Following Albania and North Macedonia, Montenegro is the third Western Balkan country to join eCMR in 2026.
Montenegro has become the 42nd country to join eCMR, the digital protocol to the United Nations CMR Convention.
It represents a key step towards fully paperless road freight in Montenegro, creating the legal basis for the use of electronic consignment notes in international road transport operations.
CMR, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, is the world’s most widely used road transport document, with around 280 million international CMR transactions taking place every year. It provides legal certainty, standardises documentation, and protects both operators and consignors.
By digitalising consignment notes, eCMR builds on these advantages. It reduces administrative burdens, eliminates paper documents, accelerates invoicing processes and improves transparency and operational efficiency across supply chains.
eCMR also supports compliance with eFTI, the EU’s new digital freight framework.
Ensuring interoperability
To advance the uptake of eCMR, IRU and industry partners have launched a new technical expert group.
The expert group, led by IRU, includes eCMR solution vendors FIELDEAS, Pionira and TransFollow; digital security and services firm IN Groupe; and FIATA, the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations.
Given the high degree of fragmentation between existing offerings, the group’s primary focus is to improve interoperability among eCMR solutions, helping transport operators, shippers, freight forwarders and authorities seamlessly exchange information.