eFTI 2027: Freight Traceability Built on a Shared Data Model

Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 entered into force in August 2020, but its application has been built up in phases through delegated and implementing acts. The first of these, setting the common data set and the rules for authority access, took effect in January 2025. In November 2025 the European Commission adopted the implementing regulation detailing the functional and technical requirements platforms must meet to be certified as eFTI platforms, and providers have been able to seek certification since 2026.

The date that matters is 9 July 2027: from that day, no Member State authority may demand paper from a company already presenting its information through a certified eFTI platform. The regulation doesn't yet require transport companies to digitise their documents — it requires authorities to accept them if a company chooses to. A review clause due in 2029 will look at whether to make digitisation mandatory for operators.

In Spain, the Ministry of Transport has been laying parallel groundwork: Law 9/2025 on Sustainable Mobility sets 5 October 2026 as the date the DECA (the electronic administrative control document) becomes exclusively digital, and the SIMPLE platform has already added the functionality needed to become the national eFTI Gate and gain certification as an eFTI platform.

What makes eFTI workable isn't a promise to "go paperless" — it's a common data set. The 2024 delegated acts define which pieces of information (consignor, consignee, goods, route, associated documents) must be representable in the same structure with the same meaning, whatever the mode: road, rail, inland waterway or air. The model draws on UN/CEFACT's multimodal transport data standards precisely so that data entered once can be read automatically by different systems without manual reinterpretation.

That standardisation is what lets certified eFTI platforms talk to each other and to authorities through harmonised access procedures, rather than each administration defining its own format for acceptance.

Today, the information behind a single shipment is scattered across documents and systems that don't talk to one another: the shipper and haulier exchange the consignment note between themselves, customs receives its own declaration through a separate channel, and every roadside check means producing the paper or PDF again. Each party keeps its own copy, and reconciling those copies — or proving none of them has been altered — falls to manual work.

eFTI replaces that bilateral exchange with a four-corner model: the transport operator keeps its data on a certified eFTI platform, and both the shipper and the authorities reach that same source through unique access links, in machine-readable formats such as a QR code, rather than receiving and filing separate copies of their own. The authority doesn't ask for the document — it requests access to the already-certified data, and only when it needs it for an inspection. The haulier can grant selective access rights to each counterparty, so a shipper or subcontractor sees what concerns them without the whole file being forwarded on.

That shift — from reconciled bilateral copies to a single record with controlled access — is the same problem solved by a shared-registry infrastructure with identified participants: every party works from the same data, with a record of who accessed it and when, without having to hand a third party control over their own commercial information. It's the principle behind the European network operated by Alastria in its documentary traceability pillar — multi-party visibility over a record with evidential value, rather than one more copy to reconcile.

There are fewer than ten months left until July 2027, and the groundwork doesn't depend on waiting for that date. The sensible order is: map which documents are currently exchanged bilaterally with each shipper, customer and authority; compare those fields against the common data set the delegated acts define, to spot what's missing or duplicated; assess which eFTI platform providers are getting certified and whether they're compatible with the eFTI Gate each Member State is rolling out (in Spain, SIMPLE); and review internal documentation flows — who generates the data, who validates it, who needs access — before that flow has to be machine-readable and accessible to authorities in more than one country.

What is eFTI, and when does it take effect in 2027? eFTI (Electronic Freight Transport Information) is Regulation (EU) 2020/1056, which requires Member State authorities to accept transport documentation submitted electronically through a certified platform. That acceptance obligation is fully applicable from 9 July 2027.

Do transport companies have to use an eFTI platform? Not yet, at least. The regulation obliges authorities to accept the digital format if a company chooses to submit it that way; it doesn't oblige companies to digitise. A review clause due in 2029 will assess whether to introduce a mandate for operators.

What is eFTI's four-corner model? It's how eFTI organises access to information: the transport operator keeps the data on its certified platform, and both the shipper and the authorities reach that same source through controlled access links, rather than receiving and filing separate copies through separate channels.

How does eFTI affect roadside inspections and customs? From July 2027, no authority will be able to demand a paper document from a company already presenting it through a certified eFTI platform; the check is done by requesting access to the certified data at the point of inspection, not by collecting a physical copy.

How does eFTI relate to Spain's DECA and the Sustainable Mobility Law? They're parallel processes that converge: Law 9/2025 on Sustainable Mobility sets 5 October 2026 as the date the DECA becomes exclusively digital in Spain, and the Ministry of Transport's SIMPLE platform is adding the functionality needed to operate as the national eFTI Gate and gain certification as an eFTI platform under the European regulation.