Same USPS Postmark, New Guidance for Printers and Mailers

By Paul Bobnak

Sometimes I get questions from friends in the fundraising sector about the finer points of direct mail. And I do the best I can, like a few weeks ago when I was asked about the “new” postmark rules.

Toni McQuilken and I were already planning to talk about the changes on this week’s 5 Minute Mail. But due to confusion and concern reported in news stories, I knew I had to dig a little deeper to explain the situation.

First, the facts.

On December 24 last year, USPS added a section to the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) that essentially says that a postmark date does not necessarily align with the date when it accepted possession of that mail piece.

It’s a clarification that reflects reality, thanks to changes brought by the Delivering for America (DFA) plan. With 195 processing facilities being consolidated to 60 regional centers, there are fewer, less frequent dispatches of mail from a post office. So a letter that gets dropped off may sit and wait until the next day or later before moving on.

Personal correspondence is no big deal. If you really don’t want to wait, you can go to your post office and have it hand-canceled, though it doesn’t change when it gets processed.

So, what kinds of mail are time-sensitive and may rely on postmarks to meet a deadline? Here’s a list for you:

Vote-by-mail and absentee ballots and applications
Transactional mail, such as bills and statements
Legal and regulatory documents and court filings
Tax returns, extensions, refund claims
Insurance policies and financial services offers
Filings for courts, licensing, social security, unemployment, etc.
Charitable donations (for end-of-calendar year appeals)

That’s quite a few! Remember that many people rely on physical mail rather than go online. They have a level of trust and security with paper-based communications that they don’t with digital. Or maybe they’re seniors, like my dad, or live in rural areas with unreliable or unaffordable broadband internet.

What can or should printers do to help clients? A couple ideas:

1. Be proactive. Educate them now about how the transportation changes underway affect postmark dates.

2. Plan longer lead times for campaigns. Advise mailers to build in additional days before deadlines for their customers.

3. Remind them to clearly emphasize due dates on a mailpiece. Set them apart to make them unmissable.

All of these guidelines can be applied to election-related mail. Ballots and other voting materials should be reviewed for their postmark and return dates. Drop-off times and locations should be expanded to serve voters who have run out of time to put a ballot in the mail. And political parties and campaigns would be smart to be on top of all of this, to avoid the risk of late ballots.

So just to repeat, the new clarification in the DMM isn’t changing how mail actually gets processed. But it does mean that with the continuing changes at USPS, there are opportunities to show your expertise and reliability for your customers and prospects.

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions. Artificial Intelligence may have been used in part to create or edit this content.