2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 56 - Motor Vehicles › Chapter 3 - Motor Vehicle Registration And Licensing › Section 56-3-20. Definitions.

For purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases are defined as follows:
(1) Reserved.
(2) Reserved.
(3) Reserved.
(4) Reserved.
(5) "Authorized emergency vehicle" means vehicles of the fire department (fire patrol), police vehicles, and the ambulances and emergency vehicles of municipal departments or public service corporations designated or authorized by the department or the chief of police of an incorporated municipality.
(6) "School bus" means every bus owned by a public or governmental agency and operated for the transportation of children to or from school or privately owned and operated for the transportation of children to or from school.
(7) "Truck tractor" means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and not constructed so as to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load drawn.
(8) "Farm tractor" means every motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing plows, mowing machines, and other implements of husbandry.
(9) "Road tractor" means every motor vehicle designed and used for drawing other vehicles and not constructed so as to carry a load on it either independently or any part of the weight of a vehicle or load drawn.
(10) "Truck" means every motor vehicle designed, used, or maintained primarily for the transportation of property.
(11) "Special mobile equipment" includes every vehicle, with or without motive power, not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or pay-load property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including farm tractors, road construction and maintenance machinery, ditch-digging apparatus, well-boring apparatus, truck cranes or mobile shovel cranes, and similar vehicles; this enumeration is deemed partial and does not operate to exclude other vehicles which are within the general terms of this definition.
(12) "Bus" means every motor vehicle designed for carrying more than ten passengers and used for the transportation of persons and every motor vehicle, other than a taxicab, designed and used for the transportation of persons for compensation.
(13) "Trailer" means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle.
(14) "Semitrailer" means every vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and constructed so that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle.
(15) "Pole trailer" means every vehicle without motive power designed to be drawn by another vehicle and attached to the towing vehicle by means of a reach or pole or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing vehicle and ordinarily used for transporting long or irregularly shaped loads such as poles, pipes, or structural members capable, generally, of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections.
(16) "Foreign vehicle" means every vehicle of a type required to be registered brought into this State from another state, territory, or country other than in the ordinary course of business by or through a manufacturer or dealer and not registered in this State.
(17) "Implement of husbandry" means every vehicle which is designed for agricultural purposes and exclusively used by its owner in the conduct of his agricultural operations.
(18) "Solid tire" means every tire of rubber or other resilient material which does not depend upon compressed air for the support of the load.
(19) "Gross weight" or "gross weight vehicle" means the weight of a vehicle without load plus the weight of any load on it.
(20) "Load capacity" means the maximum weight of the pay load of the property intended to be transported by a vehicle or combination of vehicles, exclusive of the weight of the vehicle or vehicles.
(21) "Owner" means a person who holds the legal title of a vehicle or, in the event (a) a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee or (b) a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then the conditional vendee or lessee or mortgagor is deemed the owner for the purpose of this chapter.
(22) Reserved.
(23) "Dealer" or "motor vehicle dealer" means both "dealer" and "wholesaler" as defined in Chapter 15 of this title.
(24) Reserved.
(25) "Street" or "highway" means the entire width between boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part of it is open to the use of the public for vehicular travel.
(26) "Odometer" means an instrument for measuring and recording the actual distance a motor vehicle travels while in operation; it does not include an auxiliary instrument designed to be reset by the operator of the motor vehicle for the purpose of recording the distance traveled on trips.
(27) "Odometer reading" means actual cumulative distance traveled disclosed on the odometer.
(28) "Odometer disclosure statement" means a statement, as prescribed by item (4) of Section 56-3-240, certified by the owner of the motor vehicle to the transferee or to the Department of Motor Vehicles as to the odometer reading.
(29) Reserved.
(30) Reserved.
(31) Reserved.
HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 46-2; 1952 Code Section 46-2; 1949 (46) 342; 1980 Act No. 385, Section 1; 1983 Act No. 118 Sections 1, 2; 1986 Act No. 528, Sections 3, 4; 1992 Act No. 486, Sections 6, 7; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 1358; 1996 Act No. 459, Section 246A; 2000 Act No. 375, Section 3; 2017 Act No. 34 (S.444), Sections 4, 5, eff November 10, 2017; 2017 Act No. 89 (H.3247), Section 12, eff November 19, 2018.
Code Commissioner's Note
At the direction of the Code Commissioner, the amendments made by 2017 Act No. 34 and 2017 Act No. 89 were read together.
Effect of Amendment
2017 Act No. 34, Section 4, reserved (30), which related to the definition of "automotive three-wheel vehicle".
2017 Act No. 34, Section 5, reserved (31), which related to the definition of "motorcycle three-wheel vehicle".
2017 Act No. 89, Section 12, reserved (1) to (4), which had related to the definitions of "vehicle", "motor vehicle", "motorcycle", and "motor-driven cycle"; reserved (22), which had related to the definition of "nonresident"; reserved (24), which had been deleted; reserved (29), which had related to the definition of "moped"; and made a nonsubstantive change.