Spain: DeCA already hits trouble at the first roadside checks, and the industry asks for a transition period

The DeCA became mandatory on 5 October for domestic transport in Spain and for cabotage by anyone loading and unloading inside the country. A week on, the first friction is showing up — none of it changes the obligation itself, but all of it is worth knowing before you’re checked at the roadside.

QR reading failures, not a document failure

Fenadismer confirms that hauliers are reporting failures reading the DeCA’s QR code during roadside checks. The federation is clear: “it is not a failure of the digital document itself” — the problem, in its reading, lies in a configuration error on the inspectors’ own devices, common in the first weeks of any new rule. It asked the Administration that, for now, officers take an educational approach rather than fining, while shippers, hauliers and inspectors all adjust to the system.

Some shippers’ “picaresca”

The same Fenadismer denounces shippers trying to shift the whole job of generating the DeCA onto the driver: forcing them to use the shipper’s own platform, with registration and a photo of the delivery note, or issuing a provisional document that only becomes valid once the driver reviews and validates it — a practice the federation doubts is even legal. In one reported case, the shipper went as far as cancelling the job when the haulier pushed back.

CETM makes the same point: it denounces shippers who want to charge the haulier for every DeCA issued, even though it is the shipper who holds most of the required data. CETM’s president, Carmelo González, sums up the position: “What cannot happen is that one party has the information, the haulier does the work, and ends up paying the bill.” The association insists the DeCA is an obligation shared across the whole chain, not a service to be bought from the client.

FVET asks for a transition period

The Valencian Federation of Transport and Logistics Employers (FVET) asked the Ministry of Transport for a transitional period with more flexibility before requiring full compliance with the rule. Its arguments: ambiguity over who must issue the document when the shipper refuses to, less room for last-minute changes and late subcontracting, practical difficulty for part-load and last-mile deliveries, and the fact that the Ministry’s own free platform only went live on 2 October, with no test period for users. The Ministry has not yet responded publicly to the request.

What this changes for hauliers out of Portugal

Nothing in the obligation itself: anyone doing cabotage in Spain still needs the DeCA from 5 October, as already reported. What changes is practical — it’s worth testing the QR on your phone before the trip, keeping proof that the DeCA was requested from the shipper when it is the shipper’s job to issue it, and not agreeing to pay for a document the law assigns to another link in the chain. If you’re checked and the officer’s reader fails, Fenadismer’s guidance to its members is the same it gave the Administration: show the document, explain the glitch, and don’t assume it’s the haulier’s fault.