Route sheet data in Spain: what to include and where it comes from

The route sheet has to show the data set out in article 2 of Order FOM/1230/2013 (the Spanish ministerial order that sets control rules for public passenger transport by road): name and tax ID (NIF) of the carrier, name and NIF of whoever contracts the service, origin, destination and date, the bus registration number, name and NIF of the driver, and the nature of the service. On discretionary and tourist services the intermediate stops are added, and on reinforcement and collaboration services the reference regular service must be identified.

Here is each item, where it usually comes from in the office, what Bus Center does when one is missing, and what happens if one changes after issue.

The data the order requires

The order lists six items, from a) to f), and requires them “in all cases” (our translation). Now that the route sheet is electronic, the resolution of the Spanish Directorate-General for Road and Rail Transport requires the application that generates it to cover at least the data in article 2 of Order FOM/1230/2013.

Item	What must be shown
a)	Name and tax identification number of the carrier.
b)	Name and tax identification number of the person, company or body contracting the service.
c)	Origin, destination and date of the service, and on some services the intermediate stops.
d)	Registration number of the bus providing the service.
e)	Name and tax identification number of the driver providing the service.
f)	Nature of the service, according to four classes.

There is no official form to fill in. Annex I of the order, which was the official route-book template, is empty: it was left that way by Royal Decree 70/2019. What counts is that the data is there, in the electronic format the rules require; we explain it in the electronic route sheet.

The nature of the service, in four classes

The nature of the service is declared using one of the order's four classes, and other data depends on it. The classes are:

• 1.º Discretionary service.
• 2.º Discretionary service provided as reinforcement of a public regular transport service for general use.
• 3.º Discretionary service provided as collaboration in a regular transport service for special use.
• 4.º Tourist service.

The Spanish transport law defines discretionary transport as that carried out without a pre-set itinerary, calendar or timetable; regular transport, by contrast, runs on pre-set itineraries and to fixed calendars and timetables. If you are unsure of the class of a particular service, check first with your adviser or with the transport authority of your autonomous community: it is the item on which the rest depends. Which buses must carry a route sheet and which do not is covered in which buses carry a route sheet.

Intermediate stops and reference service

Intermediate stops are required only for two classes: on services of classes 1 and 4, that is, discretionary and tourist, any intermediate stops made during the journey must also be recorded. For a reinforcement or a collaboration the order does not ask for them.

In exchange, reinforcement and collaboration carry an item of their own. For a reinforcement, the service being reinforced must be identified, and for a collaboration, the transport service being collaborated in.

The route sheet is generated before the service starts, so what is recorded at issue are the planned stops. If the data has to be modified or updated during the service, the resolution sets out how; we cover it in how to modify a route sheet that has already been issued.

Where each item comes from

Almost all the data is already in the office, spread over three or four places: the company record, the customer's, the driver's and the service itself. This is how it is split in Bus Center:

Item	Where Bus Center takes it from
Carrier	The company name and NIF from the company's tax record.
Contracting party	The customer record; if it has no NIF, the NIF entered on the service itself.
Origin, destination and date	The service itself.
Registration number	The coach assigned to the service.
Driver	The name and DNI (national ID number) from the record of the assigned driver.
Nature	Declared by the office on the service.
Stops and reference service	Declared by the office when issuing.

The document's data comes from the program at the moment of issue, as it stands at that instant. One item worth asking for early is the NIF of whoever is contracting, whether a company, a school or a private individual: better when confirming the service than on the eve of departure.

What happens if an item is missing

In Bus Center, if anything is missing, nothing is issued: it tells you what is missing and which article requires it. Each warning states the item, its name and the letter of article 2 of the order that requires it, so the office knows what to complete and why.

There are two more rules. A NIF or the nature of the service is never invented: if they are missing, they are requested. And as long as the nature of the service is not recorded, Bus Center requires a route sheet; this is the program's own policy, not legal text, because an exemption applied without proof is worse than one route sheet too many.

Outside the program, the consequence of setting off with an incomplete sheet is set by the transport law. The LOTT (Spain's Land Transport Act, Ley de Ordenación de los Transportes Terrestres) classes as a serious infringement the absence, lack of endorsement or lack of essential data in the control documentation that must be completed. What range of fines applies and which cases it distinguishes we cover in the penalty for not carrying a route sheet.

What happens if an item changes after issue

If after issue you change the driver, the bus, the date, the origin, the destination or the contracting party's NIF, Bus Center detects it: the issued sheet no longer matches the service and the program warns you so that you issue a new version. It makes sure a driver does not set off with a PDF carrying another person's name and NIF.

The new version is a new PDF with a new URL and a new QR code, and the previous one is kept outside the public address. There is a summary in the route sheet section (in Spanish) of the home page.

Sources consulted

Checked on 11 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.

• Orden FOM/1230/2013, de 31 de mayo, por la que se establecen normas de control en relación con los transportes públicos de viajeros por carretera (texto consolidado). BOE.
• Resolución de 5 de junio de 2026, de la Dirección General de Transporte por Carretera y Ferrocarril, por la que se establecen las características que deben reunir los sistemas y los documentos electrónicos de control administrativo exigidos en los transportes por carretera (texto consolidado). BOE.
• Ley 16/1987, de 30 de julio, de Ordenación de los Transportes Terrestres (texto consolidado). BOE.