AF PCS from Minot AFB to Hickam AFB. Q's (insurance, law, military)

[novanhoj]

Well I got an assignment a year ago and I should be getting my orders soon.

I'm curious about my car? I was told I'd be able to ship it to HI.

Will I be able to keep my North Dakota registration? Will I have to remove my window tints? I just recently got a new car for my birthday. I'm freaking out... How wil it take to arrive in HI? Do i have to drive to a special placed on the mainland to have it shipped?

I'm freaking out and sooo excited to get out of minot at the same time.

I've been in for almost 2 years

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by novanhoj

Well I got an assignment a year ago and I should be getting my orders soon.

I'm curious about my car? I was told I'd be able to ship it to HI.

Will I be able to keep my North Dakota registration? Will I have to remove my window tints? I just recently got a new car for my birthday. I'm freaking out... How wil it take to arrive in HI? Do i have to drive to a special placed on the mainland to have it shipped?

I'm freaking out and sooo excited to get out of minot at the same time.

I've been in for almost 2 years

I had a car shipped from Hawaii to the mainland back in 1990. It took about 3 weeks and arrived at Long Beach, California port, so I would assume that is probably the port you'll take it to. Best thing to do is drop it off then take a cab to the airport for your flight to Hawaii.

Everything else you need to know is here:

Hawaii Drivers in the Military - DMV Guide at DMV.org: The DMV Made Simple

Aloha!

[GeorgiaTransplant]

Originally Posted by novanhoj

Well I got an assignment a year ago and I should be getting my orders soon.

I'm curious about my car? I was told I'd be able to ship it to HI.

Will I be able to keep my North Dakota registration? Will I have to remove my window tints? I just recently got a new car for my birthday. I'm freaking out... How wil it take to arrive in HI? Do i have to drive to a special placed on the mainland to have it shipped?

I'm freaking out and sooo excited to get out of minot at the same time.

I've been in for almost 2 years

Congratulations <- roughly 7 years in Hawaii myself on two different tours, both were among my best tours ever.

Yes, you can keep an out-of-state registration if you established North Dakota residency. If you have a North Dakota registration as an out-of-stater, e.g., you kept California residency or something and have ND out of state registration, you'll have to change. Make sure your registration, plates, etc. is current before you leave; it's a bit of a PITA to keep up by mail.

Takes about 2-3 weeks to move a car. You can either go Long Beach or near Seattle, they both work fine, at each location is a 'terminal' (a building where they process cars in and out and a very large parking lot-the company gets cars, moves them en masse to a large ferry, loads them, ship moves, and unloads them).

Once you get it set up, you drive the car to the terminal location with *minimal* stuff (the things you will fly on the airplane with)-you can't leave boxes of stuff in the car while it is in transit from the port. Make sure it's clean (no dirt-invasive species issues in Hawaii) and functional. You drop it off with Matson. They do a walk-around and note damage, then take possession.

Take a taxi to the airport and either go on leave for a little while (the recommended way) or make your port call and fly. On the other end, you simply have to wait if you fly straight to Hawaii while the car is being loaded and in transit. When the car arrives, you go to Matson's terminal in Hawaii and check in-they bring you car out, you check for additional damage, and drive off. Just that easy. Tints, you have to check Hawaii law for if it's too tinted or not.

[PacificFlights]

Originally Posted by novanhoj

Will I be able to keep my North Dakota registration?
Will I have to remove my window tints?
How wil it take to arrive in HI?
Do i have to drive to a special placed on the mainland to have it shipped?

Yes, you keep your current registration AND Driver's licenese so long as they are valid. Quick note, Hawaii has been cracking down on military member out-of-state registration/licensing. Your out-of-state exemption is based on that out-of-state registration/license being valid. So if you are no longer residing at the address on the licenese and have not filed a authorized change of address with the other state, thats considerd an unvalid exemption and you can be flagged for citation if stopped. Don;t know how they find out, but they have a way and they have been cracking down.

Tint is a technicality since technically your a transient (not permenant) so equipment need to follow your other state laws, but under the exemption, you can be asked to adhere to Hawaii motor vehicle equipment standards as consideration for that exemption.

It take around 6 days to reach Sands Island from southern or cental CA ports. Add another day for northern CA and above departures. However, since there are THREE carriers, they all ship on diferent schedules. So if you are shipping on one day, your car may sit up to 6 days until the next shipping schedule. If you are using abroker or consolidator, add anywhere from 3 days to 3 months to that time as they bulk ship to get the best rates.

Each shipper has their own terminals at the departure locations and some even have several mainland shipping locations. Pasha and Horizon Lines can arrange drop off just about anywhere on the US mainland. Matson is generally port to port for vehicles. They all come into Sands Island located between Honolulu and the Honolulu airport.

Now, there's several additional things to understand.
1. Despite popular belief, you car is not shipped on some flat barge between the mainalnd and Hawaii. Both Pasha and Matson have vehicle ships where your car is inside a garge type vessle. There was a time that Matson did ship some vehicles between the containers, but thats pretty much a thing of the past. Horizon ships cars inside special designed vehicle contaners.

2. Makes sure you have checked with your insurance company and that they have cleared you to go to Hawaii and keep that coverage. Not all insurance companies are licenesed to provide insurance on Hawaii, so if you get into an accident, they don;t have anyone there to help, or you may be required to pay the bills and get reimbushed. Check before you leave so there are no surpirses.

3. If you have a special vehicle or special items in that car, check to see if there are service available on Hawaii. Oahu generally has everything but it maybe limited. Don;t be surprised if parts DO take 3 weeks to arrive even at a dealer. Also, if you have some asian made cars, check to see if you need to transfer that warrenty to their subsidary that handles Hawaii. I donltt hink may remain but there are one or two companies that vehciles and dealer on hawaii are from their asian subsidiary and noit the US subsidary. It's not a big deal, just some paperwork.

4. If the car is leased or financied, double check your douments to make sure you can take it out of the mainland. A few companies prohibit the cars from leaving their reach. Matso, Pasha and Horizon knows who they are and will deny boarding without a release. They will tell you as you have to provide a copy of the title for them and they see whos on it.

It's very important to understand that the rules and processes regarding shipping vehciles to Hawaii are subject to change often and they do. So whatever happend 5 years, 1 year or 1 month ago may have changes so alwasys get the latest updates from them. MIlitray members have certain exceptions because they are militray but some things are in stone. Just ask the shippers anything your not sure about.