Reducing the cost of shipping to Hawaii

Last month we discussed key factors pertaining to shipping rates to Hawaii and what drives those costs. Now we’d like to help our customers with ideas on how to reduce the shipping cost to Hawaii.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Reduce damages
   When building your pallets keep freight inside the pallet dimensions, avoid overhang, shrink wrap well and keep the height to a manageable level. Freight travels many miles and handled by forklifts when loaded into trailers and ocean containers along with other freight. Well-built pallets help eliminate damages, the labor cost of filing claims and replacement. Time is money when considering the cost to ship to Hawaii.
2. Consolidate
   When possible consolidate your freight to eliminate extra pickup and delivery charges. The more freight you ship may also help reduce your costs.
3. Accurate Information
   When requesting pricing or getting quotes for your shipping to Hawaii, ensure your information is detailed and accurate. Quotes are only as good as the information you provide so make sure you measure and weigh your freight accurately. Nobody wants to go back and increase rates to their customer, so it’s important to do it right the first time when determining how much to ship.
4. Warehousing
   DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express has broken ground on our new state of the art warehouse in Honolulu with a completion date of April 2019. Warehousing freight for quicker distribution to your customer and avoiding the need for airfreight or lost business due to slow turnaround times, are other options to consider when determining your overall Hawaii shipping rates.

We pride ourselves on building long-term partnerships with our customers, serving as consultants in the spirit of “Ohana” – Hawaiian for family.

DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express looks forward to being your shipping partner to the Hawaiian Islands. To get a rate quote today, please visit either our LCL Quick Rate Quoter online for shipments to Hawaii, use our more detailed online rate quote requestor for all shipments to or from Hawaii, or contact one of our qualified rate analysts today. Mahalo.

What are shipping rates to Guam?

When shipping to Guam, finding the lowest shipping rates and price to Guam does not always add up to a savings. When shipping to Guam other items that should be considered in cost savings include how long your shipment will take to arrive to Guam, how quickly the shipment will clear Customs and how soon the shipment will deliver on Guam.

Though these may not be out of the pocket monetary costs to consider when looking at shipping rates to Guam, consider how much money may be lost by not having the shipment in your customer’s hands in the shortest amount of time possible. If it's not on the shelf you cannot sell it. If it's not in your warehouse, you can't deliver it. The possible loss of time can cause delays on a job, with workers standing by idle or machinery down waiting for parts, not making money, or worse your customer elects to buy from another vendor because the product is taking too long to get to him or her.

Another consideration is cash flow to be considered. The sooner the customer receives their product, the sooner you will be paid, reducing the time between when you are paid for the product and when you received your cash back.

With DGX, we offer the latest shipping cut offs for weekly sailings to Guam, with expedited Customs clearance and delivery of shipments within 48 hours of container availability at the port.

When thinking of shipping rates to Guam, think of DGX for value.

Helpful tips for container shipping to Hawaii

Here are some factors to consider when shipping your freight containers to Hawaii:

• Is this a single shipment or ongoing project?
• If a single shipment:
• DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express can pick up from the vendor/source direct.
• Or, shipments can be drop shipped to any of our terminal locations for consolidation:
• Rancho Dominguez, CA (Southern CA)
• San Leandro, CA (Northern CA)
• Seattle, WA
• Do you need to designate a specific sailing date that is most appropriate to your needs?
• Or, is your project ongoing and needs to designate a specific sailing date most appropriate to your needs? If you use DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express, we utilize every available weekly sailing:
• We load and ship to every Hawaiian island direct. (By loading island-direct, transit time to the outer islands is reduced.)
• We have the experience to reduce handling and related expenses 
• We limit ocean costs
• We reduce transit time
• If an ongoing project, how is it to be managed and consolidated?
• How is the project to be reported or details to be communicated?
• What visibility is needed?
• What percentage of utilization makes it cost effective to ship an exclusive container versus shipping as LCL (Less than Container Load)?

The service team at DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express specializes in container shipping to Hawaii. If you’re looking for a cost efficient way to ship a Full Container Load (FCL) or Less than Container Load (LCL) to Hawaii, we provide efficient service throughout the U.S. and Canada.

To find out more about DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express and Dependable Supply Chain Services, please contact us today. We can certainly help you in navigating these waters for the best value and service.

Transit time considerations for shipping to Guam

What is an acceptable transit time for shipping from the U.S.A. to Guam?

There are two carriers that currently provide ocean service from the U.S.A. to Guam. One carrier has a transit time of two weeks with an arrival of Tuesday every week. The other carrier has a transit time of three weeks with an arrival of Thursday or Friday.

At DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express, via our affiliate DGX, we pride ourselves in moving product for businesses as fast and problem free as possible. Thus we choose the quicker carrier to Guam – the one with the better on-time record. Our carrier has an on-time record of 78%, based on an ETA of 59 minutes or less. The alternate carrier has an on-time record of only 23%, less than one in four of their ships are on time.

DHX - Dependable Hawaiian Express also offers the latest cut-off times in the industry to receive freight on the west coast, as well as we offer deliveries in Guam within 48 hours of container availability. This gives you a total transit time from the west coast of 17-18 days. The other carrier would provide a 30-day service from the west coast to Guam, due to earlier carrier cut offs and transshipment through a foreign port. Check out our ocean delivery schedule.

Five options and details to consider when thinking about longer transit times:

1. Your product availability is delayed meaning you’ll need to keep more inventory in stock. This costs your business more money.
2. Vendor payments are due just as product is being delivered on Guam, based on net 30 day terms.
3. Business competitors may receive their product earlier and are able to deliver and complete the sale sooner—thus you lose the sale.
4. Not having your product before the weekend can affect your total weekend sales.

Four benefits of faster transit times and later cut offs:

1. Last minute orders can make the same week sailing and arrive in 17-18 days.
2. Less inventory needed increases profitability.
3. Having inventory on hand to sell before payments are due to vendors.
4. More sales and better customer loyalty because you always have inventory in stock.

With slower transportation and lower transportation costs, is it worth the added expense of higher inventory levels and the risk of losing customers and sales waiting for product to arrive?

Call DHX - Dependable Hawaiian Express today for a rate and sailing time quote to see how we can save you both time and money.

About charity, a beard and a new warehouse

As you may be aware, we’re building a new warehousing facility in Honolulu. To make a long story short, we received the signed agreement to purchase the property, vacant land, on a Saturday during the period of the major league baseball playoff chase in 2017. On that Saturday in September, I decided, like so many LA Dodger players in their quest to win the World Series, to not shave again until the prize was won—in this case our new warehousing facility opening. I then flew over to Oahu when we had to arrange to finance both the land purchase and building construction. I told the bankers that I was growing my beard as a daily reminder of our commitment to getting the project done, so every morning when I stand in front of the mirror, I am reminded of my responsibility to complete our project.

During one of my visits to Honolulu, I became aware that the fence on the perimeter of the property served as a “lean-to” area that homeless folks had been using to support their temporary shelters. They were camping in certain areas around the outside of the fence. This visual sparked an idea for me to believe that something good could come out of this construction project and the beard!

I went out to our partners and vendors involved with the project and asked for volunteers to donate to a charity that helps the homeless. Upon reaching out to volunteers including Massdec (the developer) and DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express, Inc. (both owned by us), six additional companies or individuals agreed to donate $250 an inch to charities assisting the homeless. That's $2,000 an inch. We then had two other companies join us, bringing the number of companies to ten as of this post, or $2,500 an inch. My beard is now four inches long, growing slowly, meaning we’ve already earmarked $10,000 for charity. The facility has another 11 months before completion, during which I hope the beard will grow an additional 5-7 inches (may I add much to my wife’s dismay– she really hates it)! But it’s for a great cause.

I would like to thank the following participants:

• American Savings Bank (Financier) and Dan Oshima, its Vice President
• Central Pacific Bank (Financier)
• Massdec LLC (Developer)
• DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express, Inc. (Lessee)
• Honolulu Builders (Contractor)
• Anonymous Officer at Massdec’s Environmental Consultant
• Anonymous Officer at our Ocean Carrier to Hawaii
• Cades Schutte and the Cades Foundation
• MC Architects (Architect)
• Honolulu Freight Service- Mike Beidleman

Again, these participants have already raised $10,000 to be donated to charities!

DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express has set up systems with The Salvation Army and Kahauiki Village, so that anyone can participate in this effort to help the homeless in Honolulu. Although our partners listed will send their checks directly to the charities, you can also aid this cause by donating to these charities either in a set dollar amount now or by pledging based on the final beard length, for example, $1 an inch. Ensure you indicate your donation is for the Beard For Buck$ campaign!

We will be posting monthly updates, with beard pictures to our Facebook page (Beard for Buck$ Photo Album). Just so you know, for a single donation of $25,000, I, the president of DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express would be willing to dye the beard “purple,” the official color of Dependable Supply Chain Services for a month!

For $50,000 and I’ll dye the beard and my hair, too! It’s all for a great cause, folks!

A win-win for Honolulu: shipping, distribution and logistics

If you’ve looked at DHX.com or our social media pages, you have seen our current major project in the works – we’re building a new warehouse and distribution center in Honolulu.

This facility is different than our other owned freight-handling facilities located in Southern California, Maui, Kona, and Guam because the ground was contaminated with oil and gas byproduct waste.

We bought four acres of land that has laid barren for over 20 years while being remediated. It was an eyesore to those working in the area. The property was not contributing positively to Hawaii or the community. We are now furthering the remediation process to the point the land can be useful and productive. We will be turning the four acres into a state-of-the-art public warehouse and distribution center. The building will be located within 10 minutes of the port in an area off Nimitz Highway.

DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express is proud of what we are going to be contributing to Oahu's economy and future. Not only does the property itself become productive, but with 4,000 pallet positions for storage, we’ll help ease the current shortage of public warehousing in the industrial part of town close to the port. A land lot with thousands of plastic pipes jutting in and out of the ground will be replaced by a new, clean facility providing job opportunities during construction and thereafter. Once open it will allow us to move out of a building that is 70+ years old and very inefficient into something new.

Help us celebrate this for the community and for the businesses needing our offerings. A complete win-win!

Unique resources & shipping services when shipping to or from Hawaii

Dependable service in shipping and logistics for Hawaii doesn’t just happen.

You need to work at it with a long-term dedication. That’s why DHX–Dependable Hawaiian Express has committed so much in resources and investments in the Hawaii market. Not just on Oahu, but on the outer-islands, as well, where our transit times are as much as four days faster. Faster time means lower overall shipping costs to Hawaii as it will likely result in faster sales for you.

With company-owned terminals, equipment and staff; we have much more control over your shipments than competing freight shippers to or from Hawaii. It’s easier and more efficient. From the shipper’s door in shipping containers to Hawaii, to your facilities, you are dealing with one company. That’s us at DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express.

We have the flexibility to meet your specific needs every time because we deliver your freight within 48 hours of its availability an amazing 98% of the time!  If you don’t believe us, please feel free to track every shipment for yourself.

Whether you use us for ocean, air, trucking, storage and distribution, eastbound or for project cargo; when you call DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express, you are talking to our experienced team of employees, eliminating the middleman for quicker answers and faster solutions to your shipping needs.

Feel free to call us today at 800.488.4888.

Ship product, equipment or supplies regularly to Hawaii or Guam?

It’s not always about price. It’s usually about your needs. How have you researched your delivery service options as thoroughly as you need to?

Interestingly, the choice of shipper and delivery services is up to you. Always has been and always will be.

You may have questions and need information and answers to make the right choice on shipping. Ocean transportation shippers to Hawaii and Guam have many options on who to select as their carrier. Questions to ask:

• Do you want one carrier who can handle your freight door to door with its own trucks, employees and terminals?
• Should you go direct?
• Do you want a carrier who can provide complete transportation solutions and not just a rate?
• Do you want to make one phone call and know the job will get done with a personalized service that leaves you feeling your freight was the most important shipment of our day?

There are numerous options when moving full containers. If you select DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express, we have the experience to ensure your freight moves intact, on-time, in the most cost-effective manner possible.

DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express is an important component of a family-owned business that has been moving freight to Hawaii since 1980. We offer both Less than Container Load (LCL) and Full Container Load (FCL) ocean services. We’re part of Dependable Supply Chain Services, and as such can cover all your shipping needs with one-stop service to Hawaii and Guam.

Our core offerings to Hawaii and Guam for LCL/FCL: Pickup, ocean, air, warehousing, on island trucking, final mile, white glove, inside delivery, project cargo, consolidations, and hotel renovations.

To find out more about DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express and Dependable Supply Chain Services, feel free to contact us today or go to our website for a free rate quote.

Shipping solutions don’t have to be costly or take long

When looking and reviewing you shipping needs, there are always alternatives and options.

With 38 years of ocean freight forwarding experience at DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express, we provide options for your shipping needs.

Not all shippers try to find you the least expensive and fastest shipping solutions. Most have grown accustomed to the easy routine of using mainland small parcel solutions for their customer shipments to the Hawaiian islands. The result is sometimes varied, inconsistent, incomplete and expensive. Not just expensive in actual freight charges but also in the time it takes to track and trace your shipments.

Over the years, DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express has listened to our customers and worked with them to tailor service solutions that best meet their needs and expectations as well as that of their valued customers. Rather than shipping via a parcel carrier direct to the islands, you can ship with us by simply combining all of the pre-labeled parcel shipments on a pallet, shrink wrapped and labeled to the parcel carrier location in Hawaii.

Your pallet can either be dropped at one of our terminal facilities or we will pick it up along with any other larger shipments to the islands. DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express utilizes every available sailing to Hawaii and loads island-direct containers so your parcel shipments can be at the carrier’s facility in as little as six days of sailing.

This shipping solution provides a level of shipment integrity and consistency that helps to eliminate the chance of a multiple piece shipment being separated and delivered over the course of days. It also ensures the shipment is delivered complete and intact the same day. By utilizing every available sailing to Hawaii, we have the solution to fit the needs of your customers and at a cost that fits your transportation budget.

DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express recognizes we are in an ever changing, ever evolving society, and we want to ensure we are right there with you.

We welcome your suggestions and continue to value your confidence in us and your business. Come see how Dependable Supply Chain Services can better support your business by visiting us today!

Smooth sailing to Guam?

Smooth sailing is not always the case when shipping to Guam. Here are some safety tips to help ensure your shipments arrive safely in Guam.

There are 6,000 miles of ocean to cross for your cargo to arrive in Guam – the equivalent of going from Los Angeles to New York and back again. The ocean is not a smooth paved highway, but rather comprised of vast, turbulent seas with swells as big as four-story buildings through which sea faring vessels need to navigate. The vessels get knocked around quite a bit, causing cargo loaded inside containers to shift and move during transit.

In order to minimize any damage caused by the often rough trip, the shipping professionals at DHX - Dependable Hawaiian Express always take extra care when loading your freight by adding dunnage and cardboard inside the containers to safely secure the loads from shifting and moving about inside your containers.

As a shipper or supplier shipping items to Guam, here are a few shipping tips to help ensure your products arrive safely and intact:

• Always load heavier items on the bottom of pallet, with lighter product on top.
• Use three to four layers of shrink wrap to help keep the load from falling off the pallet.
• If your boxes are soft cardboard, use corner protectors before wrapping, so boxes are not crushed when wrapping.
• Minimize the exposure of products that can be easily scratched by adding protective covering or have the item crated.
• On bagged freight, for example: flour, rice, concrete; use cardboard on the sides prior to wrapping with shrink wrap to prevent bags from being torn.
• When shipping 55 gallon drums, secure drums to a pallet with suitable banding material.

These are just a few safety tips for Guam shipping. By doing your part, you can help ensure your products will arrive safely to your destination and ultimately to your customer.

At DHX - Dependable Hawaiian Express, we will always do our part as your Dependable partner!

Shipment types to/from Hawaii

DHX-Dependable Hawaiian Express specialize in ocean carriage in less than container load (LCL) shipments or full container loads (FCLs) and air freight service, throughout North America, to and from Hawaii.

Whether shipping weekly or monthly, organizing a special project or needing to ship an oversize piece of equipment, we provide the shipping support and the logistical solutions to enable execution with ease.

We are the largest asset-based LCL shipping company servicing and located in Hawaii. With more than 100 tractors and trailers as well as the ownership of four trucking terminals, we can give you flexibility with pricing and service offerings that can positively impact your complex supply chain.

In addition to our biweekly distribution of LCL and/or FCL shipments, our enterprise solutions include trucking services in Hawaii and inter-island shipments and consolidation. We offer specialized shipping services that may require “Final Mile” and/or “White Glove” delivery, as well as project consolidation or assembly-based on purchase order, timeline, project area or project phase for retail, construction and hospitality.

Our Project Cargo department provides simple solutions for complex shipments that require the handling of non-standard freight. Your shipment may not conform to standard shipping containers, such as oversized, over height/too tall, over length, over width/wide, unusually shaped, heavyweight, which may require permitted escort vehicles, roll-on roll-off, low boy transport or requires other unusual cargo transportation. Our oversize cargo experts have extensive experience in this specialized shipping service for both ocean and air.

To find out more about Dependable Supply Chain Services, contact us today.