"It's the sort of thing you might not notice until it really matters, but the U.S. Postal Service recently changed how it defines the "postmark" on a piece of mail-warning that the postmark date is not a reliable indicator of when you actually mailed something. If you're the sort of person who waits until the last minute to send time-sensitive mail, that means you'll need to stand in line at your local post office and request a manual postmark when dropping off your mail."
"While the way mail is postmarked hasn't undergone some major shift recently, the postal service set out earlier this year to clarify earlier what a postmark means and how the process works. "Postmarks applied at originating processing facilities have never provided a perfectly reliable indicator of the date on which the Postal Service first accepted possession of a mailpiece," the agency said in a federal filing from last month."
USPS clarified the definition of the 'postmark,' stating that postmarks applied at originating processing facilities do not reliably indicate when the Postal Service first accepted a mailpiece. Postmark dates from automated processing reflect processing activity rather than customer acceptance, and postage printed online or at kiosks shows when postage was printed, not when mail entered USPS custody. Customers who need a reliable acceptance date must obtain a manual postmark at a post office. The change aligns with USPS operational optimizations under the Delivering for America plan and raised concerns about impacts on time-sensitive items, including mail-in voting.
Read at Fast Company
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