B737 flight crew reported taking the wrong taxiway at atl after a sudden stop to avoid a vehicle.

Attributes
ACN	1422940
Time
Date	201702
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ATL.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 142
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 181
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Ground Conflict Critical Deviation - Procedural Clearance Ground Incursion Taxiway

Narrative:

Atl taxi out instruction from ramp 3 north taxi. Holding short of foxtrot; ground instructed to pass behind a regional jet (rj) and continue to 26L on ec. As we started to taxi a ground truck pulled out in front of us causing us to stop to avoid contact. Having this in mind we then continued to taxi and I followed the rj. My understanding was to taxi out and follow rj but my first officer said we were supposed to pass behind the rj. Ground asked us to wait and once the rj cleared he gave us instructions to continue to the runway for departure. There was a lot of ground communication and clutter during this time with multiple aircraft.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 flight crew reported taking the wrong taxiway at ATL after a sudden stop to avoid a vehicle.

Narrative: ATL taxi out instruction from Ramp 3 north taxi. Holding short of Foxtrot; Ground instructed to pass behind a Regional Jet (RJ) and continue to 26L on EC. As we started to taxi a ground truck pulled out in front of us causing us to stop to avoid contact. Having this in mind we then continued to taxi and I followed the RJ. My understanding was to taxi out and follow RJ but my First Officer said we were supposed to pass behind the RJ. Ground asked us to wait and once the RJ cleared he gave us instructions to continue to the runway for departure. There was a lot of ground communication and clutter during this time with multiple aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.