The 8 mandatory data items of the DeCA under article 6

Article 6 of Orden FOM/2861/2012 is titled "Contenido del documento de control" (Content of the control document) and opens with a phrase worth reading slowly: the document must contain, at least, the following essential data. That "at least" means you can add whatever you want — order references, recipient contacts, delivery conditions — but you can't leave out anything that follows.

a) Contracting loader's details

Name or company name, tax ID and address. All three, not two. The contracting loader isn't necessarily whoever owns the goods: article 4 defines them as whoever contracts directly with the actual carrier, and this can be a freight agency, a freight forwarder, a cooperative, a logistics operator or another carrier subcontracting the job.

b) Actual carrier's details

Name or company name and tax ID. No address is required here. The actual carrier is the holder of the authorisation under which the transport is physically carried out — in other words, whoever provides the truck and licence, not whoever sold the job.

c) Place of origin and destination of the shipment

The regulation refers to a place, not a full postal address. In practice it's worth being specific enough that an inspector can identify the route unambiguously: town and province at a minimum, and a street address when the loading or unloading point isn't obvious.

d) Nature and weight of the goods

Two things: what you're transporting and how much it weighs. And letter d) includes a safeguard that solves a real problem for many loads:

In other words: if you load bulk goods without scales, or collect pallets without weighing them, you can declare whatever measurement fits — number of packages, pallets, cubic metres, litres. What you can't do is leave the field empty or put down a made-up figure.

e) Special traffic authorisation

This is the only conditional letter in the article. It only needs to be identified when the vehicle must operate under a special authorisation issued by the body responsible for traffic, circulation and road safety: essentially special transport by mass or dimensions. In ordinary transport, it doesn't apply — and not applying isn't the same as being missing.

f) Date the transport takes place

The date on which the shipment in question is transported, not the date you issue the document. They may or may not coincide: nothing stops you issuing the DeCA the day before. And remember article 3.2: in continuous transport contracts there are as many documents as shipments, so each shipment carries its own date.

g) Vehicle registration

That of the vehicle used. For an articulated combination, both the tractor unit's registration and that of the semi-trailer or trailer being pulled must be recorded. For a rigid vehicle, one registration is enough.

This letter also contains the only obligation in article 6 that's triggered once transport has already started: if the vehicle changes, the transport company must record that in the control documentation. No new document needs to be issued, but it must be noted.

h) Remarks, reservations and other notes

These are recorded whenever the parties involved request it. It's the field for reservations about the apparent condition of the goods, loading incidents, or any note the parties find useful. Filling it in isn't mandatory, but recording it is if someone asks.

Summary table