Driver posting declaration (IMI): complete 2026 guide

Published: 2 July 2026 · Last reviewed: 6 July 2026 · Verified against Directive (EU) 2020/1057, the European Commission's official Q&A, and the RTPD portal manual.

What is the driver posting declaration (IMI) and what is its legal basis?

The posting declaration is the advance notification a transport company must submit when it sends an employed driver to work temporarily in another EU country under certain operations. It is submitted on the European RTPD portal and processed through the IMI (Internal Market Information) system — which is why the industry calls it the "IMI declaration".

Necessary clarification: IMI stands for Internal Market Information, the IT system the European Commission uses for exchanging information between authorities of different Member States (it isn't exclusive to transport; other internal-market directives use it too). It does not stand for anything transport-specific — some invented backronyms circulate online and have even been repeated by an AI assistant through pure confabulation; best not to repeat them.

Its legal basis is Directive (EU) 2020/1057 (EUR-Lex), the Mobility Package rule that adapts the general worker-posting rules (Directive 96/71/EC) to road transport. In Spain it is transposed by Royal Decree-Law 3/2022 (Spain's BOE). The European Commission also maintains an official Q&A on the posting rules (DG MOVE) with 15 practical freight scenarios that we use as a reference throughout this guide.

An important point of vocabulary: this guide is about posted drivers. Cabotage is only one of the operations that trigger the declaration requirement (domestic transport inside another country), not a synonym for all of this. Mixing up the terms leads to practical mistakes, such as believing only cabotage triggers the declaration requirement.

Who is required to declare, and who isn't?

Companies whose employed drivers carry out cabotage or cross-trade (transport between two countries, neither of which is Spain) are required to declare. Transit and bilateral operations with origin or destination in Spain are exempt.

Here is the complete decision tree for a company established in Spain, in the order it's worth checking:

Unsure about your specific case? Check your case in 1 minute with our "Do I need to declare?" checker.

How is the declaration submitted, step by step?

The declaration is submitted exclusively on the public RTPD portal (postingdeclaration.eu), the only valid channel since 2 February 2022. It must be submitted no later than the start of the posting, and one declaration is made per driver and per country (in multi-crewing, one for each driver on the vehicle).

1. Create the company account on postingdeclaration.eu with an EU Login account. Access is free.
2. Register the company: Community licence number and contact details of a transport manager or other contact person in Spain.
3. Register the driver: identity, driving licence number, address, contract start date, and law applicable to the contract.
4. Create the declaration by choosing the host country: planned start and end dates, vehicle registrations, and type of service (goods or passengers; cabotage or international transport).
5. Submit the declaration and hand the copy to the driver (on paper or electronically, for example a QR-coded PDF on a phone). It must be available to show at a roadside check.
6. Renew or amend whenever the data changes: the declaration is editable and renewable from the portal itself. This is where the real administrative workload builds up when you have several drivers and several countries.

There is also an official test environment (postingdeclaration-training.eu) for practising without submitting anything real.

How long does a posting declaration last? (No, it's not 12 months)

Each declaration is valid for up to a maximum of 6 months, which is the limit imposed by the RTPD portal itself, and it is renewable as many times as needed. If your drivers operate continuously in a country, you'll need to renew their declarations at least twice a year, per driver and per country.

Practical consequence: if you submitted declarations "for the whole year", review them. Chances are half your fleet is running around with expired declarations without anyone noticing, and an expired declaration is the same as not having declared at all.

What must the driver carry on board?

Three things, on paper or in electronic format: the RTPD declaration copy, the consignment notes (CMR or e-CMR, or the evidence under art. 8(3) of Reg. 1072/2009 in cabotage), and the tachograph records with the country symbols correctly logged.

Nothing else is required at a roadside check. If an officer requests payslips, contracts or proof of payment at the roadside, that documentation isn't handed over there: it is requested afterward through the official channel (next section). A driver correctly logging the country symbols on the tachograph is not a minor detail: it's the main evidence of which country they were working in and when.

What happens after the trip? The 8 weeks of IMI

The host country may request additional documentation after the posting, and it does so through the IMI system. The company has 8 weeks from the request to submit: consignment notes, tachograph records, payslips for the period, employment contract, working-time records and proof of salary payment.

The request arrives via the Spanish authorities: the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate assists and processes it under RD-Law 3/2022 (with an internal deadline of 25 working days). Failing to respond in time is a sanctionable infringement in itself in several countries — Italy, for example, penalizes it with €1,000–4,000, separately from the fine for not declaring.

Practical translation: it's not enough to declare; you need to be able to reconstruct the file for each posting (declaration + CMR + tachograph + payslip) well after the trip has ended.

What salary must be paid to the posted driver?

During the posting, the driver is entitled to the remuneration of the host country — as set by law and by universally applicable collective agreements — from day one, if it is higher than their own [art. 1(9) of 2020/1057 and art. 3(1) of Dir. 96/71].

This means calculating, for each country where the driver is posted, the proportional share of their working time and checking that their pay for that time meets the country's minimum (France and Germany have the most developed rules). Proof of that payment is precisely part of what you'll be asked for via IMI. Allowances and reimbursements that cover real trip expenses generally do not count as salary for these purposes.

What about the A1 certificate? It's a separate obligation, and it ALWAYS applies

The A1 is a social security certificate (Reg. 883/2004), not a labour-law one, and it is an independent obligation from the posting declaration: it also applies to bilateral operations and to transits that are exempt from declaring on RTPD. The rule to remember is: "exempt from RTPD ≠ exempt from A1".

For international drivers, the usual certificate is the A1 under art. 13 (multi-state activity: work in two or more States), which in Spain is issued by the Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social (Spanish social security treasury). There is no explicit regulatory obligation to carry it on board, but it is highly recommended: several countries request it at checks, and France imposes on the French customer a penalty of approximately one monthly ceiling of French social security (~€3,900–4,000) per worker without an A1, which in practice means French shippers demand it.

Non-EU drivers with a Spanish work permit follow exactly the same rules (nationality is irrelevant for the Directive), and additionally need the driver certificate under Reg. 1072/2009; their A1 is processed via Reg. 1231/2010.

You'll find the full detail on the A1 (and on the CAP card and its 35-hour renewals) in the A1 and CAP certificates guide.

What penalty applies for not declaring, in each country?

Penalties are set by each Member State and the differences are enormous. This table summarizes the figures for not submitting the declaration that we have been able to verify against official sources or solid legal analysis (we only publish figures with high or medium-high confidence; the rest we prefer not to invent):

Two patterns worth keeping in mind: (1) France, Belgium and Luxembourg multiply the fine per driver, which is what drives up the real cost of a single check; and (2) in France, Belgium, Italy and Luxembourg, vehicle immobilization is a common practical consequence, adding the cost of the stopped load on top of the fine.

We have the full country-by-country detail — 2026 minimum wage, correct portal, documentation and specifics — on the pages for France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain (this last one from the reverse perspective: foreign carriers operating here, and the Spanish shipper's liability).

Calculate your exposure with our penalty calculator by country.

Ambiguities you should know about (what almost no one tells you)

Not everything in this area is settled in black and white, and we prefer to say so. These are the points where interpretation is involved:

• 6 vs 12 months. As explained above, the correct operative figure is 6 months per declaration (RTPD portal limit, renewable). The "12 months" is the long-term posting threshold of 96/71, which almost never applies to drivers.
• Vans 2.5–3.5 t: the start date is disputed. One reading of Reg. 1072/2009 includes them from 21-5-2022; the Commission's Q&A (Q9) points to 1-7-2026. Since 1 July 2026, the obligation is beyond dispute in any case (and requires a v2 smart tachograph).
• Non-bilateral combined transport = cabotage. This is a reading a contrario of art. 1(6) applied by States (Denmark applies it expressly), but it is not written in those words in the articles themselves.
• Exact start and end of posting in cross-trade. The operative rule (posted in the country of loading and unloading, not in transit) comes from the Commission's Q&A, which is not legally binding: only the Court of Justice of the EU authoritatively interprets the Directive.
• Vehicles < 2.5 t. They fall outside 2020/1057, but that's not a free pass: the host country may apply its general posting regime under 96/71, with rules that vary by country.

Frequently asked questions

Does the posting declaration (IMI) last 12 months?

No. Each declaration is valid for up to 6 months (RTPD portal limit) and is renewable. The "12 months" is the long-term posting threshold of Directive 96/71, which is a different matter and almost never applies to drivers.

Do I have to declare on a bilateral Spain↔France transport?

No. Bilateral operations (origin or destination in Spain) are exempt [art. 1(3) of 2020/1057]. But the A1 is still mandatory, including on exempt operations.

Where is the posting declaration submitted?

Only on the European portal postingdeclaration.eu, the only valid channel since 2-2-2022. The old national portals (SIPSI, etc.) are no longer used for drivers.

Is the declaration made per company or per driver?

Per driver and per country. Two drivers in the same truck: two declarations. One driver posted to two countries: two declarations.

What documents must the driver carry on board?

Copy of the RTPD declaration, consignment notes (CMR/e-CMR) and tachograph records with country symbols. Nothing else is required at a roadside check; the rest is requested afterward via IMI.

Do vans have to submit a posting declaration?

Those between 2.5–3.5 t in international transport, yes (beyond dispute since 1-7-2026, with v2 tachograph). Those under 2.5 t fall outside the Directive, although the host country may apply its general rules.

Do self-employed drivers have to declare?

No: the Directive only covers employed drivers (including those supplied by temp agencies). Watch out for bogus self-employment, which authorities can reclassify.

What happens if a country requests documentation after the trip?

The request arrives via IMI, and you have 8 weeks to submit CMR, tachograph, payslips, contract, working-time records and proof of payment. The Spanish Labour Inspectorate assists with the process.

Official sources

• Directive (EU) 2020/1057 — EUR-Lex
• Directive 96/71/EC (posting of workers) — EUR-Lex
• Regulation (EC) 1072/2009 (market access and cabotage) — EUR-Lex
• Official Q&A on driver posting rules — European Commission (DG MOVE)
• RTPD portal — postingdeclaration.eu · test environment
• Spanish Royal Decree-Law 3/2022 — BOE

Notice. This guide is informational content produced by MovingCert and verified against the official sources linked above. It does not constitute legal advice; for your specific case, consult a professional. Penalties and criteria may change: every published figure links its source so you can check it. Last reviewed: 6 July 2026.