A class action lawsuit accuses shipping giant FedEx of wide scale odometer fraud.
A lawsuit filed on June 13, 2023, in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey claims that FedEx replaced the odometers on thousands of used diesel fleet delivery vehicles so that they displayed zero miles “though Defendants know that the vehicles have, in many cases, been previously driven hundreds of thousands of miles.”
The suit alleges that FedEx sold vehicles with fraudulent odometers at a premium price, failing to disclose the true vehicle mileage, often to unsuspecting business owners.
The Plantiffs allege that FedEx violated the Odometer Act of 1972.
FedEx began reselling rather than scrapping higher mileage diesel fleet vehicles around 2011 as part of a remarking program.
From the lawsuit:
“As part of this remarketing program, Defendants, particularly FedEx and Holman, conspired to commit odometer fraud by entering into a mutual agreement and understanding, knowingly entered by Defendants, with an intent to jointly commit odometer fraud, and did go on to commit thousands of separate instances of odometer fraud. As part of this agreement, FedEx would transfer the FedEx/Holman Vehicles to Holman, then Holman would sell the FedEx/Holman Vehicles at auction, usually to be purchased by a local retailer and eventually sold to the end consumer … In furtherance of this scheme, FedEx, with the knowledge and assistance of Holman, replaced thousands of odometers on FedEx/Holman Vehicles. Though odometers, as automotive components, do occasionally wear out or malfunction and need to be replaced, there was no valid reason for this large-scale replacement of the odometers on FedEx/Holman Vehicles, other than to perpetuate their agreement to commit odometer fraud.”
The lawsuit calls this the “largest odometer fraud scheme in United States automotive history.”
The lawsuit seeks damages allowed under federal and state law as well as injunctive relief to prevent FedEx from continuing with the alleged scheme.