The Electronic Administrative Control Document (DeCA) will be mandatory and exclusively digital from October 5, 2026. FROET is bringing together business associations to coordinate adaptation and avoid fines of up to 600 euros.
The road freight transport sector is facing a significant regulatory change: from October 5, the Electronic Administrative Control Document (DeCA) will mandatory replace the traditional paper receipt. The Regional Federation of Business Organizations of Transport of Murcia (FROET) has already taken action and has called the main associations of the productive and logistical fabric of the Region to coordinate the transition.
Representatives from the Regional Confederation of Business Organizations of Murcia (CROEM), the Chamber of Commerce of Murcia, and the Association of Producers-Exporters of Fruits and Vegetables of the Region of Murcia (Proexport) attended the working meeting. The goal: to ensure that shippers and carriers have their systems ready before the new legal requirement comes into effect.
The DeCA certifies the traceability of public freight transport, accurately identifying the cargo, origin, destination, and tax data of both the shipping company and the carrier. Until now, this receipt could be issued on paper, but from October 5, 2026, the digital format will be the only valid one; paper will no longer have legal validity.
FROET insists that the formalization and issuance of the DeCA is a legal obligation shared between the contractual shipper and the effective carrier. In practice, one or the other must generate the document digitally before starting the transport, including all the data required by the regulation.
Non-compliance with the new regulation carries fines ranging from 401 to 600 euros for not having the control document or for providing incomplete, erroneous, or incorrect essential data. A penalty that, as warned by the federation, is perfectly avoidable if companies prepare in advance.
The Secretary General of FROET, Manuel Pérezcarro, has been emphatic: “We are not facing a recommendation, but a legal obligation. The digitalization of the Control Document requires companies to adapt their procedures in advance, as waiting until the last moment will increase the risk of incidents and financial penalties.”
For carriers and shippers, the change involves reviewing their management systems and ensuring they can issue the DeCA in electronic format. The associations present at the meeting agreed that coordination is key to avoiding distortions in supply chains starting next autumn.
The measure affects all public freight transport by road, a sector that has significant weight in the Region of Murcia, particularly linked to fruit and vegetable exports. Proexport, for its part, has expressed its willingness to convey the technical requirements and deadlines to its members to make the adaptation as smooth as possible.
The Federation recommends that companies do not wait until September to get up to speed. Training of administrative teams, updating management software, and testing the issuance of electronic documents are steps that can be taken now, without waiting for the deadline.
The key deadline is October 5, 2026. From that day on, any transport that does not have the digital DeCA will be subject to penalties. Companies still operating with paper must begin migrating their processes as soon as possible to avoid surprises.
FROET has committed to continue organizing meetings and providing practical information to companies to facilitate the transition. Next week, a technical day is scheduled for carriers and shippers to resolve questions about generating the document and the data requirements.
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