How was this measured?

We asked ChatGPT (gpt-4o-mini), Claude (Haiku 4.5), and Google Gemini (Flash) ten real customer queries like best moving company nyc, three times each, for 90 total answers in July 2026. Every company named was counted, then verified to exist before publishing. Sampled and directional, not market share.

Why are some names the assistants gave excluded?

The assistants also produced generic phrases dressed as companies (NYC Moving, Movers NYC, The Moving Company) and at least one name we could not verify exists. We publish only verified businesses and say so, because the data is only useful if it is honest.

I run a moving company and I am not on this list. Why?

The assistants build recommendations from your Google profile, reviews, listings, and website. If those signals are thin, you are invisible to them regardless of how good your crews are. That is measurable per business, and fixable. The free visibility snapshot shows where you stand.

AI Visibility Index · Movers · New York City · July 2026

We asked AI for NYC movers 90 times. Here is who it actually recommends.

Name: AI Visibility Index: Movers in New York City, July 2026
Creator: Espin Local
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Ten real customer questions ("best moving company nyc", "movers for a 1 bedroom apartment"), asked three times each to ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini. Every company named, counted, and verified. This page updates monthly.

Key findings, July 2026

FlatRate Moving was named in 64% of all answers (58 of 90), the most dominant AI recommendation we have measured in any NYC market.
5 of the 14 verified names are national brands: Two Men and a Truck, Mayflower, United Van Lines, Allied Van Lines, and U-Haul, together named 88 times.
U-Haul, a truck rental company, is recommended as a moving company in 9 of 90 answers.
The assistants also invented or generalized at least five "companies" ("NYC Moving", "The Moving Company"). We excluded every name we could not verify.

The ranking

Named in N of 90 sampled answers. Sampled and directional, not market share. Verified businesses only.

#	Company	Named	Type
1	FlatRate Moving	58/90	NYC-founded
2	Roadway Moving	46/90	NYC local
3	Two Men and a Truck	43/90	National franchise
4	Piece of Cake Moving & Storage	31/90	NYC local
5	Intense Movers	24/90	NYC local
6	JP Urban Moving	19/90	NYC local
7	Sven Moving	17/90	NYC local
8	Mayflower	14/90	National van line
9	Dumbo Moving and Storage	12/90	NYC local
10	United Van Lines	12/90	National van line
11	Allied Van Lines	10/90	National van line
12	U-Haul	9/90	Truck rental
13	Empire Movers	9/90	NYC local
14	Cool Hand Movers	9/90	NYC local

Source: Espin Local AI Visibility Index, espinlocal.com/ai-visibility/movers-nyc. Journalists and researchers: cite freely with a link. Data license CC BY 4.0.

Method, in full

The whole recipe, because the numbers only matter if you can trust them.

The questions. Ten queries real customers type, from "movers nyc" to "best moving company for a 1 bedroom apartment nyc". Each asked fresh, three separate times, to each assistant.

The assistants. ChatGPT (gpt-4o-mini), Claude (Haiku 4.5), and Google Gemini (Flash), sampled 2026-07-11. 90 answers total.

The counting. Every business named in any answer was extracted and counted once per answer it appears in. Longer canonical names are matched to their short forms.

The verification. Every published name was checked against the live web. Excluded: "NYC Moving", "Movers NYC", "NYC Movers", "The Moving Company" (generic phrases), "Urban Moving" (inflated by substring of JP Urban Moving), and one unverifiable name. What remains is real.

The caveats. Sampled and directional, not market share. Answers vary run to run; that is why we ask three times. AI answers change as the models and the web change; this page refreshes monthly, and movement is the story.

The scoring rubric behind our per-business reports is public too: how I score.

For the businesses on and off this list

Not on the list? That is measurable, and fixable.

The assistants build these recommendations from your Google profile, reviews, listings, and website. The free visibility snapshot measures exactly where your business stands on every one of those signals, movers or any other trade, anywhere in NYC and Long Island.

I read every one myself and reply personally, usually same day. Rather just talk? Book 20 free minutes.