Cabotage in Spain: the DeCA goes digital on 5 October 2026
Written for EU carriers established outside Spain who run cabotage there, and for the dispatchers who plan those loads. Plain English, no legal jargon. If you are looking for automated compliance software, explore our DeCA transport software.
Lectores en español: esta página en español — it is a different guide, aimed at Spanish carriers and the gestorías who handle their paperwork. The two pages cover different audiences.
The short version
- Your international leg needs no DeCA. A run into or out of Spain under a CMR note is expressly out of scope. Spanish law sends international carriage to the documents of the applicable convention.
- Your cabotage runs inside Spain do need one. Cabotage is interior transport, so it is in scope — and from 5 October 2026 that document must be digital.
- Being established elsewhere changes nothing. A foreign carrier doing cabotage in Spain is treated exactly like a Spanish one.
What the DeCA is
The Documento electrónico de Control Administrativo (DeCA) is Spain's electronic administrative control document for road transport. It covers a consignment — an envío — of goods moved by road inside Spain, and it has to be producible at a roadside check.
It is not the consignment note. The consignment note is the contract between the commercial parties; the DeCA is what the administration wants to be able to see.
A worked example
A Polish carrier loads in Gdańsk and delivers in Valencia under a CMR note. It then picks up two domestic loads inside Spain before running home.
- Gdańsk to Valencia — international carriage. No DeCA. The CMR note is the document.
- Cabotage run 1 — inside Spain. DeCA required.
- Cabotage run 2 — inside Spain. DeCA required.
None of this replaces the cabotage evidence you already have to carry. The duties in Regulation (EC) 1072/2009, article 8(3) — clear evidence of the incoming international carriage and of each consecutive cabotage operation — continue independently, on top of the DeCA.
What the digital DeCA has to look like
The technical rules are in the Resolución of 5 June 2026 (BOE-A-2026-12784):
- A natively generated PDF. A scan or an image of a paper document is expressly invalid.
- 5 MB or less.
- An embedded QR code that resolves to a unique HTTPS address giving a direct download, with no login.
- Created before the run starts.
- Kept for at least one year by both the contractual shipper and the effective carrier.
- A printed copy is still allowed as long as it bears the QR code. The driver may show it on a phone instead. Handwritten notes on the print are disregarded.
The rule against scans is worth reading twice, because it decides whether a tool is usable. Mudravia takes your scan as the input the AI reads, and produces the DeCA as a natively generated PDF built from the extracted data — never a re-wrapped scan.
One thing nobody can answer yet: the NIF field
Article 6 of Orden FOM/2861/2012 requires the tax identification number (NIF) of both parties. A carrier established outside Spain typically has no Spanish NIF.
How that field is populated in that case is not addressed — not in the Resolución of 5 June 2026, and not in the transport ministry's published guidance. We are not going to guess. Ask your Spanish agent or adviser, and treat any vendor who tells you this is a settled question with suspicion.
The same gap matters for a related point: a consignment note that carries all the article 6 data can itself serve as the DeCA. A standard CMR note does not carry both NIFs, so that substitution is conditional, not automatic.
Where eFTI fits
Data handled under the Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 (eFTI) schema discharges the duty to present a DeCA in the prescribed form (Resolución, apartado Noveno). Separately, the eFTI date for authorities accepting electronic freight information is 9 July 2027.
That is the regulator's own bridge from the 2026 Spanish rule to the 2027 EU one, and it is the reason we build around preparing the data once and reusing it.
How Mudravia handles it
Mudravia is a transport software console designed to manage DeCA compliance across entire carrier fleets from one place with flexible multi-channel intake:
- Flexible multi-channel data capture: AI document extraction from driver mobile photos and PDF consignment notes, bulk file imports (CSV, Excel XLSX, JSON), REST API, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for AI agents.
- Accounting & ERP connectivity: Pre-built integration templates for Holded, Sage, and a3innuva to eliminate double-entry of dispatch records.
- Human-in-the-loop validation: Fast side-by-side verification before issuance ensures full compliance with Order FOM/2861/2012.
- Native PDF generation: Generates vector PDFs conforming strictly to the 5 June 2026 Resolution (BOE-A-2026-12784) with QR code and public HTTPS direct download URL.
- Instant cab distribution: Delivered straight to driver phones or printable with an inspection-ready QR code.
- Client workspace isolation: Strict multi-tenant boundaries and audit logging with statutory 1-year document retention.
Mudravia prepares documents; it does not file them. It does not act before any authority on your behalf and does not replace professional judgement.
Common questions
Does my international run into Spain need a DeCA?
No. International carriage is out of scope. It travels on the consignment note of the applicable convention, normally the CMR note.
Do my cabotage runs inside Spain need a DeCA?
Yes. Cabotage counts as interior transport, so it is in scope, and from 5 October 2026 the document must be digital. Where your firm is established makes no difference.
Can my CMR note serve as the DeCA?
Only if it carries every item of data in article 6 of Orden FOM/2861/2012, including both parties' NIF. A standard CMR note does not, so this is conditional rather than automatic.
I have no Spanish NIF. What goes in that field?
Unresolved. Neither the Resolución nor ministry guidance addresses it. Ask your Spanish agent, and be sceptical of anyone selling you a confident answer.
Can I scan a paper document and use that?
No. The PDF must be generated natively; scans and images are expressly invalid. A scan is fine as the source you extract data from — it just cannot be the DeCA.
Does the driver have to show it on a phone?
Not necessarily. A phone or a printed copy bearing the QR code both work. Handwritten additions to the print are disregarded.
Does the DeCA have to be signed?
No. The Spanish transport ministry says signing is not mandatory. If you do sign, electronic signature rules apply.
Can a driver just photograph the note in the cab?
Yes. The driver app can photograph the consignment note; the photo goes to the client's review queue and its fields are extracted and checked like any other upload. The photo is only the source the data is read from — the DeCA itself is always generated as a native PDF, never a re-wrapped image.
What does it cost?
For the founding cohort: no base fee for the first six months, EUR 12–15 per month per managed carrier, and the first three clients free to test the flow on real cases. Agents set their own price to their clients.
Does Mudravia file the document for me?
No. Mudravia prepares documents from the consignment note. It does not submit them to any authority.
Is there an official Ministry app? Where do I upload the DeCAs?
There is none. The transport ministry says so in its FAQ: the DeCA is not a Ministry application. Each company manages the data in its own application or a provider's and turns it into a PDF that follows the Resolución of 5 June 2026. Nor is anything uploaded to a Ministry platform: the PDFs must sit in a repository from which the authorities can download them at a roadside check.
Does the application that generates the DeCA have to be certified or approved?
No. The Ministry answers that DeCA applications do not need certification and puts the idea down to confusion with eFTI platforms, which will need certifying. A vendor calling itself "approved" or "certified by the Ministry" for the DeCA is claiming something the rules do not provide for.
Who has to generate the DeCA, the shipper or the carrier?
Orden FOM/2861/2012 does not say who physically produces it, but it obliges both the contractual shipper and the effective carrier to formalise it and makes both responsible for it being on board — unless the contractual shipper proves the document was issued, in which case they are released. Digitisation does not change that split.
I am a carrier and I subcontract to another carrier. What happens with the DeCA?
The last carrier in the chain is the effective carrier (the holder of the authorisation under which the transport is physically performed), and whoever contracts them is the contractual shipper. If carrier A subcontracts carrier B for a consignment, B is the effective carrier and A the contractual shipper, with the duties the Orden assigns to each.
What data must the DeCA contain?
The items in article 6 of Orden FOM/2861/2012: name or company name, NIF and address of the contractual shipper; name or company name and NIF of the effective carrier; origin and destination of the consignment; nature and weight of the goods (or another measure where the exact weight is hard to determine); the special circulation permit where the vehicle needs one; the date of the transport; the registration of the vehicle — for an articulated combination both tractor and trailer, recording any change of vehicle; and any observations or reservations the parties ask for. Items a) to d) are the contractual shipper's responsibility; e) to g) the effective carrier's.
Can I use the layout of the consignment note, the CMR or the ADR document as the DeCA?
Yes. Article 5 of the Orden makes the document free-format, and the Ministry accepts any format used for other transport documents — consignment notes, the ADR document, the waste DI, SANDACH — as long as it carries every article 6 item and identifies the contractual shipper and the effective carrier expressly and separately. Using the CMR layout on a national run does not make the CMR convention apply.
When does it have to be created?
Before the service effectively starts: the Resolución of 5 June 2026 requires the data to be turned into the electronic file "as soon as it is known and always before the effective start of the service". Creation and modification date and time are kept as PDF metadata.
What are the technical requirements for the PDF?
Per the Resolución of 5 June 2026: PDF format no larger than 5 MB; native digital generation (a scan or an image is not valid); a QR code inside the PDF itself carrying the document's unique web address; and a direct-download URL that may not require credentials or authentication, nor buttons or any other manual interaction. Seven calendar days after the service ends the download may be deactivated, but the file must be kept for at least one year.
What does the driver show at a check?
An electronic copy on a mobile device or a printed copy on paper, in both cases carrying the QR code. The driver presents the DeCA with its QR or, failing that, the QR alone. On a printed copy, handwritten notes are disregarded: the only valid way to change a DeCA is the one the Resolución sets out.
The service has started and the data has to change. How is a DeCA modified?
In one of two ways, per the Ministry and section five of the Resolución. Either the existing PDF is modified — new data and the reason for the change are added, the old data is kept and clearly marked as no longer valid, and the URL and QR stay the same — or a new PDF is generated with all the data, which gets a new URL and QR and requires the original to be kept for traceability. In both cases the PDF must reach the driver.
I carry dangerous goods. Which documents do I carry?
Two separate obligations: the transport document under chapter 5.4 of the ADR and the control document under Orden FOM/2861/2012, which must be electronic. They can travel as two documents or be combined into one; if combined, the document must carry every article 6 item, identify the contractual shipper and the effective carrier separately, comply with the Resolución of 5 June 2026, and it does not need to be signed.
For international transport, is the eCMR mandatory from 5 October?
No. The Ministry is explicit: the eCMR is not mandatory. What becomes mandatory on 5 October 2026, for interior transport — national and cabotage, per article 222 of the ROTT — is the electronic DeCA. International transport uses the control documents of the conventions Spain has signed.
What is the penalty for not carrying the DeCA?
Ley 16/1987 (LOTT) classes «the absence, failure to complete, or absence of essential data in the control documentation» as a serious infringement (article 141.17); it expressly includes firms that fail to ensure their drivers carry that documentation «in paper or electronic format», and failure to retain it. The fine set for it is 401 to 600 euros (article 143.1.d). Vehicle immobilisation under article 143.4 is not tied to this infringement in the consolidated text. And from 5 October 2026 a scan or image of a paper document is not a valid DeCA (Resolución, section Segundo.2).
Sources: DeCA FAQ of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility; Resolución of 5 June 2026 (BOE-A-2026-12784); Orden FOM/2861/2012 (BOE-A-2013-154); Ley 9/2025, eighth transitional provision; Ley 16/1987 (LOTT), articles 141.17 and 143, consolidated text as of 15/04/2026. Answers follow the official text; they are not legal advice.
Next step
If you run cabotage in Spain and want to see how our DeCA software automates compliance with your own shipments, check out our platform or request pilot access.