I delivered to a builder’s yard today, and saw a notice - Artic Drivers NO SCREW TURNING. I always thought you needed a screw driver, not an artic driver 
I have an idea what it might be, but could one of you experienced drivers enlighten me please. I’m in an artic next week, and I’d hate to do it by accident 
basically dont turn the truck on a sixpence else you will gouge up the ground
Screw Turning
A Unit (Cab part) turning so tightly that the unit is at 90 degrees to the trailer will drag the trailer wheels sideways , over 90 degrees they will actually go backwards…
doing it tends to tear up the tarmac… 
as well as putting loads on the tyre sidewalls that they are not designed for causing premature tyre failure (Blow out)
and if the tarmac is a bit soft due to all this fine weather we have been having it will make a right mess.
You put your edit in about the tarmac at the exact time I was typing my reply Rikki. 
OOOPSSSS 
Sorry mate… realised after I had posted I hadnt explained why its a bad idea!! 
my old gaffer used to do that a lot,but he used a thumb screw 
Thanks guys - I thought it was, but wanted to make sure
They most likely designed the yard to have a turning area for artics, but it will now be full of stock or badly parked cars, so any other way of turning round might be difficult.
Always worth getting out and having a look before you go into somewhere that looks a bit tight for an artic.
Planning your entrance and exit can save a lot of time and agro. As all us thespians know you want your entrance and exit (phnaw!! oh ah madam!! )to be memorable for the right reasons and not because you ripped a big hole in the tarmac and the rear of the trailer wiped out the MD’s Merc. (Although if you do remember to post it on here, we need a laugh)
Also you can claim that the walk is part of an exercise regime.
muckles:
Always worth getting out and having a look before you go into somewhere that looks a bit tight for an artic.
Planning your entrance and exit can save a lot of time and agro. As all us thespians know you want your entrance and exit (phnaw!! oh ah madam!!) to be memorable for the right reasons and not because you ripped a big hole in the tarmac and the rear of the trailer wiped out the MD’s Merc. (Although if you do remember to post it on here, we need a laugh)…
Very good advice!!!
Not long after starting with the ‘Blue Trolley Brigade’ I had a delivery to one of our stores in Canary Wharf… All the delliveries go underground, directly under the main tower… I was told, ‘no problem when you get there, most of the drivers just screw it round, drive back out and park in the delivery bay’
Yer, right!
I screwed the 13m trailer round alright, just missing the rather large concrete support posts in front of me… but what happened to the overhang? No prizes awarded here… It only just clipped the rather large concrete support post behind me… pulling the tail-lift off its runners on both sides and bending one of them into a odd angle and snapping the cable on the other side etc. etc.
Did that tail-lift go up and down to do the delivery? No! of course not, we hand balled 21 cages of ‘stuff’ over the top onto dollies and into the store… the night manager climbed under the tail-lift opened the shutter and slid up between the two! In the end, the tail-lift fitter ‘torched’ the thing off, we found a nice ‘forks’ and put it in the trailer to take it home…
When I ‘phoned the depot I said ’ Do you want the good news or the bad news’? (The TM asked for the bad news) I told him ‘I.ve just clouted one of the rather large concrete support posts under Canary Wharf’ (‘Oh’! says he, ‘whats the good news’?) I replied, as one does, in as serious a tone as I could muster, considering the circumstances, ‘the trailer is wedged under the rather large concrete support post, but dont worry, the Tower is still standing, although it may need a little straightening up after youve got the trailer out…’ You could almost hear the blood draining from his face… it was a sound worth picturing…
Needless to say, I did eventually explain what had actually happened and the person who decided to put 21 cages on a 13m trailer capable of holding 40 plus was spoken to… I have been back several times, NOT to screw round, but to carefully back between these monstrous posts and again, carefully pull out into our loading bay…
Terry
When the Townsend Thoreson / P + O Felixstowe, Zeebrugge boat was running, they would load selfdrives amongst the unnacompanied trailers like a huge jigsaw puzzle.
Sometimes you had to drive on and screw the trailer round, even having a shunt sometimes because it was tight, they used to spray the decks with seawater to make it slippery for the tyres. but if you didnt watch out you could soon knock the back end of the trailer off. The dockers didnt care because as soon as the ship was loaded they went home.
At other times you had to reverse up a ramp with a bend in it and into a dark black hole relying on 4 blokes shouting different instructions at you 
It used to be like that on the Eurolink ferry between Sheerness and Vlissingen. For a while they gave the Polish loading crew light wands with which to guide you. It was a nightmare as 4 or 5 of them would be waving them in different directions and it looked like a battle scene from Star Wars in your mirrors. You used to put the truck on a lift to go up to the top deck and then had to screw it round when you left the lift, they were always leaving chains on the deck and if you caught one of them in mid screw, so to speak, it could take a tyre out in grand style.
Coffeeholic:
For a while they gave the Polish loading crew light wands with which to guide you. It was a nightmare as 4 or 5 of them would be waving them in different directions and it looked like a battle scene from Star Wars in your mirrors.
