DeCA: Spain’s electronic road transport control document comes into force

From 5 October 2026, the administrative control document that accompanies public road freight transport within Spain is no longer a paper form but an electronic document: the DeCA (Documento electrónico de Control Administrativo).

What the DeCA is

The control document has existed for years (Order FOM/2861/2012) and records the basic details of each transport operation: who contracts it, who performs it, origin, destination, and the nature and weight of the goods. What is new is the format. Law 9/2025 on Sustainable Mobility required this document to be digital ten months after the law came into force, and a resolution of the Directorate-General for Road and Rail Transport, published in the Spanish Official Gazette (BOE) on 12 June 2026, sets out how the electronic systems and documents must work.

Who it applies to

• Public road freight transport with origin and destination in Spain, including cabotage.
• It does not apply to international transport, which keeps using the control documents provided for in the agreements signed by Spain.
• The parties required to generate and keep the DeCA are the contractual shipper and the actual carrier. Order TRM/282/2026 divides responsibility for the different data in the document between them.

In passenger transport, the equivalent document is the route sheet, which is also going digital.

What changes compared with the paper document

• The document is generated from the data in the application used to manage the transport, as a PDF. A scanned paper document is not valid.
• It is created before the service actually starts, as soon as the data are known, and its creation date and time are recorded.
• Each document has a unique web address, and the PDF itself includes a QR code with that address.
• The files are stored in a repository that enforcement officers can access during transport: opening the address downloads the PDF directly.
• If the data change during the service, either a new document with its own QR code is generated, or the existing one is updated with the new data and the reason for the change.
• A single DeCA can cover several services when the contractual shipper and the actual carrier are the same.

During transport

When inspectors or enforcement officers ask for it, the driver must show the DeCA with its QR code or, failing that, just the QR code. The download must remain available for the duration of the service; under the resolution, it can be deactivated seven calendar days after the service ends.

Record keeping

The contractual shipper and the actual carrier must keep the generated files for at least one year.

What it means in practice

• Shippers: the details of each shipment must be available and correct before the vehicle leaves, and the document must be generated in time.
• Carriers: the driver must be able to show the QR code at any roadside check, and the company must keep the documents.
• Logistics operators: when several companies are involved, it is best to agree from the outset who acts as contractual shipper, who generates the document and how the QR code reaches the driver.

How we are preparing at SISTREL

We are adapting our operating processes and systems to the new framework: making sure the details of each operation are complete before departure, that the document is generated from those details and that the QR code reaches the driver, in coordination with the carriers we work with. If you have questions about how the DeCA affects your shipments, we can review them with you.

What comes next

This is a first phase based on PDF documents. The eFTI framework (Regulation (EU) 2020/1056) is the next European step in digitalising freight transport information.