No matter how short the journey, Spanish drivers are obliged to always carry a series of documentation with them in the glove compartment of the car. That is if you don’t want to expose yourself to being stopped at a police checkpoint on the road and being fined up to 500 euros. As established by the Traffic and Road Safety Law, all drivers must carry the vehicle’s circulation permit and the vehicle technical inspection card (ITV) and the driving license when driving, so that they can recognize the vehicle and its owner in case of accident, violation, emergency or any other reason.
An essential document is the vehicle’s circulation permit or, where applicable, the provisional authorization issued by the Traffic Department. This links the vehicle you drive with its owner and collects the most important data about the car, such as the make, model, registration date or chassis number, among others. A legal alternative to the original is to carry a duly certified photocopy.
All vehicles must have the MOT sticker attached to the upper right corner of the windshield. This serves to identify, at a glance, the expiration date of the last inspection, but it is not enough. Drivers will also have to carry the latest vehicle technical inspection report, which provides information on its technical specifications or any possible legal changes it has undergone and certifies its roadworthiness.
In addition to the car’s documentation, if you are the one driving it, you must always carry your driving license. This document is what proves that you are trained and authorized to drive certain types of vehicles, depending on the type of permit. In the case of new drivers, they must carry the provisional authorization issued by the Traffic Headquarters.
Failure to carry any of these three documents entails an administrative penalty of 10 euros for each one. If, in addition, any of the information that appears on the driving license or driving license does not match that of your ID, the fine amounts to 80 euros. In the case of drivers who circulate with an expired license or MOT, they will be punished with a fine of 200 euros.
The most serious fines will correspond to those who drive a vehicle that lacks a driving license, who must pay 500 euros. Those who drive a vehicle for which they are not authorized or show an agent a driving license that is not valid will be penalized with the payment of the same amount, to which is added the withdrawal of 4 points from the driving license.
Thanks to the MiDGT application that the General Directorate of Traffic launched in 2020, drivers can carry both their driving license and their driving license or ITV card on their mobile phones. Likewise, this application allows the user to check how many points they have on their card, know their pending fines or pay DGT fees, among other functions. However, the organization itself recommends always carrying physical documentation in the car as a backup, in case coverage fails or your phone runs out of battery.