New Shipping Cost Info~ Matson (Honolulu: fit in, lease, HOA)

[ILoveLidoBeach]

I just thought I would share the shipping info from Matson from Florida to Maui to give you an idea of what it will cost you. I'll post everything they told me so sorry for the long winded post.

Hopefully it will save you a phone call.

Matson 800-462-8766

First of all, I called last year and these rates were $6,658.48 from Sarasota to Maui for a 40 ft container. Now the rate is $9214 for the same 40 ft container. She said they had a major increase June 1st.


19 days to ship from Sarasota Florida to Maui.

It doesn't matter if you are shipping lead pipes or pillows. It goes on the container size, not the weight.

She did say if I ship a 20 ft container, it will take longer because they have to wait for another 20 ft to fill the truck. So it sits and waits until one comes in.

New rates are as follows :

20ft $8,982
40ft $9,214
45ft $9,735

Cars are $1,100 each. If you ship it in the container it is the $1,100 on top of the container fee. IF you ship 2 cars in the 45 ft container, they will only charge you one $1,100 fee. So basically it would be $550 each if you ship 2 cars.

Car can only have 1/4 of a tank of gas.

Also, if you have a lease or a loan she said it doesn't matter and you don't need any special documention but if you are shipping from Hawaii to the Mainland,the you would need an OK from the lender.

You will need to sign and submit an auto declaration to let the shipper know there is a car in the container.

Also, they only cover $1,000 in damages or loss so you will have to have additional insurance. She said talk to your home owners or your car insurace because they might be covered. She also said you can call Bertram Ins. 562-799-1455 and tell them you are shipping with Matson. I guess that is who they use.

If you intend to ship your cars inside you container, they do not have ramps with the container. So make sure your movers have them. She suggested you have a flat bed tow truck come when the container is there and then they will load the cars into the container.

I asked about how to secure them inside the container and she said emergency brake and nail blocks of wood in front and back of tiles.

Cars shipped inside the container can be packed with things. They cannot she packed if shipped seperate.


So here is how my scenerio would play out:

Container would come to my house in Sarasota from Jacksonville, Florida. We would have 2 hrs to load the truck. Additional hrs would be somewhere around $50+ per hr.

The other option is that they drive the container to my house, drop it off and drive back to Jacksonville and then come back to pick it up. That was going to cost me an additional $1,100. It's cheaper to pay the driver to wait for the packing. I live in a gated neighborhood and I can't have a container parked outside my home over night.

Container is at my house and is loaded by my movers, cars loaded and driver takes it to Jasksonville, Florida.

Container is loaded on a train and shipped to Los Angeles.

Container is loaded on ship and taken to Honolulu.

Container is then loaded on a barge and shipped to Maui.

Container is then trucked from Maui to my new home.

They can schedule it 30 days out.

Hope this helped

PS sorry for any typos or spelling errors. I am not going to go back and read it again.

[TwoByFour]

I believe Matson is generally more expensive over the summer months. What month did you get the quote last year?

I think it is cheaper/easier to ship cars with Matson (not in a container) and household stuff via PODS.

[ILoveLidoBeach]

I called in the summer last year. The lady said everyone just had a huge rate increase and I seem to think I saw someone else post that the rates would be going up. She said new regulations as well as fuel increases are the reason the rates skyrocketed. They are not coming down. I asked her what the prices would be if we waited until Dec or Jan and she said they might be higher but not lower for sure.


Not sure if we would ship the cars in the containers or out but I was ust asking every question I could think of.

When we moved before we had priced PODS and they were double what we paid to move to Florida plus in our community, we are not allowed to have PODS left. The HOA police would call out the swat team over a POD. LOL! I can call again just to check the rates now.

[ILoveLidoBeach]

FYI I called PODS 877-77-07631. Don't let them talk you into "holding the rate" because then they will ask for your credit card.

I'm going to compress the info I got because the girl was really hard to follow. She was all over the board with all the fees but I will post the main info.

They will bring the container to your home 1 month before. You have the full month to pack it.

8X8X16 ft container is $7,737.59 + $49.95 insurance. If you need the container longer it is an additional $199. + $49.95 for the extra months. She mentioned if you need storage past 4 months, they drop the storage fee to $179 + $49.95 for insurance.

They have you make 3 payments. of $901.80 when they drop it off, then $6827.90 when it is leaving their warehouse and then $8.00 at pick up. She didn't know why they split it up like this.

If you need 2 containers ( which would be 32 feet) they will discount a small portion of it 10% so the total on 32 feet of containers would be $14,855.00

Cars cannot be shipped in the containers.

Also, it would take 31 days not including Sundays and holidays to arrive in Maui.

Once again these rates are from Sarasota, Florida to Maui.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by ILoveLidoBeach

I just thought I would share the shipping info from Matson from Florida to Maui to give you an idea of what it will cost you. I'll post everything they told me so sorry for the long winded post.

Thank you for the excellent post.

There's no need to apologize at all, because this up-to-date and factual information will undoubtedly be useful to many other people. It sets the record straight on several points that previous posters have frequently gotten wrong, like not understanding that when you put a car in a container the auto tariff (currently $1,100) gets added to the cost of the container. And the new info is great too... I've never heard before that two cars only get billed for one auto tariff in a 40'. Or that the haul from the east coast for a 20' can be delayed due to the need to pair up with a second 20' for the cross country trip. It makes sense, but I just never thought of it or heard of it before.

I'll add that while getting a car in and out of a container generally isn't too hard (it's kind of like squeezing into a very tight parking space with UHaul trucks on both sides), getting it in and out without scratching the paint is harder , and getting the driver in and out of the car can be downright challenging. The interior width of a container is 7' 8.5", while a typical mid-size car might be 6' wide. If 6" is allowed for clearnce on the passenger side, that leaves only about 14.5" on the driver's side. That's a squeeze, and it may require even a skinny driver to climb through a window. Not me!

Proper planning is a must. Let's say that you have your movers load in the first 8' with household goods, and then you load on two cars that are each 16' long, and then you try to close the doors... that's completely the wrong time to discover that a "40 foot" container is actually a little less than 39 1/2 feet long inside.

[ILoveLidoBeach]

Thanks OpenD, I didn't want to sound like I was blabbering on and on. LOL

I think you have to pay for the 45 ft container to get the deal for shipping 2 cars. Our 2 cars would be about 34 ft so it doesn't make make sense to ship cars in a the container.

I guess if I had a classic car but I actually would be afraid a big wave would hit and our tools would end up on the hood of the car. I'll take my chances with the salt water and bird "bombings".

I did like the idea of being able to pack the car but like you said, who can fit out the little space to open the door?

I guess it might work for some people but I just can't see it being worth it.

I just am asking every question I can think of so maybe it will help someone with accurate info.

Tomorrow I will call Pasha and see what they have to say. I'll post that info too so everyone will have a better idea of various carriers rates.

These quotes are from Florida but at least it gives people an idea.

I will tell you I almost passed out when the lady at PODS told me the quote for 32ft.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Just another point to add to Lido's excellent post. We moved from Colorado and, for whatever reason, were told by Matson that we could not ship our car inside a container. I think it may have to do with whether or not the container is shipped by truck or by rail?

Also, HOA notwithstanding, when we moved in 2010 Matson dropped the container off at our house and we had ten days in which to pack it. You were told 2 hours????

[ILoveLidoBeach]

Well, 2 hrs is included in the fee, if we go over then we pay an additional fee of $50+ per hr to have the driver wait for us to load the truck. She is going to get me that exact charge once she spoke with a driver in Florida. I am sure it will be at least 6 hrs. So I would have to pay 4 extra hours plus the tip so he takes care of my things

You are probably right about not being able to put a car in a container if it is being trucked vs by train. Probably more regulations since it would be on the road.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by TwoByFour

I think it is cheaper/easier to ship cars with Matson (not in a container) and household stuff via PODS.

From all that has been posted here my impression is that at least for shipping to Hawai'i, PODS is something like double the cost per cubic foot of an ISO container. They're only cheaper if you need far less than half of a 20' container And for several neighbor islands they are far less convenient on the delivery end. When I checked with them today they said they can still only do residence deliveries on Oahu and Maui, because of the special truck required. For the other islands they deliver to the port, and then you have two days to unload it.

The biggest thing PODS have going for them is convenience. They sit on the ground, so they are easy to walk in and out of, and they fit in a standard parking space.

An interesting option popped up when when I was looking for their contact info, Google also suggested U-Haul's U-Box, which is similar to PODS and voila, their site lists "Starting at $575 for inter-island moves," and "Piece of Mind Shipping to Hawaii." So there's another option that might work for less-than-container sized moves.

Moving to Hawaii? Portable Moving & Storage pods to Hawaii

As far as splitting up the car move from the household move, I don't see any disadvantage. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's any discount for shipping them together, and I don't think they necessarily even travel on the same ship, so they could have very different arrival dates. That being said, I'd check both Pasha Hawaii and Matson quotes on the car. Their tariffs are the same for the sea portion, but the overland portion from the east coast can differ, as well as ETA for delivery.

[TwoByFour]

Put the emphasis on my comment on the "easiest" part. We had limited space for the container in Seattle so building a ramp was not a very good option. The logistics of moving meant we could not depart and arrive at the same time as the container - it had to sit for a few weeks until we arrived. Storage costs for Matson are astronomical. My wife arrived a couple weeks before me, and having the POD sit at ground level on our driveway in Maui was really easy for her to get things out of it. No way could I get her to build ramp so she can get at the toaster. And since we only had about 1000 cubic feet of stuff to ship, we only needed about 18-20' of length anyway.

One more thing - my wife and I are 60+, so for us convenience trumps cost-savings.

But if none of the above applies to you, go for a container.