Seven Questions to Ask AI About Your Freight Brokerage, and What to Check in Each Answer
Michael Etheredge is VP of Product Development at QuestionFuel, where he leads how the firm measures and corrects the way AI answer engines describe companies. He was featured by the Southern Economic Development Council on how AI is changing the way companies research communities and regions.
Shippers, traffic managers, and logistics directors can ask answer engines like ChatGPT which freight brokers and carriers to consider. The answer may not match what a brokerage publishes about itself. This checklist gives seven questions to run, what to check in each answer, and the limits of a single test.
Key takeaways
- A brokerage can test how answer engines describe it with a short set of questions shippers ask, run the same way each time.
- Check each answer against your own published record for services, equipment, regions, and service levels.
- A single run is one sample. Repeat the test on several days and record the date, the engine, and the exact wording.
- The most useful fix is usually a clearer public record, not a change to the question set.
Quick answer: Shippers, traffic managers, and logistics directors can ask answer engines like ChatGPT which freight brokers to consider, and the reply may not match what a brokerage publishes about itself. A brokerage can test this with seven questions shippers ask, check each answer against its own record, and repeat the test over time. One run shows only one sample.
Why would a freight brokerage test its AI answers?
A broker's public record is what answer engines draw on. If that record is thin, out of date, or vague about service, the answer may omit the brokerage or describe it in a way it does not recognize. A logistics marketing agency, The Robinson Agency, reported in April 2026 that freight brokerage had the lowest median AI visibility among six logistics segments it studied, at 6%. The agency runs its own index and sells visibility services, and we did not verify its prompt set or scoring. Treat it as one industry data point, not a benchmark.
Silent Exclusion: when a qualified firm does not appear in answer engine responses to relevant buyer queries, and when asked about directly, is framed as an outsider or challenger relative to a small, repeating shortlist of incumbents, despite no factual basis for that framing.
Silent Exclusion is the failure a checklist can catch. A brokerage that never appears in the answer to a relevant question has no signal that it happened. See how Silent Exclusion works for companies.
What do shippers weigh when they choose a freight partner?
Service and reliability come first. A 2025 survey of nearly 100 shippers by Denim and Peerless Research Group found that 67% of shippers name service level and reliability as the top factor when choosing a freight partner, and 10% name price first. The survey was sponsored by a factoring company and was small, so treat it as a directional signal, not a market measure.
That matters for the test. If answers describe your brokerage without any of the service facts a shipper would weigh, the answer has less to work with. The checklist below checks for that.
What are the seven questions to ask?
Run each question as a fresh chat, logged out of any personal account, and copy the full answer. Replace the bracketed parts with your own lanes, equipment, and regions.
- •Which freight brokers would you recommend for [freight type] between [origin region] and [destination region]? Tests whether you appear at all for your core lane.
- •Which carriers would you recommend for [equipment type] shipments of about [volume] loads a month? Tests whether answers treat brokers and carriers as the same category, which can hide your position.
- •What is [your brokerage name] known for? Tests whether the answer names a specialty, and whether that specialty is accurate.
- •What should a shipper check before working with [your brokerage name]? Tests whether the answer raises concerns that your record does not support.
- •How does [your brokerage name] compare with [two peers you know are often named]? Tests your position in the shortlist and the language used to describe you.
- •Which broker should a company shipping [specific profile, such as 300 temperature controlled loads a month in the Southeast] use? Tests the decision moment, where a single recommendation is often given.
- •Has [your brokerage name] changed its services, coverage, or equipment recently? Tests whether the answer reflects current facts or older ones.
What should you check in each answer?
For each answer, record whether you were named, where you appeared in the list, and how you were described. Then compare the description with your own published record. Look for five things.
| What to check | What a gap looks like |
|---|---|
| Presence | You are missing from an answer to a question about your core lane |
| Position | You appear last, or only after a much larger company, without a stated reason |
| Specialty | The answer describes you as a generalist, or names a service you no longer offer |
| Service facts | The answer says nothing about reliability, coverage, equipment, or response times, which shippers weigh |
| Caution | The answer raises a concern about you that your record does not support |
Keep a simple log with the date, the engine, the exact question, and the answer. The log is what lets you see change over time.
What does a single run not tell you?
Answers vary. The same engine can give different answers to the same question on different days, and different engines can give different shortlists. The Robinson Agency reported that different answer engines returned different broker lists for the same shipper profile in its runs. Those were single runs, so they show that variation exists, not how often it occurs.
Three rules keep the test honest. Run each question at least three times on different days. Record every answer, including the ones that help you. And do not present a single screenshot as a measure of your visibility.
When is this checklist not the right place to start?
If your public record is thin, the answers have little to draw on, and the first step is to publish accurate service facts: lanes, equipment, coverage areas, and how you handle service issues. Testing before that tells you very little.
The checklist also does not help a brokerage chase a ranking. Answer engines do not publish rankings to optimize for, and a test that ends with a higher position is not the goal. The goal is an accurate description that a shipper can check.
Frequently asked questions
Can a freight brokerage control what ChatGPT says about it?
No. A brokerage can improve the accuracy and clarity of the public record that answers draw on, then test whether the answers change. Any firm that promises a fixed position in answers is making a claim the evidence does not support.
Should I name competitors in the test?
Yes, for question 5 and any comparison question. Use the peers your shippers actually consider. Record the answers as they come, and do not edit them to look better.
How often should a brokerage run the test?
Quarterly is a reasonable baseline, plus a fresh run after a major change in services, coverage, or equipment. Answers change as the public record changes.
Does this work for carriers too?
The same seven questions work with small changes to the wording. For a carrier, question 2 becomes the most useful, because it tests whether the answer treats the carrier as a choice for a specific equipment type and lane.
Sources and references
- •The Robinson Agency, The AI Search Reckoning: What 127 Logistics Companies Taught Us About Where B2B Buyers Are Actually Going, April 13, 2026
- •The Robinson Agency, The Brokerage AI Visibility Crisis: Dead Last at 6%, 2026
- •Denim with Peerless Research Group, Freight survey reveals what shippers really want from brokers and carriers, June 17, 2025
Related reading: How to Audit AI Narrative Drift · Why Your Company Might Be Invisible to AI, Even If Your SEO Is Perfect · AEO vs SEO: What to Prioritize First