Courier services were often unreliable. "Next-plane-out" services cost a minimum of $150.

So when Ukropina found himself out of work in 1992, he thought an overnight delivery service that picked up later, delivered promptly and accurately, yet charged reasonable rates could thrive in a regional market.

That was the concept for Overnite Express in Irvine in 1992.

He asked his former printing customers to give his concept a try, which some did partly because they knew Ukropina's passion for customer service.

Today, Overnite Express has 6,000 customers, 200 employees, makes over a million deliveries a year and grosses $20 million.

"We're nobody to Federal Express," Ukropina said. "The volume we do in a year, Federal Express does in 20 minutes."

The key has been filling an unmet need that can be profitable for a small business but not so large or lucrative for giant competitors to take away.

That's more easily conceived than delivered. But Overnite Express has succeeded and was honored as business of the year recently by the Southland Economic Development Center in Santa Ana, which coordinated the loan for Overnite Express' purchase of its 52,000-square-foot headquarters in Irvine in 2002.

THE NICHE

Ukropina's initial idea was to allow customers to drop off their packages as late as 9 p.m. for next-day delivery anywhere from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border.

"I knew business doesn't stop at 5 p.m.," he said.

The service has expanded to 1,000 drop-off boxes in all high-density business areas of California with next-day delivery to every ZIP code in California, Nevada and Arizona. Customers can also drop off their packages as late as midnight at the processing center at 17817 Gillette Ave. in Irvine.

To find better ways to service this narrow niche, Ukropina studied his clients' Federal Express deliveries. He found that 3 percent of the packages weren't delivered because of address discrepancies.

"I knew there was a market there, but I didn't realize it was that big," he said. "That package may sit at the FedEx office for a day or two before it's returned to the customer. Our goal is to make customers that happens to former FedEx customers."

Overnite Express started taking extra steps to deliver those packages, using two-way Nextel phones to communicate with headquarters and clients.

Customer Cecilia Ulloa of commercial real estate developer Snyder Langston in Irvine loves that extra service. "They inform us when addresses are incorrect and give us the correct one," she said. "The (package) tracking system is wonderful."

Federal Express spokesman Matt Ceniceros said the company does not comment on competitors.

TECHNOLOGY: FRIEND AND FOE

While Overnite Express has millions of dollars invested in infrastructure and vehicles, technology and the Internet make a regional service possible and profitable.

The company has four full-time software programmers who make package processing efficient and accurate and create a Web site where customers can order supplies, arrange a delivery and track packages.

At the same time, the Internet is a competitor, Ukropina said. Increasingly, people send documents electronically rather than use services like Overnite Express. Paper now accounts for about 60 percent of the company's deliveries, with the rest being products like blood that cannot be e-mailed.

MAKE SERVICE REALITY

To compete with Federal Express, Overnite Express must provide better, not just equal, service, for which Ukropina needs the commitment of every employee. He calls them associates.

The average shipment costs $14, and the average customer sends one package a night. But associates are trained to think of that customer not as worth $14 to the company, but worth almost $37,000 that the customer could spend with Overnite Express over 10 years.

"We'll spend $200 to make it right with a customer because the lifetime value is so much more," Ukropina said. "Associates don't have to get supervisor approval to spend that $200."

More significantly, associates' pay is linked to package delivery. Drivers aren't paid by the hour but receive a percentage of the gross revenue of each package. A package sent for 9 a.m. delivery costs more than one for 4 p.m. delivery, so the drivers make more on those early deliveries. Associates who work at headquarters receive a salary plus a few cents for every package the company handles.

Happy customers send more packages and stay with Overnite Express longer, so associates have an incentive to make customers happy, Ukropina explains.

Dione Tomasetti found out about Overnite Express at a previous employer and was so pleased with the service that she began using Overnite at her current employer, Howard CDM Construction in Long Beach.

"Their pricing is competitive, and (her service representative) is always there when I need to speak to someone," said the construction project manager who ships drawings, change orders and agreements throughout California. "And they placed a drop-off box right outside our office so we don't even have to drive down the road."

The company also works to keep its associates happy. When Kristine Balandra, who handles marketing, wanted to attend her son's graduation from preschool, she didn't need permission. Associates are encouraged to work around family events.

"It's like a family working here," she said.

Orange County Register