A document that already existed
The DeCA is not a new document. It is the administrative control document that has travelled with every consignment of public road haulage since Orden FOM/2861/2012 introduced it, and that until now went on paper.
What changes is the medium. The Sustainable Mobility Act allowed ten months to digitise it, and that deadline falls on 5 October 2026.
«El Documento de control administrativo exigible para la realización de transporte público de mercancías por carretera, regulado en la Orden FOM/2861/2012, de 13 de diciembre, deberá ser necesariamente digital a los diez meses desde la entrada en vigor de esta ley.»
Ley 9/2025, of 3 December, on Sustainable Mobility, eighth transitional provision, paragraph 1
It travels with the goods in the vehicle, and there is one per consignment.
«El documento de control es un documento de naturaleza administrativa, que deberá llevarse a bordo del vehículo acompañando a las mercancías en su desplazamiento.»
Orden FOM/2861/2012, article 3.1
Which rules it comes from
Four of them, each fixing something different. It is worth knowing which says what, because whatever is being argued about is almost always in one of them alone.
- Real Decreto 1211/1990, article 222
- That control documents have to be carried on board, and that the Directorate General may set their characteristics.
- Orden FOM/2861/2012
- What the document is, which transports it reaches, who draws it up, which eight points it carries and how long it is kept.
- Ley 9/2025, eighth transitional provision
- That it has to be digital, and from when.
- Resolución of 5 June 2026
- What the file and its web address have to be: natively generated PDF, size, metadata, QR, HTTPS and credential-free download.
Ley 16/1987 on land transport sits above all four, and it is what decides who this reaches. That is developed in who it binds.
The eight points
The content is not for the issuer to choose. Article 6 sets it out, and it says «al menos», at least, so the eight are a floor and not a ceiling.
«El documento de control deberá contener, al menos, los siguientes datos de carácter esencial: a) Nombre o denominación social, NIF y domicilio del cargador contractual. b) Nombre o denominación social y NIF del transportista efectivo. c) Lugar de origen y destino del envío objeto del transporte. d) Naturaleza y peso de la mercancía transportada... e) Identificación de la autorización especial de circulación... cuando el vehículo haya de circular amparado por una de estas autorizaciones. f) Fecha de realización del transporte del envío de que se trate. g) Matrícula del vehículo utilizado... h) Siempre que así lo soliciten los sujetos intervinientes se hará constar las observaciones, reservas, o cualquier otra indicación, que consideren útil.»
Orden FOM/2861/2012, article 6
Eight points are not eight values. Two of them ask for two each, and two more are filled in only where they apply.
a)
Contractual shipper
Three values, not one: name, tax ID and address. The address is the one that gets dropped, because the name looks like enough.
b)
Effective carrier
Name and tax ID of whoever moves the load. It is the value no dispatch system tends to have at hand, because it is known when the lorry arrives.
c)
Origin and destination
Two physical places: where it is loaded and where it is unloaded. The destination is where the vehicle goes, which need not be the buyer's registered address.
d)
Nature and weight
What the goods are and how much. The rules accept another magnitude where the exact weight cannot be determined at loading, which is what allows cubic metres.
e)
Special circulation authorisation
Only where the vehicle travels under one. If it does not, the point stays empty and the document is complete: it is not a pending field.
Conditional
f)
Transport date
The day the transport happens, which is not necessarily the day it is issued. Both retention clocks hang off this date.
g)
Vehicle plates
Both of them for an articulated unit: tractor and semitrailer or trailer. And if the vehicle changes once the transport has started, that has to be recorded.
h)
Observations
Only where one of the parties asks for them. A document with no observations is not incomplete, and asking for them every time turns a conditional point into a formality.
Conditional
On a change of vehicle the rules are explicit, and the obligation falls on the transport company.
«Si iniciada la operación de transporte se produjera un cambio de vehículo, esta circunstancia deberá hacerse constar en la documentación de control por la empresa de transportes.»
Orden FOM/2861/2012, article 6 g)
What the file has to be
The form of the document is free: the rules impose no model and no name.
«El documento de control será de libre edición, pudiendo ajustarse al modelo, formato y denominación que más convenga.»
Orden FOM/2861/2012, article 5
What is not free is the file. PDF, five megabytes at most, with the creation and modification times inside its metadata.
«Los ficheros electrónicos tendrán formato PDF con un tamaño no superior a 5 MB. La fecha y hora de creación y la fecha y hora de modificación serán metadatos del fichero PDF.»
Resolución of 5 June 2026, paragraph Segundo.1
And it has to be born digital. A scan of the paper does not count, and the rules take the trouble to say so in those words.
«La generación de los ficheros electrónicos será nativa digital, es decir, mediante la transformación de los datos estructurados contenidos en las aplicaciones informáticas en signos de escritura legibles. No serán válidos, por tanto, los ficheros electrónicos obtenidos a partir del escaneo de un documento existente en papel o de imágenes digitalizadas.»
Resolución of 5 June 2026, paragraph Segundo.2
The third requirement is about when rather than what: the file has to exist and be stored before the lorry leaves, with the time recorded.
«Transformar dichos datos, en cuanto sean conocidos y siempre antes del inicio efectivo del servicio, en un fichero electrónico... las aplicaciones informáticas registrarán la fecha y hora de creación del fichero electrónico.»
Resolución of 5 June 2026, paragraph Primero.2
The QR code and the address
Every stored file has a web address of its own, and that address goes inside the PDF as a QR code.
«Los ficheros electrónicos generados deberán incluir en el propio PDF un código QR (en inglés, Quick Response) con la dirección web única y específica del documento (URL). Adicionalmente, el código QR se podrá tener disponible como un fichero independiente.»
Resolución of 5 June 2026, paragraph Segundo.3
The address runs over HTTPS with TLS 1.2 or above, and may carry whatever security measures whoever builds it sees fit, as long as it does not expire before the service ends.
What it cannot do is put anything between whoever opens it and the file. This is the requirement most providers miss, and the one an officer finds at the roadside.
«Esto se realizará mediante una llamada o invocación de la URL que debe producir la descarga directa del fichero electrónico en formato PDF... no será válida ninguna URL que dirija a una página web que requiera credenciales o autenticación, ni que incorpore botones de descargas u otros elementos que impliquen una interacción manual.»
Resolución of 5 June 2026, paragraphs Tercero.3 and Tercero.4
The driver carries the document on a phone or on paper, and in both cases with the QR. At a check, showing the code is enough.
«el conductor presentará el DeCA con el código QR, o en su defecto, tan sólo el código QR»
Resolución of 5 June 2026, paragraph Séptimo
What the rules do not require
Three things that are taken for granted and appear nowhere.
No signature. The preamble to the Resolution says so, and signatures are regulated only for where the document is also used for a contractual purpose.
«La firma de los documentos de control administrativo no es obligatoria, puesto que ni la Orden FOM/2861/2012, de 13 de diciembre, ni la Orden FOM/1230/2013, de 31 de mayo, establecen requisitos de firma para la validez del documento de control o la hoja de ruta respectivamente.»
Resolución of 5 June 2026, preamble
No authorised provider. There is not even a duty to say where the documents are kept, so there is no list, no registry and no approval scheme.
«El dominio del repositorio podrá ser cualquiera y no requerirá comunicación previa del mismo.»
Resolución of 5 June 2026, paragraph Primero.3
No change to the delivery note. The DeCA is a separate document with a QR of its own. The Resolution also accepts the format of other transport documents, such as a consignment note or the ADR document, as long as they carry the eight points and expressly tell the contractual shipper apart from the effective carrier.
The specific questions this opens up are in the frequent questions, each with its own quotation.