Inbound Logistics | June 2023

HAWAII LOGISTICS

until they get to their destination island. Direct loading reduces touch points and adds only one or two days of travel time. As a privately held company, HFS has “the exibility to invest to meet customers’ expectations, without being beholden to shareholders or private equity investors,” Beidleman says. EXPANDING CAPABILITIES In particular, the company is focusing on technology and infrastructure. It’s upgrading its technology to offer more capabilities, focusing on customer- centric visibility into their supply chain as well as gaining operational efciencies across the entire company. Customers can be condent they will continue to receive the highest quality service they expect from HFS. With its purchase of the former headquarters of Love’s Bakery, HFS gains approximately 100,000 square feet of space, including 25,000 square feet of chilled and freezer space. “This will allow us to consolidate all our Oahu operations and offer all logistics services from a single building,” Beidleman says. Along with its technology and facilities, HFS’ people remain key. “You can have the greatest software and infrastructure, but it comes down to people,” Beidleman says. The list of employees who have been with the rm for several decades continues to grow. “We are very blessed in that we continue to create an environment where we get great people,” he adds.

Today, HFS, a successor company, provides partial and full container load services and offers short-term warehousing. Through its carrier agreements, including for less-than- truckload, truckload, and rail, HFS can pick up and deliver dry freight from across the United States, and to and from Hawaii. HFS also offers refrigerated pickup and delivery from three West Coast mainland ports to Hawaii, and can handle chilled and frozen shipments to all the islands. If a shipment needs to be rushed to the islands, the company also provides air service for customers. “We’ve built decades of trust and enjoy many long relationships,” Beidleman says. Because it operates its own Oahu and Maui trucking services with more than 100 power units along with Oahu warehousing services, HFS can ensure optimal transit and delivery times. It also brings decades of experience in handling over-sized, over-height, and over-wide cargo. Honolulu Freight Service Honolulu, the company’s terminal, is located less than two miles from major steamship lines and carriers. The 60,000-square-foot facility offers 14 dock-high doors, ramp access, and quick access to the freeway. The operations department runs 24/7, and customer service is located on-site. HFS has the volume to direct load shipments that are traveling from the mainland to Honolulu and then to the outer islands. Shipments stay in their containers and aren’t handled again

they have reduced facility emissions by more than 75%. The company’s facilities in Hawaii, Guam, and Los Angeles are completely solar-powered, and management is evaluating the use of electric vehicles. By leveraging its expertise, dedicated employee base, transportation assets, and use of technology, DHX has helped numerous companies open locations in the Hawaiian Islands. “We walk through the process with our customers and draw up a timeline to address their specic needs for moving construction material and other goods,” McEwen says. “We focus on dependability and execution that exceeds our customers’ expectations.” Honolulu Freight Service: A TRADITION OF SUPERIOR SERVICE AND COST-EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS During the nearly 90 years Honolulu Freight Service (HFS), a multimodal freight forwarder, has been in business, managing shipments to Hawaii has advanced tremendously, says James P. Beidleman, president and CEO. The company started when his grandfather, Paul Beidleman, resurrected a trucking company, Yuma Merchants Express, moving loads between Yuma, Arizona, and Los Angeles. When some truckers didn’t want to deliver cargo headed for Hawaii to the docks in southern California, Beidleman started a new company, United Drayage, to handle the work. This occurred more than 20 years before Hawaii became a state. Honolulu Freight Service (HFS) delivers dry freight from across the United States to and from Hawaii. HFS also handles chilled and frozen shipments to all the islands.

68 Inbound Logistics • June 2023