The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

(1) VEHICLE TRANSPORTING PROPERTY. A straight truck with two axles, a trailer, a truck semitrailer with three axles, and a straight truck with three axles.

(2) MOTOR CARRIER. Any person, firm, partnership, association, joint stock company, corporation, lessee, trustee, or receiver appointed by any court controlling, operating, or managing any motor vehicle used for the transportation of persons or property for hire.

(3) DEPARTMENT. The Department of Revenue of the State of Alabama.

(4) COMMISSIONER. The Commissioner of Revenue of the State of Alabama.

(5) TAXPAYER. Any person, firm, partnership, association, joint stock company, corporation, lessee, trustee, or receiver appointed by any court liable for taxes under this chapter.

(6) PERSON. Any individual, firm, copartnership, association, corporation, receiver, trustee, or any other group or combination acting as a unit, and the plural as well as the singular number, unless the intention to give a more limited meaning is disclosed by the context.

(7) SEATING CAPACITY. The actual number of regular passenger-carrying seats in a motor vehicle.

(8) REGULAR PASSENGER-CARRYING SEATS. A seat ordinarily and customarily used by one passenger but does not include folding or collapsible emergency aisle seats.

(9) AXLE. A shaft on which a wheel or wheels run and, for the purposes of this article, two such shafts connected in tandem and commonly known as a tandem axle shall be considered one axle when not equipped with dual wheels on either end of either shaft of such tandem axle.

(10) TOUR BUS. Any motor vehicle used for hire for transportation of persons and their personal property on a charter which originates within or without the boundaries of the State of Alabama, the itinerary of which is not of an established, repetitively scheduled nature utilizing routes and time schedules approved by the Public Service Commission.