The Department of Defense is pushing back to at least February the effective implementation date for when companies must start shipping supplies with RFID tags. The department had been targeting Jan. 1.

The delay in implementing the DoD's supplier mandate for RFID tracking on the case and pallet level is due to a lack of documented specification for RFID tags by the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department. The department had planned to have the new specification in place in October, which would have provided 90 days between the signing of new contracts and the Jan. 1 deadline for RFID compliance. Ed Coyle, chief of automatic identification technology for the Defense Department, said at a conference Thursday the specification is expected soon, although no specific date is known.

Once it's done, suppliers will have 90 days to comply. "If it's not until Jan. 1, then it will be the first of April," Coyle said.

When it comes to specific RFID requirements, "if it's not in your contract, it doesn't apply to you," Coyle said at the RFID Opportunities for Transport and Logistic Providers conference in Dallas. The "contractual relationship" between the Defense Department and its suppliers applies to the deadline for compliance, as well as to specifics such as who will pick up certain costs for creating RFID implementations, Coyle said.

A few of the Defense Department's largest contractors are ready to begin shipping with RFID, and will meet the mandate as early as January, Coyle said.