Commercial passenger vehicles operated under municipal franchises

Notwithstanding any provision of this Chapter where a bus or passenger coach or passenger carrying trailer or semi-trailer is operated wholly within the corporate limits of an incorporated municipality and also operates within seven miles of the corporate limits thereof under a franchise from the municipality, an annual registration or license tax of three dollars and twenty-five cents ($3.25) per passenger seat shall be collected by the commissioner or through such agency as he might designate. The term "franchise" as used in this section means a legal franchise granted by the governing authority of a municipality, which authorizes the operation of a general public transportation system. Any vehicle licensed and registered for city use only in a municipality of a population of twenty-five hundred or less, and actually maintained and domiciled and kept therein, may be operated beyond the seven mile limit for an occasional trip, in no event to exceed four during each calendar month, provided that such trip be reported to the director of public safety prior to making the said trip.