Countdown to mandatory eCMR: eFTI and Sustainable Mobility Law

After four years since the adoption of the EU Regulation 2020/1056 on electronic Freight Transport Information or eFTI Regulation, its implementation came into force on August 21, 2024, so mandatory eCMR is closer than ever.

This text was adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council to establish a legal framework for the electronic communication of regulatory information on the transport of goods within the EU between the economic operators concerned and the competent authorities.

To understand how the eFTI Regulation will come into operation, it must be understood that it all revolves around the adoption of different Delegated Acts (DA), which focus on collecting the Regulatory Reporting Requirements (RRI) of the national rules and defining the common data set and eFTI sets; and Implementing Acts (IA), which provide for the rules of the National Access Points.

While the timing could vary, the text sets out a detailed timetable:

• August 2020. Entry into force of the eFTI Regulation.
• August 2021.
  Notification by Member States of national law provisions and corresponding regulatory reporting requirements.

• August 21, 2024. This is the most relevant date for those who have not yet implemented eCMR, as the eFTI Regulation enters into application, triggering the countdown to the entry into force of mandatory electronic CMR in Europe.
• January 2025. As reported by the Spanish Shippers’ Association (ACE), the first eFTI delegated and implementing acts, which specify how IT systems should be designed and what data should be exchanged, entered into force earlier this month. On the basis of the implementation specifications provided in these first eFTI delegated and implementing acts, Member States will be able to start developing the necessary IT systems to allow authorities to verify eFTI compliant transport information, ACE explains.
• September 2025. The Association also states that, by this date, the Commission intends to adopt the remaining eFTI implementation specifications, which will set out detailed functional and technical requirements for the IT systems and services to be used by companies (eFTI platforms and eFTI service providers) and the rules for their certification.
• January 2026. eFTI platforms and service providers can start preparing for operations. Member State authorities can start accepting data stored on certified eFTI platforms for inspection, ACE reports.
• July 2027. Taking into account Article 5 of the eFTI Regulation, from July 2027 the eFTI Regulation will be fully implemented. Competent authorities will be obliged to accept transport information in electronic format through certified platforms. Initially, 2025 was envisaged as the key date, but with the delay in the process this date has been pushed back (the text envisages 30 months from the adoption of the first AD and IA).
• 2027. Submitting information to the EC on the number of electronic communications between control agents and platforms, to be sent every five years thereafter.
• 2029. The EC will conduct an evaluation to assess the possibility of obliging companies to issue transport documentation in electronic format and under the eFTI umbrella.

All in all, we see that all the actions determined to date have already materialized, which allows us to affirm that as of 2026 the eCMR will be mandatory for the Administration of each member state, which will have to have their systems enabled to receive documentation in electronic format.

Also, 2029 is again a key date, as companies in the sector could be obliged to use eCMR on a mandatory basis throughout the European community.

eCMR mandatory in Spain

As confirmed by the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, the Sustainable Mobility Law will be approved before December 2024 in Congress.

When this happens, a new countdown for the mandatory eCMR will be activated, as the text establishes the mandatory use of the digital version of the administrative control document required for the performance of public road freight transport.

Although initially the date of entry into force of this obligation was September 1, 2024, the delay in the approval of the Law from 2022 has made it necessary to postpone the entry into force of the obligation to use the eCMR until January 2026, as confirmed by ministerial sources.

eCMR with full legal and regulatory assurance

As we have seen, the countdown to mandatory eCMR has already been officially activated in the European Union, as it will be at the end of 2024 in Spain.

Faced with this situation, many companies in the industry have already taken the first steps to adopt an eCMR solution such as FIELDEAS Track and Trace, and some of them are already using it to its full potential.

The SeamLess eCMR of FIELDEAS Track and Trace is one of the few in the market that offers complete legal and regulatory guarantee by having the capacity to include all the required information depending on the type of transport and to include advanced digital signature in the processing of the documentation, as well as to guarantee the integrity of the information in the custody of the document.