Postmarks are generally applied at our originating processing facilities and will continue to be applied at those facilities in the same manner and to the same extent as before. Postmarks applied at those facilities will continue to contain the name or location of the facility that applied the postmark and the date on which the first automated processing operation was performed on that mailpiece.
To be clear, the Postal Service has not changed our postmarking practices. We have been making adjustments to our transportation operations. These adjustments help reduce costs and improve operational precision, but they also may impact the postmark date, so we want our customers to understand that impact.
Our transportation changes result in some mailpieces not arriving at our processing facilities on the same day that they are mailed. Because postmarks are generally applied at processing facilities, the postmark date may not match the date on which the mailpiece was collected by a letter carrier, dropped off at a retail location, or placed in a collection box.
While we didn’t change our postmarking practices, we understand that some customers thought that the date on a postmark represented the “mailing” date. We also recognized that the Postal Service’s regulations did not contain a definition of the postmark that makes clear exactly what it is, the circumstances in which it is applied, and what the markings represent. To help our customers, we amended our Domestic Mail Manual with a clear definition of the postmark and advice for customers on what they should do if they want to ensure that their mailpieces receive a postmark.
We hope our new language helps customers understand what postmarks mean and don’t mean, and more importantly, what customers can do if they want to make sure that their outgoing mail is postmarked. The most important advice for customers is that they can ensure that their mailpiece receives a postmark, and that the date on the postmark matches the date of mailing, by taking the mailpiece to a Postal Service retail location and requesting a manual postmark at the retail counter when dropping off the mailpiece. Manual postmarks will be applied free of charge.
Additional information on postmarking is found on our website: Requirements and Standards for Sending Domestic Mail. We also published a Postmarking Myths and Facts document: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/statements/010226-postmarking-myths-and-facts.htm.
Steven Monteith
Chief Customer & Marketing Officer
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