With this backdrop, we reported 15.6% higher revenues on sales growth in our access equipment, defense and fire & emergency segments.
This led to fourth quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.05, slightly above the estimated range included in our October eight business update.
I'm also pleased to announce that our Board approved a 12% increase in our quarterly dividend from $0.33 to $0.37, which represents the eighth consecutive year of double-digit percentage increases.
We grew revenues by just under 13% for the year and adjusted earnings per share by 16.4%.
This led to a full year record for free cash flow of more than $1.1 billion.
Despite these challenges, we delivered strong revenue growth of 37% in the fourth quarter, leading to 22% revenue growth for the full year.
Orders came in at $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter, representing a quarterly record for the segment, leading to a record backlog of $2.8 billion at September 30.
We're entering the North American telehandler market for agriculture in a more significant way with a new 9,000-pound capacity model.
Our defense team delivered a solid fourth quarter, leading to a full year revenue of $2.53 billion, an increase of almost 10% and an operating margin of nearly 8% in this very challenging supply chain environment.
This is a 10-year contract that calls for between 50,000 and 165,000 vehicles, with a mix of both zero-emission battery electric vehicles and fuel-efficient ICE vehicles and allows the USPS to electrify its fleet.
The fire & emergency segment delivered another strong quarter with an operating income margin of 14% despite the challenging supply chain environment and extreme cost inflation.
Even more impressive is the fact that our team at F&E delivered an all-time record for operating income margin for the full year at 14.2%.
In fact, the team posted its best full year adjusted operating income margin in the past 15 years.
These orders led to an all-time high backlog of just under $570 million, providing good visibility into 2022.
We previously expected a consolidated year-over-year price/cost headwind of $35 million in the quarter.
The actual price/cost impact increased to approximately $60 million.
Consolidated sales for the fourth quarter were $2.06 billion or $279 million higher than the prior year, representing a 16% increase.
The consolidated sales increase was driven by a 37% increase at access equipment, a 5% increase at defense and a 10% increase at fire & emergency, partially offset by a 6% decrease at commercial.
Access equipment sales increased by $230 million over the prior year quarter due to improved market demand led by North America.
As the impact of the pandemic has waned, the sales increase was lower than our prior expectations by approximately $130 million, largely due to the previously mentioned supply chain disruptions.
Consolidated adjusted operating income for the fourth quarter was $104.2 million or 5.1% of sales compared to $124.1 million or 7% of sales in the prior year quarter.
Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was $1.05 compared to adjusted earnings per share of $1.30 in the prior year.
During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 821,000 shares of common stock for a total cost of $95 million.
While our backlog supported a 10% to 15% sales increase in the stub period versus the first quarter of 2021, we expect parts availability will likely constrain our ability to deliver higher sales.
We expect that unfavorable price/cost dynamics will be a $75 million to $85 million headwind versus the first quarter of 2021.
We have taken multiple pricing actions in our non-defense businesses over the past several months, and in many cases, prices are now greater than 10% above early 2021 levels.

Summary:
With this backdrop, we reported 15.6% higher revenues on sales growth in our access equipment, defense and fire & emergency segments.
Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was $1.05 compared to adjusted earnings per share of $1.30 in the prior year.