Transportation Services: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand leads the Transportation Services benchmark in October 2026, and by how much?
• Which brands had the largest coverage increases and declines this month?
• Which brands moved beyond normal month-to-month variation since the July baseline?

Sherpa Auto Transport led the Transportation Services benchmark in October 2026 with 70.1% valid recommendation coverage, ahead of AmeriFreight at 61.1%, a gap of 9.0 percentage points. The category recorded no significant month-over-month movement in October 2026. The largest coverage increase was Ship a Car Direct, rising from 11.4% in September 2026 to 13.3% in October 2026, while the largest decline was SGT Auto Transport, falling from 51.8% in September 2026 to 46.4% in October 2026.

Since the baseline in July 2026, three brands moved beyond normal month-to-month variation, all downward: AmeriFreight fell from 68.0% to 61.1%, Nexus Auto Transport fell from 34.5% to 21.5%, and SGT Auto Transport fell from 57.7% to 46.4%. Nexus Auto Transport and SGT Auto Transport each declined in all three months since baseline. Sherpa Auto Transport remained the category leader across the full window, ending at 70.1% against its 74.5% baseline, a move within normal variation.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 548 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Transportation Services

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompt-surface observations qualified for the public benchmark?
• Why is the public benchmark smaller than the raw collection universe?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How does each auto transport brand compare on valid recommendation coverage?
• What do presence rate, top-three rate, rank-one rate, and net sentiment each measure?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand was mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations in which the brand received a clear recommendation that met benchmark criteria.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand appeared among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand was the first recommended option.
• Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions, from 0 to 1.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Nexus Auto Transport: Current Position and Competitive Gap

Nexus Auto Transport enters October 2026 at 32.5% presence rate, 21.5% valid recommendation coverage, a 14.1% top-three rate, a 5.3% rank-one rate, and 0.7 net sentiment. Coverage has fallen in every month since the July 2026 baseline — from 34.5% to 29.9% to 26.2% to 21.5% — the steepest decline of any tracked brand in the category, a cumulative drop of 13.0 points.

Sherpa Auto Transport records 70.1% valid recommendation coverage, while Nexus Auto Transport stands at 21.5%, a gap of 48.6 percentage points. AmeriFreight achieves 61.1% on the same measure, compared with 21.5% for Nexus Auto Transport. Nexus Auto Transport's 32.5% presence rate shows it is still being surfaced in roughly a third of qualified AI responses, but that presence is converting into a valid recommendation only 21.5% of the time, and into a top-three placement only 14.1% of the time — well behind Sherpa Auto Transport's 63.0% top-three rate and AmeriFreight's 46.2%. The more important issue is what this gap means for Nexus Auto Transport's recommendation position: presence alone is not translating into being named a trusted option, and the trend has moved in the wrong direction for three consecutive months rather than stabilizing. Highest-priority diagnostic: What changed between July 2026 and October 2026 in how AI surfaces evaluate or source Nexus Auto Transport that is driving coverage down in every measured month while category presence persists?

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand declined the most since the July 2026 baseline?
• Which brand gained the most coverage since the baseline, and is it a real trend yet?
• How has the category leader performed across the measured window?

Largest Decline: Nexus Auto Transport

Nexus Auto Transport recorded the largest decline since baseline, falling from 34.5% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 21.5% in October 2026, a drop of 13.0 points. Within that window, the brand declined from 34.5% in July 2026 to 29.9% in August 2026, to 26.2% in September 2026, and to 21.5% in October 2026, moving down in each of the three months since baseline. Its presence rate fell from 42.5% in July 2026 to 32.5% in October 2026.

Largest Increase: RoadRunner Auto Transport

RoadRunner Auto Transport recorded the largest increase since baseline, rising from 16.6% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 21.2% in October 2026, a gain of 4.6 points. The gain arrived as three consecutive monthly increases, from 16.6% in July 2026 to 18.4% in August 2026, 19.6% in September 2026, and 21.2% in October 2026. The cumulative movement remains within normal month-to-month variation, so this is a watch item and not yet a trend. Its top-three rate rose from 6.1% in July 2026 to 10.8% in October 2026, while its rank-one rate held near 3.1% in both periods.

Category Leader: Sherpa Auto Transport

Sherpa Auto Transport led the category in October 2026 at 70.1% valid recommendation coverage, within normal variation against its 74.5% baseline in July 2026 and against its 73.8% mark in September 2026. Its rank-one rate rose from 5.9% in July 2026 to 10.2% in October 2026, and its presence rate held near its baseline, at 81.9% in October 2026 against 83.6% in July 2026.

SGT Auto Transport declined in each of the three months since baseline, from 57.7% in July 2026 through 56.2% in August 2026 and 51.8% in September 2026 to 46.4% in October 2026, a cumulative decline of 11.3 points. AmeriFreight fell from 68.0% in July 2026 to 62.7% in August 2026, recovered to 65.7% in September 2026, then fell again to 61.1% in October 2026, a cumulative decline of 6.9 points since baseline, with its presence rate falling from 77.3% in July 2026 to 67.5% in October 2026. Ship a Car Direct moved to 13.3% in October 2026, up 1.9 points from 11.4% in September 2026 and within normal variation of its baseline.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How do top-three and rank-one rates differ among brands with similar coverage?
• Why can close coverage still hide different first-position rates?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The top-three and rank-one rates reveal placement differences among brands with similar coverage levels.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates: AmeriFreight trailed Sherpa Auto Transport in coverage in October 2026 but recorded a higher rank-one rate, 11.3% against 10.2%, and Nexus Auto Transport at 21.5% coverage recorded a higher rank-one rate, 5.3%, than RoadRunner Auto Transport at 21.2% coverage and 3.1%.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent class do all qualified observations fall into?
• What buyer-intent signals are missing from the current public data?

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class of discovery.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery only; pricing, value, and head-to-head comparison have no public signal in this data.

Historical Measurement Record

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

• This benchmark does not measure market share or sales attribution.
• It does not capture every possible AI response to a given query.
• It does not measure organic-search ranking.
• It does not include social mention volume.
• It does not cover private or sponsored channels.
• A single metric movement alone does not establish causality.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• How concentrated are AI citations across domains?
• Which tracked auto transport brands have their own domains in the top cited sources?

Across all AI platform responses in this measurement period, the benchmark observed 6,631 citations drawn from 529 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed rather than concentrated: the top 10 domains together account for a minority of the 6,631 citations, and no single domain reaches 7% share. Three tracked brands' own domains appear in the top 10: roadrunnerautotransport.com at rank 4, sherpaautotransport.com at rank 5, and amerifreight.net at rank 7, each cited across most or all platform families. The remainder of the list mixes official search infrastructure, consumer marketplace and review sites such as cars.com and move.org, trade press such as freightwaves.com, mainstream business media such as forbes.com, and community discussion such as reddit.com, with no single source type dominating.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral, repeatable measurement of how often brands appear in AI-generated answers across major AI and search surfaces. It tracks presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment on a consistent monthly basis.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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