About Honolulu Freight:
Honolulu Freight Service has spent 76 years building a tradition of superior service and cost effective solutions for every customer, big or small, who trusts us with their cargo. Since 1936, HFS – a family-owned-and-operated company – has provided the highest quality of seamless transportation service between the North American continent and the Hawaiian Islands of any other forwarder in the field. HFS owns and operates our own Oahu trucking and warehousing service, ensuring the best possible intra and inter-island service available.
Honolulu Freight is a multi-modal freight forwarder. We provide ocean transport and offer pickup and delivery of dry freight from anywhere in the United States to and from the Hawaiian Islands. We provide partial and full container load services, and offer short-term warehousing. In addition, we offer refrigerated pickup and delivery from the U.S. West Coast port areas to Hawaii.
HFS is committed to providing you, our valued customers, with excellent, efficient and comprehensive transportation solutions to and from the Hawaiian Islands.
The History of Honolulu Freight:
1936 – Yuma Merchants Express Services Hawaiian Islands
Honolulu Freight Service began its roots in 1936 when Paul Beidleman resurrected a trucking company called Yuma Merchants Express. Yuma Merchants Express ran between Yuma, Arizona and Los Angeles.
Paul was known for working both Terminals and was said to have slept in the office and then would catch a ride with a line driver to the other Terminal and work it for a few days and would repeat the process.
1937 – Yuma Merchants creates United Drayage
Along the way Paul had cargo that was ultimately destined for Honolulu which he would deliver to Matson’s dock in Southern California. The story goes that Truckers in the Los Angeles area complained and did not want to waste their time delivering to the piers and dealing with Longshoreman. Paul realized an opportunity and said “Give it to me. I will haul your freight to the piers as I am going there anyway”. He started a new company to do this work and that was the birth of United Drayage. This was 1937 – some 20 plus years before Statehood in Hawaii and the birth of Containers.
1937 – Honolulu Freight Service and the consolidation of freight are born giving way to the Hawaiian freight forwarder industry.
In these early days, cargo was delivered to the piers loose and the longshoreman would lift the cargo in nets aboard the ship for stowage on the vessel. There were many problems with damage and what we would call OS & D today. Mysteriously the amount of cartons seemed to shrink from the time it was dropped off on the west coast dock to the time it arrived in Honolulu (a trip which took 10 days back then). To better facilitate the pickup of cargo off conventional cargo piers in Hawaii, Paul used bright colored stickers on each package to identify the merchandise and speed delivery. The stickers got HFS shipments off the pier faster and delivered to customers while competitors were still trying to find their shipments in the maze of boxes and cartons. Later Paul had plywood boxes built that were similar to today’s Van Paks used in the Household Goods Industry which greatly improved the OS&D issues.
1938 – HFS creates Lightning Drayage on the island of Oahu
One of Hawaii’s Big 5 , which was five companies that pretty much controlled the Sugar Industry and related companies (in other words Hawaii’s Economy in those days) was introduced to Paul by Matson. This was believed to have been either Castle and Cook or Amfac. They had an issue with so many minimum Matson shipments that they asked Paul to pool their shipments in his Los Angeles terminal and deliver them all at once for the sailing on one bill to avoid all these minimum charges. Hence the birth of a Hawaiian Freight Forwarder and Consolidator and Honolulu Freight Service was formed.
Paul also had formed a trucking operation in Honolulu called Lightning Drayage that would perform the pickup work from Matson in Honolulu and make the deliveries to the customer.
1941 – Pearl Harbor
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th,, 1941, the United States declared war and eventually Paul was given the choice of serving his country the traditional way or by working for the war effort.
The ICC authority was the more sought after and gave the forwarder the jurisdiction to move cargo and quote rates from door to door within the specified geographic area.
The original authority gave HFS the right to operate in the states of California (except the 9 Bay Area counties), Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado on the one hand and the state of Hawaii on the other.
1958 – Matson becomes the first Pacific steamship line to use containers
In 1958 Matson was the first carrier in the Pacific to use containers and Honolulu Freight Service was right there in the middle of it. Containers changed the way cargo was shipped to Hawaii more than anything.
In the early days a Freight Forwarder needed authority to operate in the trade. The options were Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) authority or Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) authority. The ICC authority was the more sought after authority and gave the forwarder the authority to move cargo and quote rates from door to door within the specified geographic area. FMC authority allowed moves and ability to quote rates from water’s edge to water’s edge meaning that all trucking on both ends had to be performed and quoted by a third party. This also was a point of contention with respect to claims and single carrier responsibility.
1959 – Hawaii becomes one of the United States of America (50th)
Honolulu Freight Service was granted ICC authority and that number was ICC FF 267 meaning it was the 267th Freight Forwarder authority issued in the whole of the United States. One could tell a company had been in business along time if it had one on these low numbers. The ICC was abolished in 1995 with deregulation and has been replaced with The Surface Transportation Board today.
The original authority gave HFS the right to operate in the states of California (except the 9 bay area counties), Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado on the one hand and the state of Hawaii on the other.
Mid 1960’s – Mike and Tom Beidleman begin managing Honolulu Freight Service
In the mid to late 60’s Paul’s sons, Mike and Tom, became involved in the management of HFS.
1970 – Honolulu Freight Service opens Stockton terminal
1971 – Honolulu Freight Service expands into Seattle and Portland
In 1970 HFS opened a terminal in Stockton, CA then further expansion continued to the Pacific Northwest in 1971 with the addition of Seattle and Portland terminals.
Paul Beidleman, his sons, and the early employees of Honolulu Freight Service pioneered the Freight Forwarding Industry to Hawaii.
Built on personal and professional relationships with customers and the community, our family-owned and operated company concentrates on the handling, expediting and shipping of freight bound to, from and within Hawaii and beyond. At Honolulu Freight Service, we provide the kind of service and expertise necessary to be your business partner. Our trained staff of transportation professionals is committed to giving you personalized quality service that comes from being an experienced business leader.
