Must I stop using paper CMR in 2027?

No. Paper consignment notes remain legal under the 1956 CMR Convention. eFTI governs how authorities accept electronic regulatory information; it does not ban paper.

Is JSON or XML generated from a photo an eFTI submission?

No. Such a file is structured data for internal use or as input to a certified eFTI platform. It has no legal status under Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 on its own.

Are carriers required to buy an eFTI platform?

No. Business participation in eFTI is voluntary. The obligation from 9 July 2027 falls on authorities, which must accept eFTI data offered through certified platforms.

What is the difference between eFTI and e-CMR?

eFTI concerns how authorities accept electronic regulatory and supervisory information. e-CMR, under the 2008 Protocol, concerns the legal status of the consignment note itself between the parties to a carriage contract.

When are the remaining technical specifications due?

The Commission's timeline plans the remaining implementing specifications by December 2026, ahead of the July 2027 acceptance obligation.

eFTI 2027: what becomes mandatory, and for whom

What the Regulation actually says

Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 on electronic freight transport information (full text) does not create a single EU eFTI system. It creates a legal obligation on authorities: from a set date, they must accept relevant regulatory information when a business chooses to supply it electronically, through a certified eFTI platform. It does not force a carrier, forwarder, or sender to use one.

This distinction is the source of most confusion in freight forums and vendor marketing. eFTI is an acceptance mandate on the public sector, not a digitisation mandate on the private sector.

The dates that matter

The Commission publishes the authoritative timeline on its eFTI regulation page.

Date	What happens
21 August 2024	Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 applies
January 2025	First implementing and delegated acts enter into force
By December 2026	Remaining implementing specifications planned
9 July 2027	Authorities must accept eFTI supplied through certified platforms

Nothing in this table requires a business to change how it works before 2027, and even after that date, participation stays voluntary. What changes on 9 July 2027 is that an authority can no longer refuse electronic data offered through a certified platform, where a business chooses to offer it.

What a certified eFTI platform is

A certified eFTI platform is a service that has gone through conformity assessment against the common data model and technical specifications set out in the Regulation and its implementing acts, and that is registered with a competent national authority. Certification covers matters such as data integrity, authenticity, access control, and interoperability with the format authorities expect.

The eFTI4EU presentation sets out the common data model and the platform-certification approach the Commission and member states are building toward. Reading it is a faster way to understand the moving parts than following secondary summaries.

What a certified platform is not

A tool that reads a CMR photograph and produces structured data — JSON, XML, or a spreadsheet row — is not, by itself, a certified eFTI platform, and does not become one by matching the eFTI common data model's field names. Certification is a formal process: conformity assessment by an accredited body and registration with a national competent authority. No amount of correct field mapping substitutes for that process.

This matters because structured extraction and certified submission solve different problems. Extraction turns an existing paper or photo document into usable data. Certified eFTI submission is about the legal channel through which that data reaches an authority that requests it. A business can use the first without ever touching the second, and most will for years after July 2027.

Where e-CMR fits

eFTI is not the only relevant instrument. The Additional Protocol to the CMR Convention concerning the electronic consignment note (2008) gives an electronic consignment note the same legal status as a paper one, in states that are party to it, provided the electronic record meets integrity and authentication requirements. The UN treaty depositary lists ratifying states; the Protocol text sets out the integrity and procedural requirements. Belgium has signed without ratifying. Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, and Malta are not parties.

An e-CMR under the 2008 Protocol and an eFTI submission under Regulation (EU) 2020/1056 answer different questions: e-CMR governs the legal status of the consignment note between the parties to the carriage; eFTI governs how authorities accept regulatory information. A single shipment can involve both, neither, or one without the other.

What a small carrier or forwarder should actually do in 2026–2027

Three practical steps, in order of urgency:

Keep paper legal and usable. Nothing in the current timeline requires abandoning paper CMR. There is no deadline that makes paper non-compliant.
Start producing structured data from documents already in hand. Whether from a scanner, a driver's phone photo, or an existing digital workflow, structured data is useful today for invoicing, matching, and internal reporting, independent of eFTI certification status.
Avoid platform lock-in before the specifications settle. With remaining implementing specifications still due by December 2026, committing to a single certified-platform vendor now risks rework once the full technical picture is public.

How eCMR Capture fits

eCMR Capture extracts the 24 boxes of a CMR document — paper, scan, or photo — into structured JSON and an eFTI-vocabulary-shaped XML. It is an extraction layer, not a certified eFTI platform: the XML it produces is explicitly marked as not certified. It is useful as input to your own systems, or to a certified platform later, without committing you to one now. Try it at /en/try; the API is documented at /docs.