The paper era is ending: the transport sector has 600 days to prepare

The EU is entering the final phase after which paper cargo documents will become a thing of the past. Under the EU eFTI Regulation (2020/1056), by mid-2027 all Member States will be required to accept freight-related data in digital format. eFTI (Electronic Freight Transport Information) is a common EU standard that allows carriers, freight forwarders and control authorities to exchange cargo information electronically. In practice, this means that in about 600 days, paper CMRs, phytosanitary, veterinary and other certificates will no longer be needed at checkpoints.

For businesses operating transport within the EU, the transition will open an opportunity to completely abandon paper documents and replace them with digital versions. Carriers and forwarders will be able to integrate their order-management systems with certified eFTI data platforms, while control authorities, having received the truck number, will access the required information in real time. There will be no need to print documents. This will provide an additional push for transport and logistics companies to digitise the entire operational chain—from order to delivery. However, in transport operations involving third countries, paper documents will still be required for some time, so full elimination will apply only within the EU or in operations that do not involve third-country trucks.

A reminder about eFTI and eCMR

It is important to distinguish that the eFTI Regulation does not create new data-submission obligations. Businesses will continue to provide the same data sets that have been required for 70 years—primarily the CMR consignment note in road transport, which accompanies every shipment. Although many countries have ratified the eCMR (electronic CMR) convention (including Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Belarus, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia and Latvia), the reality is different. In theory, inspections in these countries should accept electronic CMRs, but in practice this does not always happen. Today only about 10% of European carriers confidently operate using eCMR alone. Most choose a dual model: they generate the document digitally but still carry the paper version.

The reason is simple—institutional uncertainty. Not all inspectors or border officers have the tools to actually view digital documents. Therefore, when travelling through, for example, Latvia, Poland or Germany, a driver may still be asked to show a traditional paper CMR sheet. For this reason, many companies have not yet dared to invest in fully automated eCMR modules—they know that in practice they will still need paper. But this situation will not last long. In 600 days, when the eFTI Regulation becomes fully operational, control authorities within the EU will be required to accept digital document versions. Once businesses know that digital documents will be accepted without exception, a real transformation will begin. And it has a clear financial basis: sector estimates show that administering one document digitally saves around 10 euros. This includes printing costs, reduced need for human resources and automated data handling.

A typical forwarding or transport company generates several thousand CMRs per year. If it generates 1,000, the savings amount to about 10,000 euros annually. These are direct funds that can be reinvested in digitisation, AI implementation or service-quality improvements.

Digitalising consignment notes is just the beginning

Although electronic consignment notes eliminate the need for paper CMRs, some logistics documents remain entirely analogue. One of the most challenging areas is bilateral truck permits, which Lithuania exchanges with more than 30 countries, including Kazakhstan and some EU Member States. These permits still circulate only in their original form, physically by post, without any digital alternative. This means a slow and poorly controllable process: documents are delayed, lost, and under limited oversight they may be used more times than quotas allow. For carriers, this creates additional administrative burden, increased operational risk, and real losses when trucks are forced to stand still due to the lack of a single document.

Meanwhile, Europe is moving in the opposite direction. Turkey and neighbouring countries have already introduced digital permit exchange, and from 1 January 2026 all ECMT (eCMT) multilateral permits will become digital. This is a transformative model: permits will reach companies in real time, control authorities will be able to see the entire usage history, and carriers will avoid situations where a paper permit causes delays at the border. If Lithuania were to take the lead and, together with the Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration and the Ministry of Transport and Communications, launch pilot projects for digitalising bilateral permits, carriers would gain real operational benefits: shorter waiting times, fewer errors, reduced risk and faster visa and quota management. This would create a clear competitive advantage in the region.

State support: Estonia is already acting, Lithuania is still planning

Estonia is one of the most advanced examples of how digitisation in the transport sector can be promoted at the national level. The government has already allocated several million euros for eCMR and eFTI implementation, and each transport or logistics company is provided with up to 15,000 euros of financial support. This covers up to 90% of the project costs—from purchasing the eCMR module to integrating it with transport-order systems and staff training. For small and medium-sized enterprises, this enables full system implementation without significant investment from their own funds. Estonia’s experience shows that such grants quickly remove long-standing technological barriers and encourage real adoption of digital solutions in everyday operations.

In Lithuania, strategic steps are still being shaped. The Transport Innovation Association has submitted a proposal to the government to create a “sandbox” environment for digitalising transport operations and applying artificial intelligence—a regulated but flexibly managed space in which companies and state institutions can practically test innovative solutions without waiting for all legal acts to be amended. This tool has already proven effective in the fintech and energy sectors—it helps quickly determine which technologies work in real market conditions and which require additional adjustments. In the transport sector specifically, a sandbox would allow testing, for example, AI-based route-optimisation algorithms, integrated eCMR data-exchange systems, or new customs-automation solutions.

Leadership is what is needed—removing all paper documents from the Transport Operations Inspection System. For businesses, this would mean a faster transition to digital processes, and for state authorities—a chance to evaluate how new solutions work without full risk. This is not a theoretical experiment. It is practical preparation for necessary digitisation measures that will ensure Lithuania does not fall behind regional and EU standards.