Facing Identification Marks (FIM) are barcodes meant to aid in faster and more accurate sorting and delivery of the mail. They’re not the ones you are probably thinking of – the ones at the bottom of envelopes. Those are Intelligent Mail Barcodes (IMB), and we’ll get to them in a later post.
FIMs are located at the top of the envelope, so you might not have ever given them a second thought. They’ve been around in common use since the 1980s, long before IMBs came into play. So, what’s the FIM’s deal?
Here’s what the Postal Service says, straight from the horse’s mouth: “The FIM allows automatic facing (orientation) of letter-size mail for cancellation (postmarking). The FIM also identifies reply mail that bears preprinted barcodes, and the automated processing equipment routes barcoded mail directly to high-speed barcode sorters.”
They are located at the top of the envelope, to the left of where the postage goes. You’ll most likely see them on Business Reply Mail (BRE) envelopes, whose postage is pre-paid by the sender. Send them off without a stamp, easy-breezy.
More common as the years have gone by, are Courtesy Reply Mail (CRM) envelopes. They’re the ones that come with your paper bills – a pre-printed address, but you still need to foot the bill for a stamp.
Closely related are envelopes for Automated Bill Payments. FIMs do the heavy lifting to insure that these mailpieces are processed quickly – which is crucial for making sure you don’t have to tell someone “the check is in the mail,” and incur a late fee.
And everyone’s favorite: Direct Mail campaigns. Different entities use different envelopes (BRE or CRE) to make giving a donation easier, and the FIM insures it gets to where it’s going with speed.
The Nitty Gritty
FIMs are palindromic (they read the same forwards and backwards). We love a palindrome. Even though these codes are harder to decipher, just the knowledge that they are palindromic is pretty rad. Let’s dive in.
There are five different types of FIM:
FIM A is used for mail that has postage and an Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB). You’ll most likely see it used on preprinted CRM and MRM (Metered Reply Mail) envelopes, but it can be applied to any mail.
FIM B is used for BRM without a preprinted barcode. BRM is paid for by the sender; because not having a barcode costs more, it is rarely used.
FIM C is used for BRM with a preprinted Intelligent Mail Barcode, as well as Permit Reply Mail (PRM) with a pre-printed delivery-point barcode.
FIM D is used only with Information-Based Indicia (IBI) postage. That’s for postage that has been paid for electronically.
FIM E is used to mark Share Mail, where the Intelligent Mail Barcode is used as postage. We can’t think of the last time we saw Share Mail, though. Those are postcards and envelopes sent with larger mailings, which you can address/forward to someone else without paying postage.
What have we learned about Facing Identification Marks?
There are five different types of Facing Identification Marks. They’re each specifically used for a variety of mail types. Since FIMs are used on preprinted envelopes, it’s likely you will never have a need for truly understanding a FIM. But, you’re here, looking around a site that gets into the details of the U.S. Mail, so we’d hate to leave out any cool information you might use at your next trivia night.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facing_Identification_Mark
Further reading about envelopes: What happens to unreadable mail?
