DeCA mandatory in Spain from 5 October 2026: how to comply and avoid penalties

What the DeCA is

The DeCA is the Documento electrónico de Control Administrativo (electronic administrative control document): the mandatory electronic version of the "control document" that already had to accompany every for-hire road freight consignment in Spain. It is not a new document with new data: it is the same control document defined in Orden FOM/2861/2012 (Ministerial Order FOM/2861/2012), but in digital form and with a QR code that lets inspectors download it instantly.

It is an initiative of Spain's Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (Ministerio de Transportes y Movilidad Sostenible). It should not be confused with excise duty documents (Spanish Tax Agency, AEAT) or with the international consignment note: the DeCA is an administrative control document for road transport with a national scope.

When it became mandatory and why 5 October 2026

The obligation comes from Ley 9/2025, de 3 de diciembre, de Movilidad Sostenible (Sustainable Mobility Act, published in Spain's Official State Gazette, BOE No. 291 of 4 December 2025), which entered into force on 5 December 2025. Its eighth transitional provision (disposición transitoria octava) states that the administrative control document must be necessarily digital once ten months have passed since that entry into force.

The administrative control document […] must necessarily be digital ten months after the entry into force of this Act.Ley 9/2025, de 3 de diciembre, de Movilidad Sostenible — disposición transitoria octava (unofficial translation)

Ten months from 5 December 2025 takes us to 5 October 2026, the day the DeCA became mandatory.

Who it applies to (and who it doesn't)

The DeCA applies to domestic for-hire road haulage in Spain. It does not cover:

• International transport, including the leg that runs through Spain, which is documented with the instruments of the international conventions (the CMR consignment note or its electronic version, the eCMR).
• Cases already exempt from the control document under Orden FOM/2861/2012: among others, transport that does not require an operating licence (título habilitante), removals, transport of accident-damaged or broken-down vehicles, and parcel services.

If you carry bulk goods, run tankers or move dangerous goods (ADR) on domestic routes in Spain, the DeCA applies to you in full. The good news is that the rules allow the ADR transport document format to be reused as the vehicle for the administrative control (we explain this in this article).

What the DeCA requires technically

The specifications are set by the Resolución de 5 de junio de 2026 (Resolution of 5 June 2026) of the Dirección General de Transporte por Carretera y Ferrocarril (Directorate-General for Road and Rail Transport), published in the BOE on 12 June 2026. In short:

• Natively digital PDF (scanned paper is not accepted), with a maximum size of 5 MB.
• A QR code inside the PDF with a unique URL under https:// (TLS 1.2 or higher) that allows direct download of the document without credentials or authentication.
• Metadata with the date and time of creation and modification.
• Retention of the file for at least one year, accessible to inspectors during the transport operation.
• Signature not required; if included, it must be an advanced electronic signature (eIDAS).

For the full detail, designed to help you validate your software, see DeCA technical requirements.

What happens at a roadside check

When the Land Transport Inspectorate (Inspección del Transporte Terrestre) or enforcement officers ask for it, the driver shows the DeCA with its QR code or, failing that, just the QR code. That QR code is enough for the inspector to download the document. There is no longer any point in carrying pads of paper consignment notes for domestic journeys.

What happened in the first weeks

In the first few days there were checks where the officer could not open the document. According to a complaint by Fenadismer, a Spanish hauliers' federation, drivers who did have the QR code were fined more than €400 because the officers' tablets could not download the PDF.

On 22 October 2026 it emerged that the Ministry of Transport had acknowledged faults in its own download system and had asked Spain's autonomous communities (regional governments) to drop the penalty notices issued between 5 and 19 October because the DeCA could not be downloaded. This is not a general moratorium: penalty notices for any other reason, such as mandatory data missing from the document, are processed as usual, and the measure only covers that period.

There is also an open debate about who should produce the document. Fenadismer argues that it is the shipper's job and has asked for the rules to say so clearly, because in practice some shippers pass the task of preparing it — and any errors it contains — on to the haulier.

How to comply and avoid fines

1. Check your scope: if you carry out for-hire domestic transport, it applies to you. Also check which consignments might be exempt.
2. Generate the DeCA with a compliant system: one that issues the PDF with a QR code as the Resolution requires and publishes it at a downloadable URL.
3. Test the QR code from outside: open it on any phone, without being logged in and without your company's data. It must download the PDF directly — that is what the officer does, and what failed in the first weeks.
4. Check the mandatory data before departure: penalty notices for missing data have not been dropped.
5. Build issuing into your operations: ideally the document is generated automatically from the transport order/shipment itself, without re-keying data.
6. Make sure it is retained: keep every DeCA for at least one year, with access for inspection.
7. Train your drivers: they should know how to show the QR code on their phone and carry the downloaded document in case there is no signal.