Caiman Distribution Partners is the Brazilian distribution company of a U.S. consumer products firm. Inflation in Brazil has made bidding and budgeting difficult for marketing managers trying to penetrate some of the country's rural regions. The company expects to distribute 450,000 cases of products in Brazil next month. The controller has classified operating costs (excluding costs of the distributed product) as follows. Account Operating cost Behavior Supplies $2,255,000 All variable Supervision 217,000 $ 161,000 Fixed Truck expense 1,110, eee $ 206,eee Fixed Building leases 850,000 $ 550,000 Fixed Utilities 214,000 $ 131,000 Fixed Warehouse labor 840,000 $ 123,000 Fixed Equipment leases 761,000 $ 620,000 Fixed Data processing equipment 950,000 All fixed Other 854,000 $ 36 , Fixed Total $8,051,000 Although overhead costs were related to revenues throughout the company, the experience in Brazil suggested to the managers that they should incorporate information from a published index of Brazilian prices in the distribution sector to forecast overhead in a manner more likely to capture the economics of the business. Following instructions from the corporate offices, the controller's office in Brazil collected the following information for monthly operations from last year. Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Cases 25e,eee 313, eee 251,000 442,eee 291, eee 385,eee 464,000 588,888 338,888 445,000 415, eee 509, eee Price Index 113 119 111 120 132 130 128 137 143 125 139 145 Operating costs $5,699,179 5,806,678 5,849,945 5,927,657 5,939, 175 6,043,484 5,918,535 6,133,908 6, 126,170 6,186,665 6,208,839 6,362, 295 These data are considered representative for both past and future operations in Brazil. Required: a-1. Determine the variable cost per case assuming that 450,000 cases will be shipped next month based on the controller's analysis of accounts. (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.) a-2. Prepare an estimate of operating costs. Variable cost per caso a-2. Estimate of operating cost