Transportation Deserts: Rural SC Towns, Cities Lack Private Ride Options

Editor’s note: This story is part of a two-article package published today on rural transportation issues in South Carolina. The other story can be found here.

If you want a ride from a “transportation network company,” such as Uber or Lyft, in South Carolina, you likely will find it hard to do so in at least 100 small towns or cities and three counties in rural areas, a review by The Nerve has found.

A transportation network company, or TNC for short, is defined in part under state law as a “person, corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, or other entity” that uses a “digital network, platform, or Internet-enabled application to connect a passenger to a transportation network driver.”

By law, TNCs have to pay assessment fees to the state based on their gross trip fares. Virtually all of the paid fees are returned to incorporated municipalities or counties where the trips originated.

The Nerve’s review of data provided by the S.C. Treasurer’s Office under the state’s open-records law found that 103, or 38%, of 271 incorporated towns and cities statewide, plus three of 46 counties, received no TNC fees from January 2023 through the first six months of this year – evidence that no TNC rides originated in those areas.

The 103 small towns or cities range in size from 37 to 5,040, according to population data listed on the Municipal Association of South Carolina's website.

Contacted this month by The Nerve, officials in eight towns in that group said they were not aware of any private transportation companies, including Uber or Lyft, that operate in their respective municipalities.

In contrast, The Nerve’s review found that the state’s larger cities, towns and counties received most of the nearly total $5.6 million in assessment fees paid by TNC companies during the 2.5-year period.

In a related Nerve story in July, David Crawford, the owner of Edisto Island Shuttle, a company that for the past 10 years has provided scheduled, flat-fee rides for island and other Colleton County residents, said he believes there is a shortage of rural transportation companies, noting the “gap needs to be filled, not only in Colleton County, but across America.”

Crawford said he hopes a state House bill reintroduced in this year's legislative session by Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, D-Charleston, can give his business and other similar rural transportation companies statewide some regulatory relief.

The bill, which previously twice passed the House unanimously only to die in Senate committees, would allow Crawford’s company and other similar businesses to be officially classified as TNCs, in contrast, for example, to "Class C" taxicab or charter limousine services. Crawford believes the classification change would bring less regulatory red tape and lower insurance costs.

As of Sept. 3, there were a total of 154 “active” taxicab companies with 380 vehicles statewide, according to online records with the S.C. Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS).

ORS records also show that a total of six TNC companies, including Lyft Inc. and Uber subsidiary Rasier LLC, were currently “active” in the state as of Sept. 4, though the total number of vehicles for each company is not listed on the agency’s website. An ORS official earlier told The Nerve that state law bans the agency from releasing that information.

The agency also denied a subsequent request by The Nerve under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act for a breakdown of all TNC fees remitted by ORS to municipalities and counties since January 2023, contending that “it does not have documents responsive to your request and/or the requested information is prohibited from disclosure” by the agency under state law.

‘Lower number of drivers’

In 2017, Uber announced in a company blog that its service was “available across the entire state,” though Crawford, who noted he previously was an Uber driver, said it has been his experience that Uber typically doesn’t transport passengers from Edisto Island.

On its website, Lyft says it operates in Charleston, Clemson, Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach and Spartanburg. Lyft’s corporate media office didn’t answer written questions from The Nerve last week.

In email responses to The Nerve, Uber spokesperson Javier Correoso said, “Uber products are dependent on driver availability, so the type of Uber product available may vary and wait times may be higher in areas where there is a lower number of drivers.”

After The Nerve pointed out its findings regarding the absence of TNC activity in rural areas across South Carolina, Correoso said that “just because no ride originated (in rural areas) does not mean that Uber is not available.”

“It just means no one in those areas requested a trip during that period,” he said, adding that the price of the ride and length of time for the driver to arrive are among “factors that a rider considers when they open the (Uber) app and see if they want to request a ride.”

Asked if Uber prices are too expensive for poor, rural South Carolinians – assuming there are available drivers in those areas – Correoso replied, “Pricing for trips is dependent on not only the amount of available drivers but also the distance and time it would take to complete the trip.”

“Someone looking to move a short distance,” he continued, “would be shown a significant lower price than a trip that may take 45+ minutes.”

Millions in fees

The Nerve’s review of state Treasurer’s Office records found that from Jan. 1, 2023, through June 30 of this year, the Office of Regulatory Staff remitted a total of $4.18 million in local assessment fees paid by TNCs – the identities of which were not included in the records provided by the Treasurer’s Office – to 168 of 271 incorporated towns and cities statewide.

For the same period, an additional, collective $1.41 million in fees was dispersed by the Treasurer’s Office, as calculated by the ORS, to 43 of the state’s 46 counties, records show.

By law, TNCs have to pay quarterly assessment fees to the ORS, which are based on 1% of their gross trip fares for the period. After taking its 1% cut for administrative costs, the ORS sends the remaining 99% of the assessment payments to incorporated municipalities or counties where the trips originated during the reporting periods.

Not surprisingly, the state’s larger cities and counties received most of the remitted TNC payments, records show, indicating relatively heavy TNC activity.

Following is a list of the six cities or towns that received a minimum, collective $200,000 in TNC assessment fees over the 2.5-year period, with the percentage of the $4.18 million grand total in fees paid to eligible municipalities:

Contacted last week by The Nerve, city of Charleston spokeswoman Deja Knight McMillan said Uber and Lyft rides are common in the popular tourist city, noting that city officials last year “implemented designated pickup areas for the ride-shares in our Central Business District to help with traffic flow.”

Asked how the total $1.15 million in remitted assessment fees over the past 2.5 years has been used by the city, McMillan replied, “This is a general revenue in the general fund, so it isn’t earmarked for any specific purpose, but supports general government operations.”

As for counties receiving TNC fees for rides that originated in unincorporated areas in those counties, below is a list of the six counties that received at least a collective $70,000 in fees over the 2.5-year period, with the percentage of the $1.41 million grand total in fees paid to eligible counties:

Three counties in the state’s Lowcountry – Allendale, Bamberg and Hampton – did not receive any TNC fees for the period, Treasurer’s Office records show. The Nerve recently sent written questions to administrators in those counties but received no response.

Small towns, big needs

In an interview last week with The Nerve, Lee Harley-Fitts, a member of the Allendale Town Council, said she’s not aware of Uber, Lyft or “any of those entities” operating in the town of about 2,700, or in unincorporated areas of the county at large.

“It would be good if it was available to our citizens,” said Harley-Fitts, who noted she was helping with the town’s daily operations because the town’s administrator position currently is vacant.

“I’m real passionate about wanting to see us have some form of transportation for people to use,” she said. “With things like they are now, there are some people who do not have (driver’s) licenses. If they did get a job and could get transported to the job, that would be a win, win for the entire community.”

Harley-Fitts said area residents who don’t have their own personal transportation and need to travel to the Hilton Head area typically rely on rides from the public Lowcountry Regional Transportation Authority, which, according to its website, operates Palmetto Breeze buses in five Lowcountry counties.

Asked if changing state law would be helpful to make it easier for local residents to start their own transportation businesses, Harley-Fitts replied, “Absolutely.”

In Lancaster County in the Upstate, Mark Dorman, who is mayor of the town of Kershaw, which has a population of about 1,700, told The Nerve that “typically in a small town like this, you’ve got friends or neighbors who are more than happy to help” other residents who need rides. He also said the Lancaster Area Ride Service, which, according to its website, is operated by the county’s Council on Aging and receives county and state funding, is available to area residents.

When asked if he believes that the town would support a private, local transportation business as an additional ride option, Dorman replied, “We would welcome that 100%.”

Roy Smith, mayor of the town of McCormick, which has a population about 2,200, said in a recent interview that a local private transportation company could serve the area’s growing retirement community, in addition to the public McCormick Area Transit.

“A lot of times, people of a certain age don’t like to drive, so I can see that working for them,” he said. “They could call and have somebody come pick them up, take them where they need to go, and bring them back home.”

In the Pee Dee town of Chesterfield, which has a population of about 1,400, Town Administrator Cecil Kimrey said that having been “involved in small towns for a long time,” he’s noticed that a town “has to be a certain size” to even have a taxi service, adding he wasn’t aware of any such business in Chesterfield.

He pointed out the area is served by the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority (PDRTA), which, according to its website, serves six counties and receives local, state and federal funding.

Asked by The Nerve how he felt about the possibility of a private transportation company serving Chesterfield residents, Kimrey replied, “I wouldn’t be opposed to that at all.”

The towns of Pageland and Cheraw, which have populations of about 2,500 and 5,000, respectively, also are served by the PDRTA, officials there said. Pageland Town Administrator Shane Sligh and Cheraw Interim Town Manager Brian Rogers told The Nerve in recent interviews that they were not aware of any private transportation companies serving their respective communities, adding those businesses could be economically viable if they also made runs to nearby towns and cities.

“Bennettsville is probably about 10 or 12 miles from us,” said Rogers. “Society Hill and Chesterfield – those are close, surrounding towns as well for them to operate in.”

Said Sligh: “We’re 17 miles from Monroe, North Carolina; and we’re about 22 miles from the city of Lancaster. So we’re not far at all.”

Pamplico Town Administrator Howard Garland told The Nerve that the town of about 1,100 receives regular service from the PDRTA to grocery stores in nearby Florence and Lake City. But he said he believes town residents could benefit from a private transportation company providing rides to and from the Florence Regional Airport.

In the Lowcountry town of Estill, which has a population of about 1,800,Town Administrator Shane Richardson said he could see a “little regional (private transportation) business here.”

“There are so many little towns around here, some only five, 10 miles apart,” Richardson told The Nerve. “There are no grocery stores except for one over in Hampton. People need to get to those stores, and we just don’t have any, so I imagine there is a need.”

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Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve (www.thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-394-8273 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow The Nerve on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerlyTwitter) @thenervesc.