Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981

2 Classification of public service vehicles as stage, express or contract carriages

(1) For the purposes of this Act—

(a) a "stage carriage" is a public service vehicle being used in the operation of a local service;

(b) an " express carriage " is a public service vehicle being used in the operation of an express service; and

(c) a " contract carriage " is a public service vehicle being used to carry passengers otherwise than at separate fares;

and references in this Act to use as a stage, express or contract carriage shall be construed accordingly.

(2) In this section—

(a) "local service" means a service for the carriage of passengers by road at separate fares, not being an express service;

(b) " express service " means a service for the carriage of passengers by road at separate fares, being a service as regards which the conditions specified in subsection (3) below are satisfied.

(3) The conditions referred to in subsection (2)(b) above are—

(a) except in the case of an emergency, either of the following requirements as to length of journey is satisfied in respect of every passenger using the service, namely—

(i) the place where he is set down is thirty miles or more, measured in a straight line, from the place where he was taken up; or

(ii) some point on the route between those places is thirty miles or more, measured in a straight line, from either of those places; and

(b) either—

(i) the service is an excursion or tour; or

(ii) the prescribed particulars of the service (including the route and the timetable) and of every change of any prescribed kind made in the service have, not later than the prescribed time for doing so, been notified in the prescribed manner to the traffic commissioners in whose area the place specified in the notification as the beginning of the route is situated.

(4) Where, in the case of any service for the carriage of passengers by road at separate fares, the condition specified in subsection (3)(a) above is satisfied as regards any part of the service taken in isolation, but not as regards the service as a whole—

(a) that; part of the service shall be treated for the purposes of subsections (2)(b) and (3) above as a separate service (and will accordingly be an express service if the condition specified in subsection (3)(b) is satisfied as regards it); and

(b) any part of the service which is not an express service by virtue of the preceding paragraph shall be treated for the purposes of this section as a separate local service.

(5) A public service vehicle carrying passengers at separate fares shall be treated as a contract carriage, and not as a stage carriage or an express carriage, when used in circumstances in which the conditions set out in Part II or III of Schedule 1 to this Act are fulfilled.