By Lee Garvey

If you’ve been following postal news, you might have seen some headlines recently that sound a little alarming. As of December 24, 2025, the USPS officially updated its definition of a “postmark” (under a new rule described in section 608.11 of the Domestic Mail Manual).

In plain English? That ink stamp on an envelope—the one people have relied on for decades to prove they mailed a tax return or a legal notice on time—isn’t what it used to be.

The updated rules explain that a USPS machine postmark is only an internal process step. It reflects when a machine processed the mail, not necessarily when you dropped it in the box. With recent changes to how mail moves around the country (the “Delivering for America” plan), a letter you drop in a blue box today might not get that ink stamp for another 1 to 3 days.

For anyone relying on a physical stamp and a blue mailbox to meet a deadline, that’s a problem.

But here is the good news: If you use Click2Mail, this change does not negatively impact you.

In fact, it proves exactly why sending mail online with us is smarter, safer, and legally more robust than making a trip to the post office.

Why Your Click2Mail “Postmark” is Better than Ink

When you send mail through Click2Mail, we don’t lick stamps. We use a commercial system called Permit Imprint. Because of this, your mail doesn’t rely on a machine randomly catching it to prove it exists.

Instead, we use a digital audit trail that is far superior to the old-fashioned ink stamp:

  1. The Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb): Every single letter or postcard we send for you carries a unique digital fingerprint called an Intelligent Mail Barcode.
  2. Electronic “Handshakes”: When we hand your mail over to the USPS, we don’t just dump it in a bin. We submit Electronic Documentation (eDoc) directly to the Postal Service.
  3. The “Acceptance” Scan: The moment the USPS processes our paperwork, there is an official “Acceptance” event in their system. This digital record serves as proof of exactly when the USPS took possession of your mail.

The “Chain of Custody”

Think of it this way: An old-fashioned postmark is like a snapshot that might be blurry or taken days late. The Click2Mail system is like a tracked package receipt.

Even though you aren’t sending “Certified Mail” every time, the technology we use (Informed Visibility) allows us to see when your mail enters the stream. For legal and regulatory purposes, this commercial entry data is the gold standard for proving date of mailing.

Click2Mail automatically provides Informed Visibility scans for every mailpiece in your dashboard. For added peace of mind, we offer C2M’s Certification of Mailing. This feature creates a rigorous digital audit trail certificate, and preserves an exact, unchangeable copy of your mailed document to resolve any future disputes.

Save the Trip (and the Stress)

The new USPS rules explicitly warn that dropping mail in a collection box doesn’t guarantee a postmark that day. To get a guaranteed date stamp the old way, you now effectively have to stand in line at a counter and ask a clerk to hand-cancel your envelope.

Who has time for that?

With Click2Mail:

  • No lines: Upload your document from your desk or your mobile device.
  • No guessing: We hand-off to the USPS with precise electronic records.
  • No ink smudge risks: Your “proof” is digital data, not a rubber stamp.

The definition of a postmark may have changed, but the reliability of Click2Mail hasn’t. We’ve always built our system on the professional, commercial backbone of the USPS—the part that relies on data, not ink.

So, go ahead and send that time-sensitive invoice, notification, or appeal. While others are worrying about whether the machine will stamp their envelope in time, you can click “Send” and get back to business.

Need to send a critical document today? [Log in to Click2Mail] and get it into the mailstream without leaving your chair.