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does any one know about freight forwarder as well? Matson said if i am moving just boxes, they were saying it would be cheaper to go with freight forwarder....???
Matson deals in whole containers. Matter of fact, they pretty much invented the modern containerized shipping service after WWII to serve the mainland - Hawai'i market.
What freight forwarders and consolidators do is put together container loads out of smaller shipments.
So what Matson is telling you is... your shipment is too small for them to handle directly with you.
does any one know about freight forwarder as well? Matson said if i am moving just boxes, they were saying it would be cheaper to go with freight forwarder....???
thank you in advance!!!
depending on how much stuff you have and its size, another option to full containers is Cubes. These are those small containers like PODS or RELOCUBES. They drop it at your house, you fill it up, they take it away (can stoe for years if needed) and deliver when and where you need it. Dollar for dollar it's more expensivem per cubic foot than a container, but if you don;t need a full container, it may end up being cheaper. the downside is not all the companies ship to all areas of Hawaii. I think PODS serve ionly two islands right now, maybe the 4 main ones come years end. Relocubes serve I think 3 islands. UHaul may only serve Oahu from the mainland. There are others. Just look under Moving and storage or Self storage and see who has the cubes available.
You can also ask on CD's General Moving board for a list of the national companies who now provide this service.
I am soooooooooooo jealous! I would love to move to Hawaii!
Everyone keeps saying it is so expensive though. I wonder?
Noneed to wonder. Read through the posts in the "sticky" at the top of the Hawaii forum.
It IS expensive.
A few people here will claim it isn't, but then they claim that they adjusted their living style to drop their expenses.
Apples to apples, it is much more expensive. Honolulu is the 25th most expensive city in the world, 2nd in the US, in which to live.
I'm one of those who adjusted my life style because of the high prices here, which is what I recommend to everyone. Trying to import your mainland lifestyle unchanged will get you slammed. And it's about to get worse.
Oil is now over $100 a barrel, and that impacts everything, since everything has to be shipped in here, and we're at the end of the longest supply chain in the world. Gas prices are guaranteed to rise, and experts are predicting gas will be over $5/gal here this year.
Matson just increased their "fuel surcharge" to 35%, starting next month, which will add about $600 per container to the shipping charge. And that's likely to be followed by more increases later in the year. Young Brothers just asked for an almost 25% increase in their inter-island shipping rates, which impacts local produce prices.
In addition, since 85% of the food in Hawai'i is shipped in, the fact that all major commodity food staples are projected to double in price this year... wheat and lentils already have... the prospects for it be even more expensive to live here than it has been in the past are guaranteed.
I'm putting out a big garden, and I do as much food shopping as I can at Farmers Markets for fresh local produce... Today I'm heading out to the Kono'ole Market in S. Hilo as soon as I finish my coffee... which I get direct from a Ka'u farm.
Good article on the fuel surcharge and what it actually means. Matson did NOT just raise their rate 35%. The fuel surcharge has been separated out from the base shipping rate since 2009 and has been adjusted up/down on a periodic basis ever since. Unfortunately, as fuel costs have continued to increase, there have been few rollbacks of the surcharges.
From the article:
"Matson's latest price surge means that for a container of produce with a base shipping rate of $4,592, the surchargewill rise by $390next month to $1,607."
One also needs to understand what "base shipping rate" means and that a produce container, which is refrigerated, costs more than a standard container, which is much cheaper because it isn't refrigerated. The fuel surcharge increase on a standard container is considerably less.
First of all, I'd like to wish you good luck on your move.
After going to Oahu on vacation for several times, our family moved to Oahu from Texas back in 2004 and only stayed a year (living in Aiea) before returning to the mainland. We didn't get homesick...we simply couldn't afford living there with both of us only making $12.00/hr. So, we just tried moving there again this past November after saving up money. We lived in a townhome up in Mililani. And this time, it didn't work out because I couldn't find a job, and we found that our rent and utility cost were so high, it just wasn't possible to stay. It's hard to live there on one income. The cost of groceries are high, gas is high, utilities are high. Don't get me wrong...we loved every minute of the time we spent there, but you just have to come over prepared.
The first time moving there, we sold our furniture and shipped over our household items by USPS ($1000). We sent our vehicle over by Matson ($1100). This last time we moved over, all of our household items got put into storage on the mainland, and we didn't take our vehicle (just in case). You'll find that you don't need all that extra stuff! Or else you'll find a rental, and can't fit all that extra stuff in it! The places are much smaller sqft wise than they are on the mainland, yet you'll pay 3 times the rent. I'm not familiar with cost of things where you live, but you will definitely find that prices in HI are higher, even at McDonalds.
Although we were prepared for sticker shock, we found gas was $3.60/gal, milk was close to $5/gal, bread was $2.50/loaf at Walmart. Be prepared to sit in traffic, as there are lots of vehicles on the island. As AlohaHuey pointed out, it can take a long time to get items from the mainland, including your vehicle, which can take up to a month. You will need to have a plan for a long term car rental, or else you'll be riding the bus around town.
You might want to take a look at vrbo.com as they offer "vacation rentals". If you write the owner of the property that you are interested in, you might be able to work out a better rate than what they have listed. That is how we got into our place the second time we moved over.
There is a book out, called "So you think you want to live in Hawaii". My suggestion to you, is to get a copy and read it thoroughly. I believe it's a couple of years old, but it has a wealth of information which will definitely come in handy.
Again, good luck on your move.
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Envious
