Sep. 17--Atlas Van Lines long-haul drivers like Subway more than KFC, Tums over Rolaids for dealing with the results, Super 8 to sleep it off and I-70 for the scenery.

They rank our stretch of "super slab" (I-10 to the rest of us) most boring and least scenic, but safest (have they never been to one of those spontaneous demolition derbies up at Picacho Peak?).

Of course, they also said Dunkin' Donuts has better coffee than Starbucks.

The cell phone has replaced the CB, with 95 percent using the ubiquitous mobile yakkers and only 50 percent using the old citizens band radio.

But (think about this the next time you see that Peterbilt chrome doggy getting large in your rear-view mirror) fully 14 percent of them use a Blackberry or Treo.

A sure sign of the apocalypse: Classic tunes of the '60s, '70s and '80s beat out country music as the preferred listening, and NPR/talk radio came in just 7 percentage points behind country.

Those are some of the preferences expressed in the big movers' '09 King of the Road Survey of 340 drivers, released this week.

But, before you tell your boss to "take this job and shove it" and take your act out on the road, consider that only 9 percent of these captains of the highway said they stay in a motel every night they're on the road.

And only 18 percent get the pleasure of those sandpaper bath towels and screaming white walls two or three times a week.

There was no mention of Atlas truckers' favorite hemorrhoid ointment.

more online

Atlas Van Lines Inc. '09 King of the Road Survey results at

www.atlasworldgroup.com/survey

Contact reporter Dan Sorenson at 573-4185 or dsorenson@azstarnet.com.

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