Bangladesh car hire, arranged from the UK

The connection between Britain and Bangladesh — and between Britain and Sylhet in particular — is unlike any other. Families travel constantly in both directions, visits last weeks rather than days, and the destination is very often a village rather than a hotel.

That produces a specific set of transport needs that a general car rental site does not serve well: bookings made months ahead from another country, vehicles sized for people arriving with a great deal of luggage, addresses that mapping apps cannot resolve, and someone paying who is not the person travelling.

That is what this service is built around.

Most UK arrivals land at either Sylhet Osmani or Dhaka Hazrat Shahjalal, often in the early hours after a long flight.

Both airports are busy at the kerb and both attract persistent approaches from people offering transport. A pre-booked driver, a name you already have, and an agreed meeting point remove that entirely.

If you are landing at Dhaka and travelling on to Sylhet, that is a further five to seven hours by road — see Dhaka airport to Sylhet before deciding whether to do it the same night.

For families from Beanibazar, Golapganj, Bishwanath, Zakiganj, Kanaighat, Jagannathpur, Kulaura, Barlekha, Nabiganj and everywhere like them, this is the part of the journey that matters.

Send us four things and the whole problem disappears: the village name, the union, the nearest bazaar, and a local contact number. The driver plans the final approach before setting off, and if the lane will not take a large vehicle we will tell you in advance rather than discovering it at midnight.

This is entirely normal and we handle it explicitly. You are the account contact: you make the booking, approve changes and settle the payment. Your relatives are the passengers.

Tell us at the start that you are booking for someone else, because it changes who we contact when a flight is delayed at three in the morning.

Payment terms are agreed in writing along with the price, before anything is transferred. Some bookings are settled locally on completion; others are arranged in advance.

One piece of general advice, whoever you book with: be cautious of any provider asking for a large advance payment to a personal account before you have written confirmation of the vehicle, driver and price. Keep the confirmation message.

Bangladesh is six hours ahead of the UK in winter and five ahead during British Summer Time. A message sent from Britain in the evening is usually answered first thing in Bangladesh.

For arrivals, the thing to settle in advance is simply who is contactable at the moment the flight lands — because that is frequently the middle of the night at one end or the other.