TLDR, FedEx would just put a new odometer in their old vans, drive it around for a little bit further, then sell the used vans at auction.
via mensjournal:
“When FedEx vehicles reach the end of their lifecycle they are typically resold, often to small businesses, to be repurposed into food trucks and more. However, a new class action federal lawsuit is accusing FedEx of “the largest odometer fraud scheme in U.S. automotive history” after many buyers learned that they essentially bought a lemon.
Prior to 2011, FedEx would simply scrap their delivery vehicles once they reached 350,000 miles. However, the company later began auctioning old vans off through its fleet company, Holman Fleet Leasing, which is also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. FedEx and Holman are being accused of intentionally replacing the odometer in used vehicles and then selling them at auction with 100,000 miles or less, and then splitting the profits.
Unfortunately, the actual mileage on the vehicles was sometimes up to four times what the odometer read. Buyers would soon be faced with mechanical issues and mounting bills, causing some small business owners to go belly up.
Tom Layton, a Henderson, NV-based commercial truck dealer, first discovered that he had inadvertently sold a FedEx truck with an inaccurate odometer back in 2017, after noticing that some commercial trucks going through his dealership had odometers issues.”
h/t PeteyMcPetey