The 46% rate increase for Young Bros. (YB) is outrageous. As a statewide licensed bus and van motor vehicle dealer, our company, Soderholm Sales & Leasing, is forced to ship our vehicles with YB. We have had good service from it over the years, but it is already overpriced, partly due to its overpriced union labor. Private shops lose techs to YB since it pays huge wages.

Matson, our close partner for mainland and Pacific island shipping, had to idle its interisland barge, the Waialeale, due to the coronavirus economic slowdown, which was used to transfer our buses coming from the mainland to the outer islands. Now Matson is using YB. We have set contracts with the county transit agencies for delivering buses that now must partly go on YB barges. YB will raise Matson and our rates 46%. Wow!

Here is a small business suggestion for the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC):

>> Get union buy-in to save their jobs. Why should we all not suffer together? Take a 10% hit in salaries, which is the biggest YB expense.

>> Immediately discontinue YB’s break bulk service of taking less than container loads. This is an incredibly expensive service using YB’s inflated labor rates. Matson discontinued break bulk years ago for the same reasons. There are many private struggling break bulk operators that customers can take goods to be loaded in containers with much lower operating costs.

>> Immediately restart biweekly service to Kahului and Hilo. Maui and the Big Island must have frequent service to support and help revive their economics.

>> The state should immediately seize YB from its mainland profitable parent, Saltchuk Resources Inc., due to non-support. A parent company can’t just siphon off profits from Hawaii in good times, and not support its island companies in bad. The state should then convert YB into a co-op following the successful path of KIUC, the electric utility on Kauai that was sold to a co-op from a mainland utility. YB is a monopoly regulated by the PUC. As a cooperative, all users would benefit.

This is all coming from one of the last bald-headed haole moderate Republican businessman left in Hawaii, who is now leaning back to my early Democratic leanings as I age.

About us: Soderholm Sales & Leasing, Inc. is the largest full-time and only statewide licensed bus and van dealer in Hawaii, representing bus and van builders from Belgium, the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and China. We sell throughout Hawaii, Micronesia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Saipan, Palau, Marshall Islands and the South Pacific, including American Samoa.

We did not shut down for COVID-19 as we are an essential business. We did not lay off anyone, and in fact we increased hours for our junior tech who was in the automotive program at Honolulu Community College when his classes were shut down. The federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) helped us get through the last few months. We have been in business now for 30-plus years, and going into our second generation.

Our tour bus business is dead. We are holding on with our transit bus business with the City & County of Honolulu (Handi-Van), County of Kauai, County of Maui and the County of Hawaii. We need a detailed plan for recovery from the governor to survive.

R. Erik Soderholm is vice president of Soderholm Sales & Lessing, Inc.