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Matson requires that I drive my car to Seattle. I would rather not. Does anyone have car shipping company recommendations besides Matson. Thank you so much.
Location: Was in Western New York but now in Hilo Hawaii
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There is numerous auto shippers Google them email them your type of car and they will email you and call your quotes. suncoastautotransport , honesty first auto transport.
What will happen is a car carrier will pick up your car/s drive them to the west coast then either put them on a Matson, Harozin , Pasha ship then you pick it up at your port.
You can go to Pasha website, pick your direction, if you want reidential pickup, drop off at any of their vehicle drop off point in the US, or drop off at the dock and final destination point in Hawaii. It will give you the price.
When dealing with them, you are dealing with only ONE company 9even if they use contract carriers to get to CA) so no BS about who is responsible for what or delays because the thrid party shipper is holding cars waiting for a cheaper rate on space available basis.
When I retired from the Army 2 years ago and moved to Hawaii the government contractor to ship my vehicle from Baltimore was American Auto Logistics. They have a location near the port of Baltimore and were very professional. I would highly recommend them if they are price competitive. Considering I didn't pay for my shipping I don't know what they charged.
Be careful of "auto transport 'brokers.'" The business is full of sleazers. There's a website, for example, that ranks auto shipping "brokers" - but your get a rebate of part of your cost if you post a positive review.
There are several "brokers" in Washington state. Their online ads tout that they will give you a quote from their outfit plus 2-3 quotes from other "independent" outfits. Googling those other "independent" outfits shows that they're all at the same address.
Scammy.
When I was looking into shipping a car from Hawai`i to a location in Colorado: a) each of these "brokers" wanted all the money up front, b) would not give me a contract to examine until I had paid a non-refundable deposit (which was hefty), c) would not guarantee any sort of performance -- they finally admitted to me that after my car arrived in port after the trans-oceanic portion, they would put out for bid the truck portion of the shipping and that if no trucker was headed that way or wanted to ship the car for what the "broker" was offering it could sit in port for weeks accruing port storage charges (which would be my responsibility).
All you need to be a auto transport "broker" is a website, a phone line, and a fax machine.
I agree with the recommendation to deal with Pasha. They are an upright company, and while they will be more expensive you are dealing with one company instead of the smoke-and-mirrors of a "broker."
If you do decide to investigate auto transport "brokers," I'd suggest two things: a) before making any kind of contact, check their Better Business Bureau rating. Don't even consider anyone with under a B+ b) give a fake phone number (or give a fax number as a phone number). Some of these brokers called me two or three times a day for months.
One other thing: If you DO decide to drive to the west coast, go to San Diego instead of Seattle. It's significantly shorter and would be much faster (and if in winter, odds are much less likely to have bad weather). You can then ship with Pasha from San Diego.
I got a quote from DAS Global Services at 1919.50 from Pikesville MD (drop off point) to Honolulu. I wasnt able to "View Report" on the BBB website but when I searched for reviews it was about 50/50. I will give Pasha a call now. Thank you so much for the suggestions.
Many of the problems posted about delays and hassls are when people use the thrird party shippers an not contract direct with the main shippers. There is reason third party price is cheaper. They may get discount based on shipping so many cars or on a certain date. If they don't have enough cars, they hold all the cars until there is enough. The date may be weeks away and even if 3 ships sail while your car is sitting in their lot, it does not go out until the date the third party contracted for.
Indeed. The "brokers" I initially talked to told me that their cost to ship a car on Matson from Hawai`i to the west coast was $100 less than the retail price.
Elisacherry....Just curious as to why Matson would tell you to drive your car to Seattle for shipping? We are moving from Northern Virginia (Winchester) and we are driving ours to Long Beach for shipment with Matson. It'll cost us only $1086 from there to Honolulu. Shipping from Seattle costs about $700 more.
If you go to Matson's website, you can look at each of the port sailing dates and it will show costs as well.
In order to be and auto broker you need more than a phone and a fax,, you also need to comply with the Department of Transportation government regulations for all states. It cost money to get a broker lic,, the problem in this industry is that the customer does not have a tool to check the history of a broker,, let me tell you that there are many good broker that can offer you better rate and service than dealing with the vessel.
The transport review website is fraud because it force broker to pay the website owners so they can show a good record and yes customer also get rewarded for their positive comets... the BBB is also another fraud because the only way that a company can get a positive rating is by being a member of the BBB and that also cost money,, but they will post the negative event if you are not a member forcing you to become a member so you can answer the negative comments,, once you become a member the BBB will delete your negative history after 2 consecutive months of onetime payment.
The best way to select a carrier is by reference from friends and family,,, there is not a single web site that is honest about this process,,, I own a trucking company and I also have a broker lic.. i can assure you that you can get a better service and price from a broker/carrier, the reason for that is because Manson and Patsha are also auto brokers, they also bit for carrier to pick up your vehicle and in the process they also make a commission on the deal.
I work closely with theses 2 companies and is funny how a customer call me and asked me for a quote, I issue a quote, I call the customer back to follow up and they told me that they already arranged with Pasha, 2 days lather the Pasha representative is calling me so I can move the same vehicle at an elevated price…
Good luck.
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