eCMR, consignment note, control document, delivery note, are they the same?

On the road to the digitalization of road freight transport, document management is a key aspect. However, there are many doubts between the different transport documents and whether eCMR, consignment note, control document and delivery note are the same and are regulated by the same rules.

The CMR, the domestic consignment note, the control document and the delivery note, as well as their electronic versions, are not the same at the regulatory level, but they are the same for practical purposes.

Currently, each document must be issued independently, despite the fact that the data is repeated repeatedly, forcing carriers to issue several documents for the same shipment.

However, the sector makes an equivalence between the documents because they all include data that are common to all of them. For this reason, on many occasions one can hear the CMR being referred to on the same level as the national consignment note or the control document, the only difference between them being the scope in which the transport is carried out, consignment note for national transport and eCMR for international transport.

In fact, the trend is to unify the documents into a single document, consignment note plus control document, or CMR plus control document, with the aim of simplifying administrative management and resolving regulatory and nominative confusion.

In any case, the regulations are clear and in the short or medium term the digitalization of transport documents will be mandatory both at national level, with the Sustainable Mobility Law, and at European level, with the eFTI regulation.

Control document

In Spain, the most important is the administrative control document, required for public road freight transport, regulated by Order FOM/2861/2012.

Article 3 of this regulation states that “the control document is a document of an administrative nature, which must be carried on board the vehicle accompanying the goods during their movement”. In addition, it adds that “in contracts of continuous transport, there will be as many control documents as shipments made as a result of the contract”.

Likewise, in Article 4, the regulation states that the parties obliged to formalize the control document are the actual carrier and the contractual shipper. Thus, it is mandatory to issue two copies of the control document.

Consignment note or domestic transport contract

The consignment note in Spain is regulated by Order FOM/1882/2012, of August 1, 2012, approving the general contracting conditions for the transport of goods by road. In other words, it is a document of a declaratory nature and attests to the existence of a contract of carriage.

In Annex 2 of these regulations, the document stating all or part of the conditions for the performance of the contracted transport, which shall be subject to the provisions of the Law on the Contract of Land Transportation of Goods, is called a consignment note.

In addition, it is clarified that the bill of lading is not a mandatory document. It is a guarantee of the existence of the contract of carriage, but the absence or irregularity of the waybill will not produce the non-existence or nullity of the contract. However, either party to the contract may require the other to issue a consignment note.

However, Royal Decree-Law 14/2022, of August 1, on economic sustainability measures in the field of transport, stipulated the obligation to formalize a consignment note if the transport price exceeds 150 euros, as long as there is no transport contract containing the economic conditions of transport.

The bill of lading must be issued in three originals, to be signed by the shipper and the carrier.

National electronic consignment note

The electronic version of the consignment note in Spain is also regulated by Order FOM/1882/2012. Specifically, it states that “if the parties agree, they may issue the consignment note by electronic means with identical effects as the paper consignment note”.

With the same contents as the paper consignment note, the electronic version must be countersigned by the shipper and carrier with electronic signatures, regulated by Regulation (EU) 910/2014 of July 23, 2014, and by the latest Amendment to the Regulations of the Land Transport Management Act (ROTT) in June 2023.

CMR or consignment note for international transport

Another essential document in the transport of goods by road is the CMR. On this occasion, this document is used for international transport, and is regulated by the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR), which Spain joined in 1974 with the approval of the Instrument of Accession.

This Convention established the legal basis for the international carriage of goods by road and the functionality of the CMR consignment note, which is the document that formalizes the contract of carriage.

Article 5.1 states that the consignment note shall be issued in three originals, signed by the sender and the carrier. The first copy will be sent to the sender, the second will accompany the goods and the third will be retained by the carrier.

eCMR or electronic consignment note for international transport

In 2008, the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road, relating to the electronic consignment note, i.e. eCMR, was adopted in Geneva.

The electronic CMR in Spain arrived with its accession in August 2011 to the aforementioned Additional Protocol. As stated in the text, “any consignment note issued in accordance with this Protocol shall be deemed equivalent to the consignment note referred to in the Convention, and shall therefore have the same evidentiary force and produce the same effects as the latter”. In other words, the same data must be included and the same number of originals must be issued as in the paper consignment note.

Regarding the certification of the electronic consignment note or eCMR, the Additional Protocol states that “the parties to the contract of carriage shall certify the electronic consignment note by means of a reliable electronic signature that guarantees its link to the electronic consignment note”.

The reliability of the electronic signature procedure shall be presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, when the electronic signature:

• Be linked only to the signatory;
• allows the signatory to be identified;
• has been created using means that the signatory can maintain under his sole control; and
• is linked to the data to which it refers so that any subsequent modification of the data can be detected.

On the other hand, the text of the Instrument of Accession of Spain to the eCMR Convention states in Article 6 that documents complementary to the electronic consignment note may be communicated electronically to the carrier “if such documents exist in that form and if the parties have agreed upon appropriate procedures to establish a link between such documents and the electronic consignment note referred to in this Protocol in such a way as to ensure their integrity”.

Delivery note

Another essential transport document is the delivery note. This is a commercial document and, although it is not mandatory, it justifies that the goods have been delivered under the conditions agreed in the contract of carriage.

In more detail, Article 12 of Law 15/2009, of November 11, 2009, on the Contract of Carriage of Goods by Land, states that “the consignee may demand that the goods be delivered together with the second copy of the consignment note. The carrier may require the consignee to issue a receipt for the goods delivered in its copy of the consignment note, or in a separate document signed by both parties”.

Sustainable Mobility Law and eFTI Regulation

All in all, it is important to be clear about what will be mandatory in the coming months regarding the digitization of transport documentation.

The future Sustainable Mobility Law establishes in its eighth transitory provision that the administrative control document required for the performance of public road freight transport must necessarily be digital as of September 1, 2024, although the date has been extended to January 2026. “The Administrative Control Document required for the performance of public transport of goods by road, regulated in Order FOM/2861/2012, of December 13, must necessarily be digital as of September 1, 2024,” the text states.

It is important to emphasize that this regulation only mentions the control document because it is the only mandatory document of all those mentioned. However, the different members of the Ministry of Transport team in their recent interventions have spoken of the eCMR and the control document as equivalent elements. This is the case of Roser Obrer, Director General of Road Transport, Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, at the 23rd AECOC National Transport Forum.

The eFTI Regulation(Electronic Freight Transport Information) establishes a legal framework for the electronic communication of regulatory information relating to the transport of goods on the territory of the Union between the economic operators concerned and the competent authorities. It is a European Union regulation that will come into force in December 2025. With it, administrations are obliged to accept transport information in electronic format.

On this occasion, “transport information” is mentioned, without specifying the document. However, as we have pointed out, the document that regulates contracts of carriage at the European level is the eCMR, so the eFTI Regulation directly affects the eCMR.

Regardless of which document is specified in the regulations for mandatory digitization, it is important for the industry to become aware of the importance of making document management digital.

By digitizing the documents it is very easy to share the data between them, without having to include them manually one by one. In addition, it is not efficient to work with one of the documents in digital format and the others on paper.

It is the digitization of transport documents, all of them, which will make it possible to gain efficiency, flexibility and sustainability in a sector that urgently needs to reduce time and costs, in addition to streamlining supply chains.

Interoperability

Both the Sustainable Mobility Law in Spain and the eFTI Regulation at European level aim to digitize transport documentation to improve efficiency, sustainability and transparency in the management of goods.

The digitization of documents required by both regulations requires interoperable systems that can handle information in different formats and in accordance with the different requirements of each regulation.

For example, a company that digitizes the control document in Spain must ensure that this information is compatible with eFTI requirements, so that it is valid and recognizable in cross-border operations within the EU.

With the digitization of documents such as the eCMR and the control document, carriers will be able to avoid delays at border controls within the EU, as long as the digital documents comply with the eFTI.

Another benefit of this integration between national and European regulations is the reduction of customs formalities.

Digitization under the eFTI framework allows the early transmission of information to customs authorities, reducing waiting times.

Digitalize the different transport documents

The SeamLess eCMR from FIELDEAS Track and Trace is a solution that makes it easy to digitalize all transport documents under the regulatory umbrella and with full legal guarantee.

The eCMR is one of the most outstanding modules of FIELDEAS Track and Trace, the most advanced, flexible and secure Supply Chain Visibility platform on the market. This software allows real-time supervision of multimodal transport operations and provides traceability of shipments from origin to delivery at destination by monitoring key information.