The administrative burden of waste shipment documents is larger than most companies realise. Handling one shipment by hand takes three to four hours of working time on average. At 100 shipments a year that adds up to more than €30,000 in staff costs, on top of errors, delays and fines. DIWASS has been mandatory for all amber-list shipments since 21 May 2026. Anyone still working by hand carries a double risk: high costs and rising compliance pressure.
The figures below are our own model, not a market survey. They assume a mid-sized company with 100 cross-border waste shipments a year, an administrative employee at €50 per hour, and three fixed consignees abroad. Change any of those three and the outcome changes with it.
| Cost item | By hand | With Travas |
|---|---|---|
| Working time per notification (3 hours × €50/hour × 100) | € 15,000 | € 1,500 |
| Follow-up and correspondence with competent authorities | € 5,000 | € 0 |
| Filing, printing, scanning, storage (art. 86 WSR: 5 years) | € 2,500 | € 0 |
| Errors, rework and delays (estimated) | € 5,000 | € 200 |
| Cost of delayed shipments | € 3,500 | € 0 |
| Travas (licence + transaction subscription) | € 0 | € 1,695 |
| Total per year | € 31,000 | € 3,395 |
Direct working time is only part of the picture. Companies still working by hand, or operating the DIWASS portal themselves, also run into costs that never appear on an invoice.
Fines and enforcement. Since 21 May 2026 the ILT actively checks for missing or incorrect DIWASS registrations. Breaches can lead to shipments being stopped and to administrative fines running into tens of thousands of euro per case. Travas submits documents through the approved machine-to-machine API, with digital signing and an official notification number as evidence.
Supply chain disruption. If a document is missing or incorrect, the driver cannot load or unload. Every day of delay costs on average €1,200 in transport costs plus contractual penalties towards the customer. Travas shows the status in real time to every party in the chain, so problems surface early.
Retention obligation. Article 86 of the Waste Shipment Regulation requires companies to keep all accompanying documents for five years, searchable and immediately available on inspection. Filing by hand costs time, and it costs nerves when an inspector calls. Travas files automatically: XML, DIWASS reference and every attachment in one place.
Some companies consider developing their own DIWASS connection. What that choice looks like in practice:
Travas has already made that investment, after three years of research and platform development. You use an approved Route 3 connection for a fraction of what building one costs.
| Component | Price |
|---|---|
| Platform licence | € 495 / year |
| Transaction subscription (240 shipments/year, annual pool) | € 1,200 / year |
| Per connected entity | € 100 / year |
| Per shipment above 240 | € 3.00 |
Example, 120 shipments per year, three fixed consignees:
Licence: €495 · Subscription: €1,200 · Consignees: €300 · Extra shipments: €0
Total: €1,995 per year, against roughly €37,200 per year when handled by hand, on the same assumptions as above.
Are there installation costs? No. There are no one-off installation costs and no mandatory system integration. Onboarding takes place within one working day.
What do our drivers and carriers pay? Carriers and chain partners are included in the subscription free of charge. They get access to the platform at no extra cost.
Does the subscription cover both the green and the amber list? Yes. Both procedures, Annex VII (green list) and Annex IA/IB (amber list), are included in one subscription.