Europe is a patchwork of paper. Or rather, a patchwork of digital formats that don’t talk to each other. That’s the real problem.
Spain just threw a fresh log on the fire. From 5 October 2026, every commercial road freight transport passing through the country will need a digital Documento de Control Administrativo (DCA)—now updated to DeCA, because of course it changed already. The regulation was meant for domestic hauls and cabotage control, but in practice it will hit transit traffic too. And the authorities want a ‘view-by-request’ system: no structured API, just an unstructured document you must produce on demand.
This is not efficient. This is not smart. This is Europe doing what Europe does best: creating complexity.
The Open Logistics Foundation’s Answer
The Open Logistics Foundation, led by Markant, has launched the eDeliveryNote project. Their goal is refreshingly simple: build an open-source data model, standardised APIs, and interoperable interfaces so that existing logistics systems can exchange delivery note data using a common standard.
They’re not trying to replace Universal Business Language (UBL). UBL defines the document schema—what fields an invoice or delivery note should have. The Foundation is solving a different problem: how to actually implement those standards across the messy reality of legacy systems.
“The objective is not to develop another product or platform, but to provide reusable open-source components that integrate with existing systems.”
This is the Scandinavian way. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Build the axle that connects the wheels we already have.
Dr. David Saive and Carina Tüllmann from the Foundation point to Spain as a perfect example of why this matters. Tüllmann notes:
“Spain is actually a prime example of why the argument works the other way around. The regulatory landscape there shifted significantly: what was originally known as the DCA has since been updated and is now referred to as the DeCA. This precisely illustrates the core challenge. National transport compliance requirements can change quickly and with considerable complexity.”
Instead of building country-specific solutions that become obsolete the moment a regulation changes, the Foundation aims for reusable components that adapt as rules evolve. That’s the only sane approach.
Why This Matters for Freelancers and Small Businesses
You might think logistics data standards have nothing to do with your freelance invoicing. But they do.
The same fragmentation that plagues freight documents also plagues invoicing. Different countries, different formats, different requirements. If you’re a freelancer working across borders, you’ve felt the pain of chasing down correct VAT numbers, dealing with local tax rules, and manually formatting invoices that your client’s accounting system will actually accept.
That’s where Invoice Gini comes in. Just say what you need, and Gini generates a professional, compliant PDF. No templates, no manual data entry, no guessing which fields matter. It’s the same philosophy as the Open Logistics Foundation: remove friction, use smart defaults, and let the system handle the complexity so you can focus on your actual work.
The Bigger Picture: Digital Sovereignty Through Open Standards
Governments are pushing digital transport documents for a reason. It’s not just bureaucracy for its own sake. Transport documents establish who is responsible for goods at each stage of the supply chain. They prevent liability disputes. They enable customs clearance. They make the whole system more transparent.
But if every country implements its own flavour of digital document, we end up with more complexity than we started with. The solution is open standards that are flexible enough to accommodate local regulations while maintaining a common core.
The Open Logistics Foundation gets this. Their eDeliveryNote project is exactly the kind of infrastructure Europe needs: not a top-down mandate, but a collaborative, open-source framework that anyone can adopt.
What This Means for You
Whether you’re a logistics company dealing with Spain’s new DeCA requirement or a freelancer sending invoices to clients in three different countries, the lesson is the same: don’t build for today’s regulation. Build for adaptability.
Use tools that are flexible, that understand context, and that can evolve as rules change. That’s why I’m a fan of Invoice Gini—it’s built for the way we actually work, not for the way regulators imagined we’d work five years ago.
Europe’s digital future won’t be built by one company or one government. It will be built by open standards, reusable components, and smart tools that make compliance feel like a side effect, not the main event.
Source: Can Europe finally standardize digital logistics data?