Military car shipping Hawaii for PCS moves, second cars and return trips

PCS SHIPPING RATES

Military car shipping Hawaii cost

Shipping a car, SUV or small pickup from California runs $1,650 to $1,950 to Oahu and $2,395 to $2,795 to Maui, the Big Island or Kauai, port to port. The return trip costs less, starting at $995 from Oahu. Every number below drops by $150 for military members and veterans.

Starting outside California adds a road leg to the port, priced by distance:

Four things move a quote inside those ranges. Neighbor islands cost about $750 more because the car connects through Honolulu on an inter-island barge. Lifted trucks, long crew cabs and anything with a roof rack can fall outside standard dimensions and get priced separately. Road rates climb 10 to 20% from May through August, right when PCS season peaks, and drop 5 to 10% below average in the fall. And storage at the Hawaii terminal runs about $25 a day once the free days are used, so we time delivery to your arrival instead of letting the car sit.

Our military discount is $150 off every vehicle, second car included. Active duty, Guard, Reserve, retirees and veterans qualify with a military ID or DD-214, and the discount still applies when the car’s titled in your spouse’s name. Your quote covers the road leg if you pick door service, the ocean crossing, terminal handling at both ends and the barge connection for neighbor islands. For a route-by-route breakdown, see our Hawaii car shipping costs.

TIMING

Your timeline, built backward from your report date

For military members shipping a car to Hawaii, the date that matters is the day you report. We start there and count backward through each leg.

Totals run longer than the legs add up to because cars wait at the port for the next sailing.

For an Oahu report date, we want your car at the California port three to four weeks before you land. For a neighbor island, make it seven weeks. Then add the road days from your duty station. Even with tight timing, expect two to three weeks on Oahu without your second car, so line up a rental or a ride for in-processing.

On a neighbor-island shipment, the slow leg is the hop from Honolulu. A car crosses 2,500 miles of open Pacific in five to eight days, then waits two to four weeks for the barge to Kahului, Hilo or Nawiliwili. If you’re reporting to Pohakuloa Training Area or a unit on Maui or Kauai, we line up that barge connection when we book the ocean leg. Inter-island car shipping works the same way if you’re already on Oahu and moving to another island.

Book six to eight weeks out if you report between mid-May and August. About half of all military moves land in that window, and road carriers and sailings fill up first.

Your government-shipped car runs on a separate clock. The VPC assigns it a required delivery date at turn-in, and that date already builds in the wait for a vessel. Plan around that date, not the ocean crossing. For more on each leg, see how long it takes to ship a car to Hawaii.

Send us your report date and duty station. We’ll send back a calendar with your pickup window, port cutoff and Hawaii arrival.

PCS ENTITLEMENT

What the government ships and what it leaves to you

A PCS move to Hawaii counts as OCONUS, so your orders cover shipping one POV, owned or leased, at no cost to you. That one car moves through the government’s VPC network: you book an appointment, deliver the car to the VPC yourself, and pick it up at the Honolulu VPC at Pier 1 once it’s released. Everything outside that single handoff is yours to arrange.

The size cap catches more trucks than people expect. The government measures vehicles in measurement tons, a volume figure, and stops paying at 20. A long crew-cab pickup can go over that line without being heavy at all, and we walk through the math in the truck section below.

The government’s handoff point is on Oahu. If you’re posted to Maui, Kauai or the Big Island, we can collect your car at the Honolulu VPC and ship it across on the inter-island barge.

Anyone moving without PCS orders pays for the whole shipment. That includes veterans and Guard or Reserve members who aren’t on federal orders, and they get the same $150 military rate from us.

HOW IT WORKS

How we ship your car to Hawaii on PCS orders

Starting outside California adds a road leg to the port, priced by distance:

Need your first car at the VPC too? We’ll haul your government-entitled car to your origin VPC on the appointment you book, with a power of attorney naming our driver as your agent. That’s the one leg of the government shipment your orders don’t pay for.

DOCUMENTS AND PREP

Hawaii car shipping requirements for military members

Your first car and your second car follow different rulebooks. The VPC applies the government’s rules, and the ocean terminal applies its own. Most of them overlap, but the gaps are where cars get turned away.

Five things send cars home from a turn-in appointment: a name that doesn’t match because one document has a suffix and another doesn’t, an open recall nobody checked, a tank over a quarter full, a damp or dirty interior, and a financed car with no lienholder letter. We screen your second car for all five before our driver shows up.

At the Honolulu VPC, Marines bring web orders along with their hard orders, and Coast Guard members bring both their standard travel orders and the mLINQS document.

Every car landing in Hawaii also goes through a USDA inspection, so mud in the wheel wells or on the frame can hold it at the port. Wash the undercarriage and wheel wells along with the body before pickup.

OVERSIZED TRUCKS

Large trucks and the 20 measurement ton limit

The government’s size cap trips up more military members shipping a vehicle to Hawaii than any other rule, because the name sounds like weight. The cap measures volume. Here’s the math the VPC uses:

Length × width × height in inches ÷ 1,728 ÷ 40 = measurement tons

Twenty measurement tons works out to 800 cubic feet. Go over it and the government bills you for the difference, with the VPC setting that amount for your specific shipment.

A stock full-size crew cab already sits just over the line, and a lift kit, oversized tires or a roof rack pushes it further. Measure at the highest point, racks included.

If your truck’s over, you have two ways to handle it. Ship your smaller car on the entitlement and send the truck with us at a size-based rate. Or keep the truck on the entitlement and pay the excess, if the VPC’s figure comes in under our quote. Either way, send us the real length, width and height with the lift and racks included, and we’ll price it from those numbers. Our truck shipping to Hawaii page covers rates for lifted and long-bed pickups.

EVS AND HYBRIDS

Electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles

An EV or plug-in hybrid can still ship to Hawaii, but the route that takes it depends on whether it’s your entitled car or your second one. Matson stopped accepting EVs and plug-in hybrids in July 2025 and hasn’t brought them back, so any sailing on that line is out for an electric car.

One thing works differently on our EV sailings: the ocean booking has to be in the registered owner’s name. We set that booking up with you during the quote call, then handle the truck to the port, the drop-off and the Hawaii release like any other car. If the car’s titled to your spouse, your spouse signs.

Hand the car over at about 50% charge and leave it in shipping or power-save mode. Every check through the manufacturer’s app wakes the car and drains the battery, and if it drops under 20% at the terminal, it gets recharged at about $250 a time.

Plug-in hybrids follow the EV rules. A regular hybrid without a charging port ships like any gas car.

AFTER YOU ARRIVE

Registering your car in Hawaii after it arrives

On Oahu, you have 30 days from the car’s arrival to register it or get an out-of-state permit. But the base access offices at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and MCB Hawaii ask for registration within 10 days, so treat 10 days as your real deadline.

• Buy a Hawaii no-fault insurance policy. Both the inspection station and City Hall ask for the card.
• Take the car to an official safety inspection station. With out-of-state plates it’ll fail for registration only, and that failed certificate is what you need for the next step.
• Get a Non-Resident Certificate, form CS-L (MVR) 50, from your unit or personnel office. It exempts non-resident active-duty members from Hawaii’s vehicle weight tax, and the certified form is only good for 30 days.
• Book an AlohaQ appointment at a Satellite City Hall. Bring the failed certificate, the CS-L (MVR) 50, your insurance card, title or registration, military ID and the bill of lading from your shipment. You can register for Hawaii plates or keep your home-state plates on an out-of-state permit.
• Go back to the inspection station within 30 days of the failed check to pass and get your safety sticker.

Maui and Hawaii counties run their own registration offices and use the same non-resident form. If you change your residency to Hawaii, or leave the car on the island after you PCS out, you lose the weight-tax exemption and have 30 days to re-register.

LEAVING HAWAII

Shipping a car from Hawaii to the mainland on PCS orders

Shipping a car from Hawaii to the mainland on military orders costs less than the trip over. Port to port starts at $995 from Oahu and $1,895 from Maui, the Big Island or Kauai. The paperwork is stricter, though, because Hawaii law won’t let a car leave the state without the legal owner’s written consent.

If your car’s financed or leased, the bank or leasing company is the legal owner. You’ll need a lienholder letter that names the lender and its contact details, lists the VIN, year, make and model, and authorizes you to remove the car from Hawaii. Request it as soon as your orders drop, because lenders can be slow to send one. The terminal also checks your registration against the car and records the VIN by physical inspection, so keep the registration current through your ship date.

Your first car goes back through the Honolulu VPC at Pier 1, open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. by appointment only. If you want it delivered to a VPC other than the one closest to your next duty station or home of record, you’ll need a counseling worksheet signed by your transportation office. Once it’s ready on the mainland, pick it up promptly. A second notice goes out at 21 days, and after the final notice at 45 days the car can be treated as abandoned.

For the second car, we take it at the port in Honolulu, Kahului, Hilo or Nawiliwili. Most families drop it about a week before their flight and use a rental for the last few days, so the car reaches California one to two weeks after they land. From a neighbor island, the barge leg to Honolulu stretches that to five or six weeks. Cars leaving Hawaii pass their own USDA inspection, so wash the undercarriage before drop-off. If you’re headed to Texas, the East Coast or anywhere past California, we truck the car from the port to your new duty station.

Our Hawaii to mainland car shipping page has rates by destination state.

WHY US

Why military families ship with us

A PCS shipment with us comes with these as standard:

• We start every quote from your report date and duty station, and pick the sailing to fit it.
• Every vehicle gets $150 off, including veterans’ cars and cars titled in a spouse’s name.
• We prepare the notarized authorization for our driver, and check names, recalls, fuel and the lienholder letter before pickup.
• We’ll haul your government-entitled car to the VPC, the one leg your orders don’t pay for.
• Neighbor-island shipments get their barge connection booked along with the ocean leg.
• EVs and plug-in hybrids ride sailings that still accept them, with the owner booking set up on the quote call.
• Trucks are priced from their real measurements, lift and racks included.
• If your orders change before pickup, we cancel without a fee.

If you’re comparing shippers, our guide to choosing a Hawaii car shipper lists the questions worth asking any of them.