.
Consolidation—it happens everywhere. It’s happening in more areas of the fire service than many realize. So to blame that as the whole reason we’re in this situation and to do it so publicly is borderline irresponsible.
I know the current situation is frustrating. I’m experiencing it in my own fire company. We’re expecting a five-year total process to replace our rescue truck at my fire company. We haven’t even started formally discussing the cost. When we bring it to the fire company to approve, there will likely be some very serious discussion about voting to approve the expenditure.
It will no doubt be the most we’ve ever spent on a fire apparatus. But, in some ways, isn’t every new rig going to be the most we’ve ever spent? Things don’t get less expensive. The problem right now is the pace at which prices increased. To me, that’s the hardest one to figure out.
There has been enough “noise” about this at this point that we’ve worked with the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association (FAMA) to try to tell the real story. We discuss how we got here, why lead times are the way they are, and why the cost of new rigs is where it is today.
Go to www.fireapparatus.com/fama. Have a look. Don’t want to read? There’s a podcast on it. Don’t want to watch/listen? There are three articles on it.
All of this being said, I know what you know: that the fire service always forges ahead. These times are not easy, and they are frustrating. But, that has never stopped us from moving forward.