Why this matters more here than elsewhere
In markets with standardised rental contracts, inclusions are printed and enforceable. In Bangladesh, a great deal of hire is arranged informally — a phone call, a verbal price, a handshake — and the inclusions are whatever the two parties assumed.
That is where almost every dispute comes from. Not dishonesty, usually, but two different reasonable assumptions about who pays for the driver's dinner or the extra two hours.
Normally included
- The vehicle
- Clean, air-conditioned and appropriate to the class you booked.
- The professional driver
- Their time and their wage for the booked period.
- Fuel within the agreed area
- On a properly quoted job, fuel is the provider's cost, not something settled at a pump mid-journey.
- Tolls on fixed intercity routes
- Where a route has known tolls, a fixed quote should already cover them.
- Waiting within your booked hours
- If you have booked four hours, waiting inside those four hours is not extra.
Normally charged separately
- Hours beyond the booking
- At a rate that should be agreed before you start, not negotiated at 9pm.
- Travel outside the agreed area
- A day booked for city use that ends up leaving the city is a different job.
- Paid parking
- Charged at cost where it applies — common at airports, hospitals and some commercial buildings.
- Driver overnight allowance
- If a trip involves the driver staying away overnight, an allowance for their accommodation and meals is standard practice.
- Ferry or special crossings
- Where a route requires them, charged at cost.
The grey areas worth settling in advance
Driver meals on a long day. Custom in Bangladesh is that if you hire a driver for a full day out of the city, you cover their lunch and dinner, or the quote includes an allowance for it. Either is fine; assuming without asking is what causes friction.
Waiting after your booked period. A car that has waited three unbooked hours outside a wedding venue is a real cost. Agree the hourly rate for that at the start.
The definition of a 'day'. A day is a block of hours, not sunrise to sunrise. Ask how many, and what the extra-hour rate is.
How we quote
Every Nawab Cars quote states the vehicle class, the period or route, what is included, what is charged separately and at what rate, and the total. In writing, on WhatsApp, before you commit.
It is not a complicated document. It just needs to exist before the journey rather than being reconstructed afterwards.
