Subject to the provisions of the next following section, any person applying therefor may be granted a licence (in this Act referred to as a " road service licence ") to provide such a road service as may be specified therein, and a vehicle shall not be used as a stage carriage or an express carriage except under such a licence.

For the purposes of this section a vehicle used as a stage carriage or an express carriage shall not be deemed to be so used under a road service licence unless it is so used by the holder of the licence and, except in so far as compliance with the provisions of the licence may have been dispensed with by the traffic commissioners for the traffic area in which the vehicle is being used, in accordance with the provisions thereof.

If a person uses a vehicle or causes or permits it to be used in contravention of this section, or being the holder of a road service licence wilfully or negligently fails to comply with any of the conditions attached to the licence (other than conditions as respects which he proves that compliance therewith had been dispensed with by the traffic commissioners for the traffic area in which the offence is alleged to have been committed) he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, or in the case of a second or subsequent conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months.

A road service licence in respect of any route shall be required notwithstanding that the provision of a service of stage carriages or express carriages is authorised under Part V of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, or by a special Act or an order having the force of an Act.