24 Hours in O.C. The Cover Story by OC METRO STAFF.

One Way to get a handle on the diversity of Orange County's world is to set out to visit it during one 24-hour period. That's what OC METRO did on April 17, 1998.

11:37 P.M. Overnite Express Delivers. After 11 p.m., when the streets of commercial Irvine are deserted, the Overnite Express warehouse off on Langley Avenue near Red Hill Avenue is just beginning to stir.

Overnite Express is the perfect example of a business that serves a 24-hour economy increasingly based on just-in-time production, inventory and service.

Driver Blake McEfee, 35, zips into the warehouse at 11:37 p.m. in his white Overnite Express van. Tonight he has done 36 pickups in the Irvine-Costa Mesa-Newport business area, some at drop boxes and others from offices.

"I start at 7p.m. with early pickups, leave Irvine about 1 a.m. to drive up to Los Angeles where I take packages to one of our regional hubs, and I'm done at 3 a.m. in Buena Park," says McEfee.

Serving the Southern California region from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border and operating from its central hub in Irvine, Overnite Express will sort 1,800 packages tonight. While pint-sized compared to the national giants like FedEx, UPS and Airborne Express, Overnite Express offers competitive advantages on local deliveries.

"Over 95 percent of our pickups are after 9 p.m.," says Rob Ukropina, founder and CEO.

The last pickup for most overnight services is usually about 7 p.m. But because Overnite Express stays on the ground and does not fly planes to a national hub in the Midwest, it can both pick up packages later and charge less.

Gazing at packages sorted by delivery zones in white holding bins, Ukropina points at a large roll of paper being sent by OCB Reprographics, a leading graphics company.

"If OCB Reprographics sends a heavy roll of graphic design materials overnight to a Los Angeles architect and uses a national firm, the cost would be about $35 depending on the weight of the package. Shipping the same roll with Overnite Express will cost about $10.00."

Shipping by ground is less expensive than shipping by air.

Of tonight's 1,800 packages, 600 have computerized forms entered by the sender, another 600 have scannable bar codes (similar to grocery stores), and the remaining 600-700 packages have to be manually inputted into the computer data base.

"We are absolutely killed between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m." says Jennifer Staes who is already busy typing in shipment forms at 11:42 p.m. "That is when most of the drivers come in."

Before companies like Overnite Express came into existence, most companies could either use expensive messenger services to deliver a package in the Southern California area or use a national express package service. Ukropina says similar firms have sprung up in Texas, Florida and the East Coast.

Founded in 1992, Overnite Express now handles about 450,000 deliveries a year and has 105 associates -- about 70 of them drivers like McEfee.

"We are literally a 24-hour company," says Ukropina. "Hospitals, print and graphic art companies, law firms are all around-the-clock businesses."

On this day...Overnite Express will visit 350 Overnite Express drop boxes and ship 1,800 packages for next-day delivery. Its 70 drivers will cover thousands of miles of freeways and streets between Santa Barbara and San Diego.

By Kevin O'Leary May 7, 1998