For car transporting from Hawaii to mainland United States, USDA performs an extensive check on your car. Once your car arrives either in Hawaii or the mainland, it must go through both the inspection and Customs. Once your vehicle arrives in Hawaii and has cleared both inspection and customs, you will have to take the vehicle out of port. When dropping your car off at a Hawaii port to ship, you will provide this letter to the port authorities.
The carriers will contact you to inform you that your vehicle is scheduled to arrive at the port. Once the vessel arrives at your shipping destination, your car will be driven from the ship to a port. Your vehicle is picked up at the place you choose, then delivered to a port on a Hawaiian island of your choice. When your car arrives in Hawaii, it first arrives at Honolulu Harbor in Hawaii.
The process for shipping your vehicle from the mainland to Hawaii is a little different than shipping a car from Hawaii to the mainland. Very few vehicle transport companies will be able to take your car from your house on the mainland and bring it to your front door in Hawaii. Many car transport companies will not move your car to Hawaii if it does not start.
When shipping your vehicle to Hawaii, you are working with an auto transportation broker and carrier – as well as a foreign transportation company, which physically moves your car across the ocean. It helps to understand what makes car shipping to Hawaii different than transporting your car across the Continental U.S.
Simply shipping a vehicle from a West Coast port is the easiest and fastest route, but shipping your vehicle to Hawaii, or back, may get a bit trickier if you live in the rest of the mainland U.S. Choose auto transportation to Hawaii, and you will be able to send a vehicle from various ports across the mainland. In many cases, you can utilize third-party transport companies based in Hawaii to get the vehicle from port to your new doorstep.
When your car arrives on the mainland, you may want it picked up by a vehicle transport company and delivered to your door. Enclosed Auto Transport: If your vehicle needs to remain in tip-top shape, requires additional protection, is especially valuable, is antique, or is a special-purpose vehicle or truck, shipping on an enclosed carrier might be your best ground transportation option. If you require an enclosed trailer, or have a larger or heavier vehicle, you will pay a premium to transport it.
If you are moving your car across country, additional requirements might apply. When you are moving your vehicle in Hawaii or back to the mainland, your quote will vary depending on your vehicles make and model, how far your vehicle is going to be going to or from port, type of transportation (for example, open-carrier vs. enclosed-carrier), how fast you need the shipment, and whether or not your vehicle has been modified. If you are moving a vehicle from Hawaii to the mainland, and you are still delinquent on the car payment, a car financers letter is required.
An auto transportation company will require a few basics before they will arrange car transportation to Hawaii. To send your vehicle to Hawaii, your car moving agent will coordinate for an auto transportation company to pick your car up in a trailer at the location of your choice, then bring it to one of a number of ports along the west coast (such as Seattle, San Diego, Oakland, or Long Beach). Use your vehicle to explore Hawaii, and use transportation services to move your car from island to island. Since most vehicle transportation services first head for Honolulu, located on Oahu Island, shipping your car to a different island will cost you more.
If your car needs to go from a different island on Hawaii, or past the port of California, you should expect longer transportation times. For transportation times between large port cities, you can expect car transportation to Hawaii to take 10 to 15 days. For instance, getting your vehicle shipped from Miami to Honolulu takes between 13 and 20 days, from Houston to Hilo takes nine to 16 days, Atlanta takes between 12 and 19 days, and Cincinnati takes between 13 and 20 days from Kawaihae. If you are further away from the Long Beach Port (for instance, if you are shipping your vehicle to Hawaii from the East Coast) and you require land transportation, then it could take one or two weeks past the pickup date for your car to arrive at the Port.
Make sure that you are not going at the back end of the pick-up window — or make arrangements to have a family member or friend drop your vehicle off with an auto transportation company. If you cannot get your vehicle to the port, you will need to name someone else to take the car for you, unless you arranged to get it delivered right to your house. The port will turn away your vehicle, and you will need to immediately schedule another delivery. Your overland carrier will then either transfer the vehicle to the ocean transport carrier, or it will ship it on a normal cargo basis, depending on your arrangements.
Your vehicle will then be transferred onto a ship and shipped through the Pacific to the port of your choice. Once your car arrives at the mainland port of your choice, it will then be loaded on to a vehicle transporter and delivered to your doorstep. For those living close to the Mainlands port of transport, you drive the car straight into the port following instructions provided by your dealer. You will receive a copy of this document, so be sure to bring it along with you when picking up your car at a port in Hawaii.
It is critical that you follow the rules when shipping a vehicle in Hawaii, as not doing so can result in your car being held in port, and possibly even confiscated by U.S. Customs. The vehicle also needs to be in good working condition if you chose the roll-on-roll-off vehicle transport services to Hawaii.
If you are moving from East of the Rockies, it is generally cheaper to get the car into the container carrying the rest of your stuff into Hawaii. Door-to-door shipping to Hawaii Full-service moving companies often deliver your vehicle to your new address (rather than at the port) if you are shipping it with your household items. Unless you are looking to move a luxury or exotic car, sea-based transport is the more popular option.
The cost to ship your vehicle to Hawaii depends on a few factors, including distance between pick-up and drop-off locations; make, model, and year of vehicle; the type of vehicle transportation services required; the time of year; and supply and demand of the chosen routes. For instance, you might have wondered whether it is possible to transport a car with things inside it to Hawaii, or to receive a lower price by sharing less information about the car when booking.
