He says both sides of his family have long been entrepreneurs, and that he caught the bug early in life. He recalls setting up a running track in the neighborhood, charging kids to enter, and handing out prizes. He sold avocados and fruit door to door.

"I was always doing something like that."

For a time, the 18-year Orange County resident was regional president and CEO for Pandick Inc., one of the largest financial printers in the world.

When he decided to co-found OVERNITE EXPRESS with a partner who has since left, he says he had a sense there was room for what he wanted to do, but wasn't sure how big that plot of business land would be. Or become.

First Question, who to go after? "If a customer ships 99 percent out of Southern California, they're not going to be a target for us. But if 99 percent stays within Southern California, they'll be a real target."

Ukropina recalls the three-month setup and the first packages that went out in the company's fourth month of existence. "The first month, we did $1,000, 80 packages, about four a day."

"We started with law firms, and some were willing to give us a shot at it, and there was a need. We knew they would always be working past 6 o'clock. Law firms gave us the trial which built our business base initially."

Schneider's family traces its Orange County roots back to the 19th century. He was born in Fullerton and raised in Newport Beach.

"My mom and dad (Mildred and Don) were part of the early pioneers who settled in Anaheim and Fullerton," he says.

Schneider attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, was head of the business club on campus, served as youth pastor in nearby Cambria, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in business with a marketing concentration.

He owned a financial and insurance services company for more than nine years.

"It's been a real great partnership," he says. "We really get along well." Some adjustments have been made. Schneider has a cancer that has limited his hours somewhat. But, he says, not his motivation. "I'm still able to enjoy a successful career."

A third partner, Philip Nabal, is vice president, operations.

More than 150 drop-off bins are available to customers and drivers also make numerous pickups each night. The company's largest customer base are attorneys; with projects wrapping up at, say 9 p.m., with delivery needed by, say 9 the next morning, such a service is a necessity. A computerized system gets the package properly labeled and placed on the right truck and drivers keep portable radios so the main office can be in direct contact at any time, for whatever reason. Often a client calls and asks, "How many minutes before my package arrives."

The company's pledge of 100 percent delivery is not as simple as labeling and driving the roads and highways between eight Southern California counties. Sometimes the sender gives the wrong address, or street, or high-rise floor. "Every day," Ukropina says, "we correct about 5 percent of our packages. But that's what we have built our business on, 100 percent delivery the next morning."

For what they do, provide the best customer service possible, they believe they are not prone to the pressures of other industries where a competitor might find a better, less-expensive way of doing business. "We're building this business through a level of customer service that cannot be done by the larger overnights because they have gotten too big." And the company promises low rates in part because there are no costly airplanes to buy and maintain. The lowest delivery rate is $6.00; early morning delivery service is several dollars more.

Here's how a day in the life of a package gets from here to there. From Ukropina: "Let's talk about an advertising agency in downtown Los Angeles that has a presentation tomorrow morning in San Diego at 9 o'clock and where their pickup is at 10 at night. They will have 15 boxes of brochures and flip charts and a projector. The (boxes) will come here by midnight and be sorted and then we'll have a driver who will leave here about 5 or 6 in the morning. And it will get delivered to downtown San Diego before 9 o'clock."

The most unusual package? An advertising agency that was working on an account for 412 McDonald's in Southern California needed to send out a correction on a POG promotion. "The advertising agency needed to get 412 boxes out that had new promotional material in it," Ukropina says. "It had to get there the next day."

The pair say they have no plans to try to grow OVERNITE EXPRESS into a billion-dollar company. That's not the goal.

"Doug and I learned a lot from the '80's with too much leverage and over expansion," Ukropina says. "We're in this business to have a nice company for all of those involved and produce a high level of service in a niche market."

"And we're not sitting back in an ivory tower deciding where we're going to expand the next market."

"We want to have a balanced life and quality of life personally is important too," says Schneider. "We don't want the business to own us, we want to own the business."

Success is measured in other ways.

As Schneider points out, more and more deliveries are being made from one satisfied customer to another. OVERNITE EXPRESS all the way.

He points to three keys to success for the company:

"Core values, capital and commitment."

Adds his partner: "And tenacity."

By Craig Reem May 1, 1996

OC Metro