If your warehouse hires carriers for deliveries, you're the contracting shipper. You generate the document while preparing the load and the driver leaves with it on their phone.
Orden FOM/2861/2012 expressly includes the wholesaler-distributor and the logistics operator within the contracting shipper role, and in general "anyone else who regularly hires transport or regularly acts as an intermediary in hiring it".
If your company hires carriers to take goods to customers, each consignment needs its electronic control document from 5 October 2026. Deliveries with your own vans or lorries are private (own-account) transport and don't need it.
| Vehicle and operation | DeCA needed? |
|---|---|
| Up to 2 tonnes GVW (no transport authorisation needed) | No |
| Over 2 and up to 3.5 tonnes, from a carrier | Yes |
| Small parcels that one person can easily handle | No |
| Lorries from hired carriers or self-employed hauliers | Yes |
| Own vehicles with own goods | No (own-account transport) |
Sources: Orden FOM/2861/2012, arts. 2, 4 and 6; Resolution of 5 June 2026 (BOE-A-2026-12784), section six; FAQ of the Spanish Ministry of Transport.
Tell us how many consignments you send a day, how many carriers you work with and what management or warehouse software you use. We'll clear it all up in a call.
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Or call us: +34 959 54 07 12The contracting shipper is whoever contracts directly with the carrier that makes the trip. If you hire the operator and they subcontract the lorry, the operator becomes the contracting shipper for that trip.
Yes, when the contracting shipper and the actual carrier are the same for all consignments. The document must identify the origin, destination and goods of each consignment, and the order in which they appear doesn't oblige you to follow that route.
No, when it's a small number of packages that one person can easily handle. Palletised goods shipped on carriers' lorries do.
If the return transport is done by a hired carrier, it's another consignment and needs its own document.
