Prepare the DeCA
before the truck leaves.

Check that it correctly identifies the parties and the shipment, that the QR opens the PDF and that the driver has the copy before departure. Coordinate retention with the shipper; do not issue a duplicate just because you use another application.

The eighth transitional provision of Law 9/2025 establishes that the administrative control document for road freight must necessarily be digital ten months after the law came into force: 5 October 2026. Before using it for a specific service, confirm that no exemption in Order FOM/2861/2012 applies.

It can serve as the control document when it includes all the data required by article 6 of Order FOM/2861/2012. In electronic format it must also meet the DeCA characteristics: native PDF, QR with a unique URL, availability for inspection and retention. An e-CMR adds an electronic contractual framework; do not assume it is equivalent without checking those requirements.

The 2026 Resolution states that a signature is not required for the validity of the administrative control document. If, because of the operation or other regulation, the document also has a contractual purpose and must be signed, at least an advanced electronic signature is required.

The contracting shipper and the actual carrier are liable for not formalising the document or for it not being on board, with the exception provided for the shipper who proves they issued it. The Order also distributes responsibility for the data: the contracting shipper answers for its own data, the parties, origin, destination, nature and weight; the actual carrier answers for the special authorisation, date and vehicle.

At least one year. The contracting shipper and the actual carrier can keep it in different repositories; if one generated it, the other must be able to download it during the same period.

Either of them can generate it; both are liable for it existing and being on board. Order FOM/2861/2012 splits the data: the contracting shipper answers for the parties, origin, destination, nature and weight; the actual carrier, for the special authorisation, the date and the vehicle. The 2026 Resolution (section two) adds that it is enough for one to generate it if the other can download it for a year. In practice, whoever has the data before departure issues it, and the other keeps the link.

It depends on who contracts. Section six of the Resolution allows several shipments to be recorded in a single DeCA only when the contracting shipper and the actual carrier are the same for all of them, identifying each shipment's origin, destination, nature and weight. If the truck carries shipments from different contracting shippers, each contract carries its own document. The order in which shipments appear does not impose any delivery order.

The driver does not need a connection: they carry an electronic copy on the phone or a paper printout, always with the QR (section seven). It is the officer who scans the QR and downloads the PDF from their own device. That is why the copy must be delivered before departure, not sent "when it reaches the destination", and the QR can also travel as a separate file.

Section five allows two routes: modify the existing PDF adding the new data and the reason, marking the old data as not valid (same URL and same QR), or generate a new PDF with all the data (new URL and QR) keeping the original. In both cases the document must reach the driver. Writing by hand on the printed copy is not valid. Cofactu uses the second route: each correction is a version with its own QR and the original stays stored.

Yes, if it meets everything else. Section eight allows any transport document format (consignment note, ADR document, waste identification document, SANDACH) as a DeCA provided it includes all the data of article 6 of Order FOM/2861/2012, expressly and separately identifies the contracting shipper and the actual carrier, and meets the format: native PDF of 5 MB or less, QR with a direct-download https URL and retention. A scanned delivery note or a photo does not qualify.

Only for domestic transport: origin and destination in Spanish territory, including cabotage within Spain. International transport that passes partly through Spain uses the control documents of the conventions Spain has signed (in practice, the CMR), not the DeCA.

Order FOM/2861/2012 regulates the control document for public goods transport, that is, for hire and reward under a contract. Private transport of your own goods in your own vehicles is not subject to this document. If a contracted haulier moves the machine, it is: that service is public transport and carries its DeCA.

The carrier can issue it: the rule does not require the shipper to generate it. What section one does require is to turn the data into the document "as soon as it is known and always before the effective start of the service". If the exact weight is not known at loading, the Order allows another measure that determines it, and it can be corrected afterwards under section five.

Only if all the runs of the day have the same contracting shipper and the same actual carrier: then they can be grouped in one DeCA identifying each shipment with its origin, destination, nature and weight (section six). The weighbridge ticket provides the weight, but it does not replace the document. With different shippers, one DeCA per contract.

No. The Resolution recalls that neither Order FOM/2861/2012 nor Order FOM/1230/2013 requires a signature for the validity of the control document. Only if the document is also used for a contractual purpose and signed must the signature be at least an advanced (AdES) or qualified (QES) electronic signature under the eIDAS Regulation (section four).

No. The actual carrier is the company holding the authorisation under which the transport is performed; the driver is who drives and carries the copy on board. The DeCA identifies the actual carrier by name and NIF. The driver does not need an account, user or password: they present the document with the QR or just the QR.

Nothing different: the rule requires neither an app nor a phone from the driver. A paper printout with the QR is valid (section seven). They can also receive the PDF through a link and open it in any browser; the QR download is done by the officer from their own device.

It depends on the type of operation, not the goods. The road leg of an international transport covered by a convention is out; a domestic container run with origin and destination in Spain is in. The Order expressly exempts the transport of accident or breakdown vehicles on special vehicles, removals and certain parcel deliveries of few packages; ordinary transport of vehicles is subject. Delivering fuel on your own account is private transport and carries no control document. For a case with nuances, check Order FOM/2861/2012 before departure.

The absence or irregularity of control documentation is classified as an infringement in Law 16/1987 on the Organisation of Land Transport, and liability falls on the contracting shipper and the actual carrier, unless the shipper proves they issued it. The amount depends on how the infringement is classified; we do not reproduce it here so as not to publish figures without the current text in front of us.