Checklist: get your company ready before 5 October

Before you start: three facts that frame everything

• The date is hard: 5 October 2026, no extension announced.
• The entry-level fine is €401 per check(penalties guide).
• The sector's rush of sign-ups and doubts will peak in September. Whoever tests in summer chooses calmly; whoever arrives in October chooses in a hurry.

Week 1 — Audit what you do today

1. Inventory your flows. Who fills in the control document today (or the delivery note standing in for it)? At origin, in traffic, in admin? How many shipments a month, from how many sites?
2. Identify your role in each flow. Are you the contractual shipper, the effective carrier, a forwarder that subcontracts? That determines who must appear in the document and who shares custody. If you play both roles depending on the customer, note it: it conditions the tool.
3. Review the document you use today. If your delivery note "acted as" the control document, check it against art. 6 for missing data (the shipper's tax ID and the trailer plate are the usual suspects).
4. Decide who will issue. Practical rule: whoever has the data before the service starts. Missing data (the subcontractor's plate, say) can be requested from the counterparty — our platform does it with a no-account link.

Week 2 — Clean up the master data

1. Customers and suppliers: company name, tax ID and address of every contractual shipper and carrier you work with. A mistyped tax ID is a legal warning on every document.
2. Vehicles: tractor and trailer plates, and which combinations are usual.
3. Drivers: name and mobile number (to send them the document link by WhatsApp, email or SMS).
4. Routes and typical goods: your 10 most repeated shipments will become templates. With templates and master data, the second DeCA takes under a minute.

Week 3 — Choose a tool with objective criteria

Concrete questions that separate providers in a 20-minute demo:

• Does the public URL comply? Ask to scan a real QR: it must download the PDF directly, no login, no buttons. It is the requirement most improvised providers fail.
• Does it validate art. 6 before issuing? Does it distinguish blocking errors from warnings — or does it happily issue incomplete documents?
• How does it handle en-route changes? Plate change at 6 a.m.: how many clicks, is it audited, does the driver automatically get the current version?
• What evidence does it keep? An operation history preserving previous values? Verifiable (hash chain) — or "trust me"?
• Public pricing? If the price requires a sales call, you already know what renewal will look like. Ours is published: from €0.18 per document, no lock-in.
• Got a TMS/ERP? REST API, webhooks with retries and a sandbox so your integrator can test risk-free. Capabilities on thedevelopers page.
• International traffic on top of domestic? Make sure the same engine issues eCMR: it saves you a second provider in 2027 (DeCA and eCMR on one engine).

Week 4 — Test with real shipments and real drivers

1. Issue 5-10 DeCAs for real shipments in parallel with paper. With our 10 free documents, this test costs nothing.
2. Rehearse the inspection. Scan the QR yourself, then have a veteran driver and a sceptical one scan it: if they find it clear, it is clear.
3. Rehearse the worst case. No-coverage area: did the driver download the PDF before departure? Truck swapped en route: did they receive the new version?
4. Write the internal procedure on one page: who issues, who sends to the driver, who records changes, where the history lives. Training the team with the document in front of them takes an hour.

Final weeks — Cut the paper

1. Set an internal cut-over date ahead of the legal one (15-30 days of margin) and issue everything digitally from then on.
2. Tell customers and subcontractors: what they will receive, how they will complete their data, where they will find the documents. A three-paragraph email prevents twenty calls.
3. Verify custody: the document must remain accessible for a year to both shipper and carrier. With automatic custody, this box ticks itself.

The condensed checklist

• Flows and each party's role identified.
• Issuing owner decided per flow.
• Master data loaded: customers (tax IDs), vehicles, drivers.
• Tool chosen, QR test passed.
• 5-10 real shipments issued digitally and verified.
• Worst case rehearsed (no coverage, vehicle change).
• Internal procedure written, team trained.
• Customers and subcontractors notified.
• Internal cut-over date set — before 5 October 2026.

Nine boxes. If you start today, the first one takes 15 minutes:create your account with 10 free documents and issue the first one. For the full regulatory detail, theDeCA complete guide 2026 is waiting.