How AI Search Is Recommending Long Distance Moving Carriers: Monthly Trends

Executive Summary

International Van Lines held the category lead in September 2026 at 44.7% valid recommendation coverage, down slightly from 45.3% in August and 46.0% in July. The brand's three-month run at the top has been defined by stability rather than gains: its coverage declined 1.3 points across the full July-to-September period, well within normal variation. The tracked gap between International Van Lines and JK Moving Services widened from 1.3 points in July to 11.5 points in September, a widening driven by JK Moving Services' decline rather than by International Van Lines strengthening its own position.

The most significant pattern across the three-month period was the continued contraction of three brands that had led the category in July. American Van Lines, Colonial Van Lines, and JK Moving Services each registered significant declines across the July-to-September baseline. JK Moving Services posted the largest baseline-to-current drop at 11.5 points, from 44.7% to 33.2%, while American Van Lines fell 9.9 points from 50.4% to 40.5% and Colonial Van Lines declined 10.0 points from 39.2% to 29.2%. No brand recorded a significant rise across the period; the pattern remains concentrated in declines among former top-tier carriers.

Safeway Moving held stable at 17.3% coverage for the second consecutive month, and Wheaton World Wide Moving fell to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage with zero valid recommendations in September, down from 0.6% in July. The top of the category is consolidating around International Van Lines despite the leader's own flat performance, a repositioning driven by competitor losses rather than by any single brand's gains.

Each monthly run begins with 800 prompt-surface observations (458 unique questions in July 2026, 480 in August 2026, 450 in September 2026) across the benchmark's defined AI/search surface universe. Of those, 767 mentioned a tracked brand or competitor in July 2026 and 777 in August 2026, while all 800 September prompts mentioned a tracked brand or competitor; 681 were relevant and 86 irrelevant in July, 720 relevant and 57 irrelevant in August, and 721 relevant and 79 irrelevant in September. The public metrics use the 472 qualified observations in July 2026, 532 in August 2026, and 561 in September 2026 that survive both qualification stages.

Key Findings

Benchmark Context

The report separates the raw collection universe from the qualified analysis set. Brand-level recommendation percentages are calculated within the qualified benchmark set.

The qualified benchmark set of 561 September observations, up from 472 in July, is the denominator for every brand-level percentage that follows. August's 532 qualified observations sit between the two comparison months.

Benchmark-Level Metrics

AI Recommendation Trend

Valid Recommendation Coverage, July to September 2026

International Van Lines holds first place in September 2026 at 44.7% valid recommendation coverage, a stable position while three former top-tier brands — American Van Lines, Colonial Van Lines, and JK Moving Services — registered significant declines across the July-to-September period. No brand moved beyond normal month-to-month variation in September specifically; the cumulative declines built gradually, with JK Moving Services falling 9.4 points in August and 2.1 more in September, American Van Lines dropping 9.1 points then 0.8 more, and Colonial Van Lines declining 7.4 points followed by 2.6 more.

What Changed This Month

International Van Lines: Holding the lead through stability

International Van Lines led the category in September 2026 with 44.7% valid recommendation coverage, down 0.6 points from August's 45.3% and 1.3 points from July's 46.0%. The brand never exceeded its significance threshold in any month, keeping it in stable territory across the full period while three competitors declined significantly.

The brand's raw mention presence rose from 51.3% in July to 56.3% in September, a 5.0-point gain, and its top-three recommendation rate improved from 26.5% to 29.6%. Rank-one recommendations edged up from 14.2% to 15.2%. Its valid recommendation count grew from 217 in July to 251 in September out of 472 and 561 qualified observations respectively.

The distinction is between coverage and placement strength: International Van Lines appears in stable shares of valid recommendation sets but has improved its positions within those sets, reflected in the rising top-three and rank-one rates even as overall coverage eased slightly.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which prompt patterns drive the rank-one placement strength, and whether that strength is consistent across all six AI surfaces or concentrated in specific platforms.

JK Moving Services: The largest three-month decline

JK Moving Services recorded the steepest baseline-to-current decline in the category, falling 11.5 points from 44.7% valid recommendation coverage in July to 33.2% in September 2026. The largest single-month drop was 9.4 points in August, followed by a further 2.1-point decline in September that stayed inside the brand's normal month-to-month variation.

Raw mention presence fell 9.6 points from 46.0% in July to 36.4% in September. Top-three recommendation rate declined 2.7 points from 21.8% to 19.1%, and rank-one recommendations slipped 0.5 points from 8.3% to 7.8%. The brand's valid recommendation count fell from 211 in July to 186 in September.

The decline was in breadth rather than in the strength of its best placements: JK Moving Services is cited across fewer qualified answers, and within that smaller footprint, its top-three and rank-one shares contracted modestly as well.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which surfaces reduced their mention of JK Moving Services most sharply, and whether specific prompt categories account for the presence drop.

American Van Lines: Significant contraction from the July lead

American Van Lines dropped from category leader at 50.4% valid recommendation coverage in July to 40.5% in September 2026, a significant 9.9-point decline. The sharpest move came in August at 9.1 points, with a further 0.8-point decline in September. The brand now holds second place, 4.2 points behind International Van Lines.

Raw mention presence declined 5.7 points from 51.3% to 45.6%. Top-three recommendation rate rose 2.1 points from 18.6% to 20.7%, while rank-one recommendations slipped 0.3 points from 1.7% to 1.4%. Valid recommendation count fell from 238 in July to 227 in September.

The notable divergence is between presence and placement quality: while overall coverage contracted significantly, the share of recommendations within the top three improved, indicating the brand is cited less often but occupies competitive positions when it does appear.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which AI surfaces reduced citations of American Van Lines most sharply, and why the top-three share improved even as overall coverage fell.

Colonial Van Lines: Significant decline with flat placements

Colonial Van Lines declined 10.0 points from 39.2% valid recommendation coverage in July to 29.2% in September 2026, a significant baseline decline. The largest single-month move was 7.4 points in August, followed by a 2.6-point decline in September. The brand holds fourth place, 15.5 points behind the category leader.

Raw mention presence fell 4.0 points from 41.1% to 37.1%. Top-three recommendation rate declined 2.1 points from 14.6% to 12.5%, while rank-one recommendations rose 0.7 points from 4.5% to 5.2%. Valid recommendation count fell from 185 in July to 164 in September.

The distinction here is the stability of rank-one placement: Colonial Van Lines' coverage and top-three share contracted, but its share of first-position recommendations improved slightly, suggesting the remaining citations carry strong placements.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which prompts still yield Colonial Van Lines recommendations, and why those remaining citations hold rank-one positions more often than before.

Safeway Moving: Stable at 17.3%, but the leader is 27.4 points ahead on the metric that matters most

Safeway Moving's valid recommendation coverage held at 17.3% in both August and September 2026, down 2.6 points from July's 19.9%. The brand never exceeded its significance threshold and was classified as stable throughout the period. It holds fifth place among six tracked brands, with a valid recommendation count of 97 out of 561 qualified observations in September, up from 94 out of 472 in July. Top-three recommendation rate rose 4.2 points from 8.5% in July to 12.7% in September, and rank-one recommendations advanced 2.3 points from 3.2% to 5.5%.

Safeway Moving converts qualified AI attention into a valid recommendation at roughly a third of the leader's rate, and that gap has held essentially unchanged for two consecutive months rather than narrowing. Even accounting for Safeway Moving's improving placement metrics — a 12.7% top-three rate against International Van Lines' 29.6%, and a 5.5% rank-one rate against International Van Lines' 15.2% — the 27.4-point coverage gap to International Van Lines persists.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Whether the improving top-three and rank-one rates reflect a genuine shift in how AI systems evaluate Safeway Moving or a narrower set of prompts where it happens to place well, and what would need to change to close the 27.4-point coverage gap to International Van Lines.

Wheaton World Wide Moving: Absence from the recommendation set

Wheaton World Wide Moving fell to 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, down from 0.6% in July and 0.2% in August. The brand recorded zero valid recommendations in September, down from 3 in July. Its raw mention presence declined to 0.7% from 1.3% in July, with 4 mentions across 561 qualified observations.

The declining coverage is not a significant move by the benchmark's threshold, but the drop from 3 valid recommendations in July to 0 in September, with coverage also easing through August, shows a pattern of erosion in a small-count context.

The distinction is between visibility and recommendation: Wheaton World Wide Moving retains minimal presence in AI answer mentions, but that presence no longer converts into valid recommendations in the qualified set.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Whether the absence is a visibility issue, a relevance issue, or a placement issue, and which surfaces stopped producing recommendations for the brand.

Buyer-Intent Interpretation

In September 2026, all 561 qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation cluster. The pricing and value and multi-brand comparison clusters contained zero qualified observations across all three months of the series, meaning the public benchmark cannot yet answer questions about which brands AI systems associate with cost competitiveness or how brands fare in direct comparison narratives. The commercial question this raises is whether recommendation-shaped answers carry the full weight of buyer influence in this category, or whether pricing and comparison signals exist outside the qualified benchmark set and require a broader collection scope to surface.

Brand Opportunity Summary

The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted; a company-level analysis is needed to explain why.

Evidence Behind the Benchmark

The aggregate metrics are built from prompt-level observations (query, surface, recommendation outcome, rank, sentiment, and citations where exposed). Company-level analysis can go deeper into prompt, competitor, surface, and evidence patterns. Source presence is not automatically treated as proof of causation.

About This Benchmark

This report is part of the LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery research program.

• AI Industry Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Industry Market Discovery Metrics
• AI Industry Market Discovery Standards

Report-Specific Interpretation Notes

• Small-count movement: Wheaton World Wide Moving's 0.0% coverage represents 0 valid recommendations in September 2026; conclusions about this brand should be treated as indicators rather than stable findings.
• Qualified denominator vs raw collection: Brand-level percentages are calculated within the qualified benchmark set (561 observations), not the 800 raw prompt-surface observations.
• Month-over-month movement identifies changes worth investigating; it does not by itself establish the cause of those changes.

Next Step

The Public Benchmark Shows Where a Brand Is Winning or Losing. A Company-Level Audit Shows Why.

Beneath the aggregate coverage percentages sit the questions that matter commercially: which high-intent prompts a brand wins, which competitor takes the recommendation when a brand loses, what attributes AI systems associate with each option, and which external sources shape those answers. The public benchmark tracks the patterns; it does not explain the mechanisms driving them.

A company-specific AI visibility audit maps prompt, surface, competitor, ranking, sentiment, and evidence-source patterns into a prioritized visibility strategy. The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted; the audit identifies what to do about it.

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