Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred S.B. No. 410, S.D. 3, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to facilitate the interisland shipment of motor vehicles.

Specifically, this bill:

Young Brothers, Ltd. testified in support of this measure. First Hawaiian Bank testified in support of the intent of this bill. The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) and Hawaii Credit Union League testified in opposition to this measure.

Current law requires that a person shipping a vehicle between islands provide the shipper with current vehicle registration, identification, and proof of insurance. If the shipping customer is the registered, but not the legal owner of the vehicle, the customer must provide the shipper with the written consent of the legal owner. The legal owner is typically the financial institution that financed the sale of the vehicle. In addition, an authorized agent of a legal or registered owner must present a notarized letter from the legal or registered owner in order to ship the vehicle. These requirements were established to prevent the unauthorized or fraudulent transporting of vehicles between islands.

However, your Committee finds that these requirements make it difficult for businesses, as well as individuals, to ship their cars intrastate or to the mainland. Moreover, it should be noted that no such requirements exist for shipping vehicles to Hawaii or between states in the continental United States.

Although your Committee understands the concerns regarding the interisland shipment of stolen vehicles raised by HPD, your Committee feels that this bill contains adequate safeguards to address these concerns.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 410, S.D. 3, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.