Which freight brokers do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? (October 2026)
When US shippers ask AI engines which freight broker to use, C.H. Robinson is named in most answers. C.H. Robinson was named most often, in 47 of 58 answers (81.0%), followed by Echo Global Logistics (37) and Total Quality Logistics (32). All 58 answers named at least one firm, and 98 different firms were named in total, 54 of them only once.
By Frederik Jakobsen, founder of Danish Lead Co and SourceRank AI. Measured 11 October 2026, published October 2026.
The firms AI named most often
Share of all 58 answers that named the firm as a provider, and how many answers on each engine named it. An answer counts once per firm however often it repeats the name.
100.0%
Answers that named at least one provider firm: 58 of 58. Every answer named firms.
98 firms
Distinct firms named across all 58 answers. 54 of them were named in only one answer.
29.4%
Share of all 395 firm mentions taken by the three most named firms, C.H. Robinson, Echo Global Logistics and Total Quality Logistics.
| # | Firm | Answers naming it | Engines | ChatGPT of 12 | Gemini of 12 | Copilot of 10 | AI Mode of 12 | AI Overviews of 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C.H. Robinson | 47 of 58 81.0% | 5 of 5 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 10 |
| 2 | Echo Global Logistics | 37 of 58 63.8% | 5 of 5 | 8 | 11 | 2 | 10 | 6 |
| 3 | Total Quality Logistics | 32 of 58 55.2% | 5 of 5 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 7 |
| 4 | RXO | 19 of 58 32.8% | 5 of 5 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| 5 | Uber Freight | 16 of 58 27.6% | 5 of 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 6 | Worldwide Express (WWEX Group) | 15 of 58 25.9% | 5 of 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 7 | Landstar System | 14 of 58 24.1% | 5 of 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| 8 | J.B. Hunt | 13 of 58 22.4% | 5 of 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 9 | Coyote Logistics | 12 of 58 20.7% | 5 of 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | Arrive Logistics | 11 of 58 19.0% | 4 of 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | ArcBest | 7 of 58 12.1% | 3 of 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 12 | Hub Group | 7 of 58 12.1% | 5 of 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 13 | Allen Lund Company | 7 of 58 12.1% | 3 of 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | Warp | 7 of 58 12.1% | 4 of 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | Schneider | 6 of 58 10.3% | 5 of 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Top 15 of 98 firms. Engine columns show answers naming the firm out of that engine's measured answers. Firms with the same count are listed in the order the data was read.
What the answers show
- +C.H. Robinson was named in 47 of 58 answers, 81.0%, Echo Global Logistics in 37 and Total Quality Logistics in 32. RXO follows with 19.
- +C.H. Robinson was the most named broker on every engine, tied with Echo Global Logistics on Gemini and Google AI Mode, and all 12 questions had two engines agree on the first broker.
- +Other brokers get in through their own content: wearewarp.com, the site of Warp, was cited in 10 of the 35 answers with sources and Warp was named in 7; directdrivelogistics.com was cited in 6 and Direct Drive Logistics named in 6.
- +The trade publication Transport Topics (ttnews.com) was the most cited domain, in 10 answers.
What each engine named
The most named broker per engine. C.H. Robinson led on all five.
| Engine | Answers | Named a provider | Distinct firms | Most named firm on that engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 44 | C.H. Robinson (10 of 12) |
| Gemini | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 42 | C.H. Robinson, Echo Global Logistics (11 of 12) |
| Microsoft Copilot | 10 | 10 of 10 100.0% | 45 | C.H. Robinson (6 of 10) |
| Google AI Mode | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 22 | C.H. Robinson, Echo Global Logistics (10 of 12) |
| Google AI Overviews | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 41 | C.H. Robinson (10 of 12) |
First-pick agreement: in 12 of the 12 questions where at least two engines named a firm, two or more engines named the same firm first. C.H. Robinson was named by 5 of 5 engines.
The sources behind the recommendations
Most cited domains in the 35 answers that showed a source list. Brokers' own pages make up much of the top ten.
| # | Cited domain | Kind | Answers citing it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ttnews.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 10 of 35 28.6% |
| 2 | wearewarp.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 10 of 35 28.6% |
| 3 | instant-rates.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 7 of 35 20.0% |
| 4 | chrobinson.com | A named firm's own website | 7 of 35 20.0% |
| 5 | atsinc.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 6 of 35 17.1% |
| 6 | directdrivelogistics.com | A named firm's own website | 6 of 35 17.1% |
| 7 | freightrun.com | A named firm's own website | 5 of 35 14.3% |
| 8 | badgerlogistics.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 5 of 35 14.3% |
| 9 | shipsims.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 5 of 35 14.3% |
| 10 | worldmetrics.org | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 5 of 35 14.3% |
| 11 | inteklogistics.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 5 of 35 14.3% |
| 12 | exportnesthub.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 3 of 35 8.6% |
Out of the 35 answers that carried a source list (113 distinct domains). Sources per engine: ChatGPT 0 of 12, Gemini 8 of 12, Copilot 10 of 10, AI Mode 6 of 12, AI Overviews 11 of 12.
| Source kind | Answers citing at least one |
|---|---|
| Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 33 of 35 94.3% |
| A named firm's own website | 26 of 35 74.3% |
| Social and video | 6 of 35 17.1% |
| Community forum | 2 of 35 5.7% |
| Government or education | 1 of 35 2.9% |
An answer can cite several kinds, so the rows do not sum to the total. "A named firm's own website" means the domain matches the name of a firm named in this category.
How a firm in this category gets named
Being named depends on what the engines read. In this category, of the 35 answers that showed their sources, 26 cited a named firm's own website and 0 cited a directory, review or analyst site. The questions name a mode, a lane or a cargo: LTL, flatbed, refrigerated food, Midwest to West Coast, US to Mexico. A broker with a real strength in one of those, written up plainly on its own site, is what the search-grounded engines cite and name, as Warp and Direct Drive Logistics show. This is the work SourceRank AI does, described on the services page. The free site readiness check shows whether your site is structurally ready to be cited; it checks your site, it does not measure answers like the ones on this page. To see where your own firm stands in these answers, book a call.
Exactly what was measured
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Date | 11 October 2026, one run |
| Buyer questions | 12, each phrased as a buyer asking for a provider, varied by size, budget, situation and switching. Full list below |
| Answer engines | 5: ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews |
| Engine cells | 60. One question on one engine |
| Answers measured | 58 of 60. The denominator for every share on this page. 2 Copilot answers were written for a buyer outside the US, a side effect of the third-party service we query Copilot through, and are excluded |
| Market | United States, English. Google AI Mode and AI Overviews were queried with a US location. ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot were not given a location, the same as in our client measurement runs; Copilot answers that assumed a buyer abroad are excluded |
| Sources | Cited sources come from Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews. ChatGPT's answers in this run came back without a machine-readable source list, so ChatGPT is not in the source tables |
| Firm extraction | One language model call per answer listed the firms the answer named as providers, excluding directories, publications, citation labels and tools. Names were normalised and aliases merged. A hand check of 20 answers across the study is reported on the hub page |
| Not measured | Location personalisation for the chat engines, logged-in or personalised sessions, run-to-run variation (this is a single run, and the same question asked again can return different firms), and model versions, which change without notice |
All 12 buyer questions
- Best freight brokers for a mid-size shipper in the US
- Which freight brokerage should a manufacturer use for truckload shipping?
- Top freight brokers for LTL shipments
- We are unhappy with our current freight broker. Which broker should we switch to?
- Best freight broker for refrigerated food shipments
- Which freight brokers are most reliable for flatbed loads?
- Recommend a freight broker for a small business shipping 20 truckloads a month
- Cheapest freight brokers for small shippers
- Best freight brokers for cross-border shipping between the US and Mexico
- Top freight brokerage companies in the United States
- Which freight brokers are best for shipping from the Midwest to the West Coast?
- Best digital freight brokers with instant quotes and shipment tracking
Cite this research
Journalists, analysts and writers are welcome to quote, chart and republish the figures on this page. Please credit SourceRank AI and link to this page as the source. For the underlying data, a comment from Frederik Jakobsen or a category we have not covered, see the press page.
Suggested citation
SourceRank AI (2026). Which freight brokers do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? Measured 11 October 2026. https://sourcerankai.com/research/who-ai-recommends/freight-brokers/
Link to copy
<a href="https://sourcerankai.com/research/who-ai-recommends/freight-brokers/">Which freight brokers do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? (SourceRank AI, October 2026)</a>Where to go next
All 22 category studies
Who AI recommends across 22 B2B categories, with the cross-category findings and the full method.
What AI engines cite by industry
The source mix behind AI answers in ten industries, from our September 2026 measurement runs.
AEO for this industry
What we do for firms in this space, and the questions their buyers ask AI.
Common questions
Which freight brokers does ChatGPT recommend?
In this October 2026 run ChatGPT named C.H. Robinson most often, in 10 of its 12 answers. Across all five engines the most named were C.H. Robinson (47 of 58 answers), Echo Global Logistics (37) and Total Quality Logistics (32).
Do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend the same freight brokers?
Partly. C.H. Robinson was named by 5 of the 5 engines, and in 12 of the 12 questions at least two engines named the same firm first. Below the top few names the lists diverge: 54 of the 98 firms were named in only one answer.
How was this measured?
12 buyer questions asking for freight brokers were put once to ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews on 11 October 2026, from a US English context. 58 answers were measured, and the firms each answer named as providers were extracted and counted once per answer. It is a single run, and the same question asked again can return different firms.