Does the $1 million on a South Carolina ride include uninsured coverage?

Liability, uninsured coverage, and underinsured coverage

The $1,000,000 figure is liability coverage. Basic uninsured-motorist coverage is mandatory at the ordinary floor. Underinsured-motorist coverage is an offer on a personal policy. The rideshare statute does not require it.

After the last requesting rider departs, a driver who is still logged on and has not accepted another ride is back in the first row. Uninsured-motorist coverage stays on the § 38-77-150 floor on both sides of that line.

Logged off, and not in a prearranged ride, § 58-23-1630 does not apply. If a personal policy responds, the ordinary financial-responsibility floor is $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 bodily injury per accident, and $25,000 property damage. § 38-77-140; § 56-10-20. On a policy that is issued, uninsured-motorist coverage is the § 38-77-150 floor.

Personal-injury protection is not required in any of these periods. South Carolina is a tort state. Section 38-77-144 says there is no personal-injury-protection mandate. The Department of Insurance describes the required auto coverages as liability and uninsured motorist. Medical-payments coverage is optional if a policy offers it. The rideshare section does not set a medical-payments dollar amount.

A plaintiff may recover if the plaintiff’s negligence is not greater than the defendant’s

South Carolina is a tort state, not a no-fault state. There is no tort threshold to clear before a negligence claim. Fault still matters.

Fault is modified comparative negligence. A plaintiff may recover if the plaintiff’s negligence is not greater than the defendant’s. The recovery is reduced in proportion. Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., as stated in Berberich v. Jack, Opinion No. 26955 (Apr. 4, 2011). The Court described that rule as allowing recovery if the plaintiff’s negligence is 50 percent or less. A plaintiff whose negligence is greater than the defendant’s does not recover under that rule. It is not a rule that any fault by the plaintiff bars the claim. It is not pure comparative fault. Berberich v. Jack.

Section 15-38-15, rewritten effective January 1, 2026, allocates joint and several liability. It does not restate the plaintiff’s recovery bar. For a cause of action arising or accruing after that date, a defendant whose fault is less than 50 percent of the total fault, including the plaintiff’s comparative negligence and qualifying nonparty tortfeasors, is liable only for that percentage of indivisible damages. That allocation changes who pays a judgment. It does not change the insurance floors. It does not say the plaintiff is barred at 51 percent. For an accident before January 1, 2026, the prior text of section 15-38-15 is the joint-and-several text that applies, including the gross-negligence and alcohol exceptions the 2026 text removed from that carveout. 2025 Act No. 42 rewrote the section. It did not amend the rideshare insurance article.

The usual personal-injury period is three years from when the person knew or by reasonable diligence should have known of the cause of action. Wrongful death is three years from the death. An action on a policy of insurance is also listed at three years. §§ 15-3-530 and 15-3-535. Those filing periods are not the company’s record-retention period.

Acceptance starts the $1 million period. The last departure ends it.

After Act No. 136 of 2026, a prearranged ride begins when a driver accepts a ride requested through a digital network controlled by a transportation network company. It continues while the driver transports a requesting rider. It ends when the last requesting rider departs the personal vehicle. § 58-23-1610(9).

The statute does not use a later-of-app-completion or finished-unloading test. It does not split uninsured-motorist coverage between the drive to the pickup and the time the passenger is seated.

TNC service is a different defined term. It begins when the driver accepts a request and proceeds to the passenger, continues while the driver transports a requesting passenger, and ends when the last requesting passenger exits the vehicle. § 58-23-1610(7). The insurance dollar rules are written in terms of a prearranged ride, not in terms of TNC service. Recordkeeping uses TNC service. “Exits” and “departs” are not a two-step drop-off test.

The Code of Laws page, read October 3, 2026, still prints the 2015 definitions and a history line that stops at 2015 Act No. 88. Act No. 136 amends only subsections (2) and (9) of section 58-23-1610. For personal vehicle and prearranged ride, use the Act. The insurance sections on that Code page were not amended. The dollar tiers did not change on May 15, 2026.

If the driver’s policy does not provide the required coverage, company insurance starts at the first dollar

If the driver’s insurance has lapsed, or does not provide the required coverage, transportation-network-company insurance must provide the coverage required by section 58-23-1630 beginning with the first dollar of a claim, and it has the duty to defend. Coverage under a policy maintained by the company may not depend on a personal automobile insurer first denying the claim. A personal insurer may not be required to deny the claim first. § 58-23-1630(D) and (E).

The words “does not provide the required coverage” are broader than a lapse. An exclusion of this use, or a policy that exists but sits below the waiting-period floor or the $1,000,000 floor, is inside those words. The sentence fills the coverage section 58-23-1630 requires. It does not say the company policy must also replace every extra coverage a certificate happens to show. It does not turn a certificate that says underinsured-motorist coverage is not included into an underinsured-motorist policy.

When both policies are in force and both actually provide the required coverage, the statute says the requirement may be satisfied by the driver, the company, or both. It stops there. It does not state a sharing formula for that case. It also does not say which company’s policy responds if the driver is logged into more than one app and has not accepted a request on either. That question is open.

The required rideshare insurance is primary automobile insurance that recognizes the driver is a transportation-network-company driver, or that otherwise uses a personal vehicle to transport riders for compensation. Each period may be satisfied by insurance maintained by the driver, the company, or both. It may be placed with an authorized insurer or an eligible surplus-lines insurer. § 58-23-1630(A), (B)(3), (C)(3), and (F).

The company must also collect proof of an automobile liability policy in the driver’s own name that meets section 38-77-140, and it re-verifies that proof at least annually. That is the ordinary financial-responsibility policy. It is not a substitute for the waiting-period coverage or the $1,000,000 prearranged-ride coverage. § 58-23-1650(B)(5) and (C).

A personal policy may exclude this use

An insurer that writes automobile insurance in the state may exclude any and all coverage under the owner’s policy for a loss while a driver is logged on a company’s digital network or while the driver provides a prearranged ride. The right to exclude may apply to any coverage in the policy, including liability, uninsured and underinsured motorist, medical payments, comprehensive, and collision. § 58-23-1625(A).

Nothing in that section implies or requires that a personal policy cover the driver while logged on, while engaged in a prearranged ride, or while otherwise using a personal vehicle to transport passengers for compensation. Nothing precludes an insurer from covering that use by contract or endorsement. § 58-23-1625(B). An insurer that excludes the claim has no duty to defend or indemnify it. An insurer that pays anyway has a right of contribution against other insurers that provided the section 58-23-1630 coverage at the time of loss. Nothing in the article invalidates an exclusion already in a policy. § 58-23-1625(C).

That exclusion sentence is about logged-on use and a prearranged ride. The article does not state whether a particular personal exclusion can reach a logged-off trip. That is a question about the policy, not a rule this statute states.

A driver can be legal for the license plate and still have no personal coverage once the app is on. Registration security is the ordinary policy described in sections 56-10-20 and 38-77-140. If that security lapses, the registration and the owner’s driving privileges are suspended as of the lapse. The Department of Motor Vehicles verifies liability insurance electronically. Section 58-23-1630(D) puts the required rideshare coverage on the company from the first dollar if the driver’s insurance does not provide it. The first-dollar sentence does not say the company must replace a driver’s own higher underinsured-motorist selection, or comprehensive and collision the driver dropped.

Before a driver may accept a request, the company must disclose in writing the types and limits it provides, that the personal policy may not cover logged-on or prearranged-ride use, and the lienholder duty. If there is a lien, the driver must notify the lienholder, keep evidence the notice was sent, and wait seven days before driving for the company. A lender may require comprehensive and collision that covers the logged-on period. That lender right does not change the liability limit available to an injured person. § 58-23-1635.

What the form prints, which is not the statute

A certificate is evidence of insurance, not the policy. The limits it shows may have been reduced by paid claims. The statute sets floors. The form can print a combined single limit the statute does not name.

Uber’s U.S. certificates list, opened October 3, 2026, labels one file South Carolina. The form itself does not print the words South Carolina. State identification is that index, plus a waiting-period property-damage limit of $50,000 that matches section 58-23-1630(B). The certificate date on each page is February 25, 2026. Insurer A is Liberty Surplus Insurance Corporation, NAIC 10725. The insured is Rasier LLC, Rasier-CA LLC, Rasier-DC LLC, and Rasier-PA LLC. The automobile policy period is March 1, 2026 through March 1, 2027. Uber certificate linked from the South Carolina row.

While the driver is logged on, available, and has not accepted a request, policy ASE-665-067247-356 prints liability of $50,000 bodily injury per person, $100,000 bodily injury per accident, and $50,000 property damage. The description states uninsured-motorist coverage of $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 property damage, and states that underinsured-motorist coverage is not included in any amount.

After the driver has logged and recorded acceptance, policy ASE-665-067247-366 covers the drive to the pickup or travel from the pickup to the final destination. Liability is a $1,000,000 combined single limit. Those words are on the certificate. They are not in § 58-23-1630(C). The uninsured-motorist sentence is the same $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident, and $25,000 property damage. Underinsured-motorist coverage is again not included in any amount. The form does not split uninsured-motorist coverage between the drive to the pickup and the time the passenger is in the car.

Physical damage on that accepted-trip policy number prints a $2,500 comprehensive deductible and a $2,500 collision deductible. The certificate does not say this physical-damage coverage depends on the driver carrying comprehensive and collision. It does not list personal-injury protection, medical payments, a waiting-period uninsured-motorist exclusion, an en-route uninsured-motorist exclusion, or an airport liability increase.

Uber’s general insurance page says Optional Injury Protection is offered in many states and is not offered in every state. It does not name this state. That product is not the statutory uninsured-motorist requirement.

The covered-auto wording on the certificate is passenger autos. It does not say a charter limousine is a covered auto. Uber’s commercial-driver page says the rideshare liability policies do not cover trips driven as a commercially licensed limousine and that those drivers must carry their own commercial insurance. That is a company statement. Act No. 136 does not rewrite the certificate. Whether a limousine the Act now allows as a personal vehicle is a covered auto remains unsettled.

Three policy rows, and no period labels

Lyft’s current certificate is State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, NAIC 25143. The face says evidence of insurance only for the state of SC. The ACORD date box is October 1, 2026. Every dated policy row runs October 1, 2026 through October 1, 2027. The insured is Lyft, Inc. The only insurer named on the form is Insurer A. The automobile rows do not have an insurer letter checked. Lyft South Carolina certificate.

The form does not define waiting, en route, or passenger in the vehicle. What it prints, without those labels:

• Policy 6407287-D01-40 prints a $1,000,000 combined single limit. In the policy-number area, not in the limits column, the row also has the typed notation UM 25k/50k/25k. Read as dollars, that notation is $25,000, $50,000, and $25,000. It is not $1,000,000 of uninsured-motorist coverage.
• Policy 6407279-D01-40, labeled non-owned autos only, prints bodily injury of $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident, and property damage of $50,000. The remarks state UM $25,000 / $50,000 / $25,000 for that policy number. The certificate does not call this row the period before acceptance.
• Policy 6407288-D01-40 has the same dates and a UM 25k/50k/25k notation in the policy-number area. The bodily-injury and property-damage limits cells on that row are blank. No liability dollar is printed for this policy number. The prior certificate, for October 1, 2025 through October 1, 2026, had the same blank. That older form is not the current certificate. The blank is not a reason to write a limit onto this row.

The any-auto box and the non-owned-autos-only box are both marked. The form does not explain the overlap. It still does not say which policy number applies before acceptance, on the way to the pickup, or with a passenger aboard.

The remarks state a $2,500 comprehensive deductible and a $2,500 collision deductible. They do not say during which use, and they do not name a policy number for the physical-damage coverage. The remarks header lists policy numbers 6407287-D01-40 and 6407288-D01-40 only.

The certificate does not mention underinsured-motorist coverage, personal-injury protection, or medical payments. The notations say UM, not UM and UIM. Whether those notations are the only uninsured-motorist coverage on the policy, and whether any underinsured-motorist coverage exists on it, is not answered by the form.

Basic uninsured-motorist coverage cannot be rejected. Underinsured coverage is optional.

Liability coverage and uninsured-motorist coverage solve different problems. Liability responds to the rideshare driver’s legal responsibility. Uninsured-motorist coverage pays sums the insured is legally entitled to recover from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle, within the policy limits.

Section 38-77-150(A) says no automobile policy may be issued or delivered unless it provides uninsured-motorist coverage within limits no less than section 38-77-140, and no less than $25,000 for injury to or destruction of the property of the insured in any one accident. The policy may provide an exclusion of the first $200 of that property-damage loss. The $200 figure is permission for a property-damage exclusion. It is not a required deductible on bodily-injury uninsured-motorist coverage. The Department of Insurance says a $200 deductible is typical and that the law requires uninsured-motorist coverage equal to the minimum liability amounts. Neither company certificate prints an uninsured-motorist deductible. Do not turn “typically” into a deductible on every bodily-injury claim.

The rideshare statute incorporates only section 38-77-150. Additional uninsured-motorist coverage, and underinsured-motorist coverage, are the optional layer under section 38-77-160, up to the liability limits. An underinsured motor vehicle, under section 38-77-30(15), is one that has bodily-injury liability of at least the section 38-77-140 amount, when that amount is less than the insured’s damages. Below that floor, the vehicle is uninsured rather than underinsured.

Sections 38-77-141 and 38-77-350 are personal-policy offer and notice rules. Section 38-77-350 says that if the signed form is not returned within thirty days, the insurer adds uninsured and underinsured coverage at the liability limits. Whether either section raises uninsured-motorist limits, or adds underinsured-motorist coverage, on a policy issued to the company rather than to a driver is not settled by the rideshare statute.

If an insured has uninsured or underinsured coverage above the basic limits, section 38-77-160 requires the policy to say the insured is protected only to the extent of the coverage on the vehicle involved in the accident. If none of that person’s vehicles is involved, coverage is available only to the extent of the coverage on any one vehicle with the excess or underinsured coverage. That sentence is about coverage above the basic limits. It is not a statement that basic-limits uninsured-motorist coverage can never be stacked. The rideshare floor is the basic section 38-77-150 amount.

Underinsured-motorist coverage under section 38-77-160 is written for damages sustained in excess of the at-fault liability limits, or in excess of a statutory damages cap. The statutes do not set out a further arithmetic formula. Uninsured-motorist property damage need not insure a property loss the policyholder has already been compensated for. Section 38-77-210. That property-damage rule is not a bodily-injury setoff.

The definition of a personal vehicle changed. The insurance dollars did not.

Act No. 136 of 2026 was approved and took effect on May 15, 2026. It lets a charter limousine, or a limousine or other for-hire vehicle licensed by a county or city, be a transportation-network-company personal vehicle. A personal vehicle still must not be a taxi or a charter bus. It may be, but is not required to be, registered or licensed as a charter limousine with the Public Service Commission or as a limousine or other for-hire vehicle by a county or city.

The prearranged-ride definition no longer uses the older ban that swept in limousines and other for-hire vehicles. What remains outside that definition includes taxis, carpools, vanpools, services under Articles 1 through 15, and Medicaid or Medicare nonemergency medical transportation. The ride still runs from acceptance until the last requesting rider departs. Act No. 136 (H.3474).

The insurance sections were not amended. Do not read the Act as putting a limousine on the current Uber or Lyft certificate. Neither certificate says a limousine is a covered auto. Use the Act for personal vehicle and prearranged ride, and use section 58-23-1630 for the dollars.

Cities do not have a separate liability tier in this article. Transportation network companies and their drivers are governed exclusively by this article and by Office of Regulatory Staff regulations consistent with it, except local parking and traffic ordinances that are not inconsistent. Political subdivisions may not impose a tax on a company, a driver, or a vehicle in connection with prearranged rides, including a business-license tax. The Office of Regulatory Staff describes permitting, digital payment, and the ban on street hails. It does not publish a different limit. Check with a South Carolina attorney or local rules before relying on a separate city or airport liability minimum, including in Charleston and Columbia.

Separately, the company collects a local assessment fee of one percent of the gross trip fare on prearranged rides that originate in the state and remits it through the Office of Regulatory Staff to the municipality or county of origin. § 58-23-1700. That fee is not a coverage limit. Airport rules may cover fees and staging. The statute says those fees are not to be based on a per-passenger, per-driver, or per-vehicle basis. Neither certificate states an airport liability limit. Check airport rules before relying on one.

A driver may not solicit or accept a street hail, and payment must go through the digital network. § 58-23-1660(A)(1). An accident during a street hail is outside the prearranged-ride definition. The $1,000,000 period does not follow from a hail. If the driver was logged on, the logged-on period can still be the question. The article does not define a delivery trip.