Dunkin' Donuts had a whopping 43 percent of the trucker love, based on 282 responses to Atlas' annual survey. McDonald's came in second, with 21 percent of the vote. Starbucks was third at 20 percent (down from 30 percent last year.)

At first I thought the survey might be "rigged" by the East Coast coffee-and-doughnut dynamo that is absent from Seattle.

Then I saw the full survey, and the questions don't appear to be driven by coffee interests: Only half of the truckers use CB radios now that they have cell phones, and only 9 percent stay in hotels every night. They also favor Super 8, Tums, Subway and fresh fruit.

Favorite tires: Bridgestone. Motor oil: Shell Rotella. Best rest stops: Florida. Safest highway: I-10. Most interesting thing ever hauled: 1,000-pound coffee roaster/grinder, iron lung, Apollo Space Capsule/Rocket.

Clearly, I needed to talk to a trucker, and Blaise (pronounced Blaze) Hawkins obliged. A driver for Atlas agent Daniel's Moving and Storage of Phoenix, Hawkins was pointing his semi south from Toronto when we chatted. He didn't remember answering the coffee question, but said he prefers truck stop coffee because it's convenient and cheap. Some even offer free coffee if you bring your own cup.

He likes Dunkin' Donuts, which "is in all the rest areas on the Massachusetts Turnpike," and he rarely goes to Starbucks because, "I'm not into cafe mocha with doubled whipped cream. Just a cup of coffee with cream and sugar."