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 $ 1,442,000 All variable Supervision 221,000 $ 139,000 Fixed Truck expense 1,190,000 $ 205,000 Fixed Building leases 862,000 $ 548,000 Fixed Utilities 203,000 $ 109,000 Fixed Warehouse labor 835,000 $ 159,000 Fixed Equipment leases 757,000 $ 585,000 Fixed Data processing equipment 952,000 All fixed Other 837,000 $ 372,000 Fixed Total $ 7,299,000 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 Cases Price Index Operating Costs 1 243,000 125 $5,699,163 2 333,000 114 5,806,662 3 244,000 120 5,849,929 4 403,000 115 5,927,641 5 319,000 122 5,939,159 6 346,000 124 6,043,388 7 376,000 136 5,918,519 8 470,000 130 6,133,892 9 370,000 140 6,126,154 10 432,000 136 6,186,649 11 387,000 139 6,208,823 12 471,000 131 6,362,279 These data are considered representative for both past and future operations in Brazil. rev: 10_16_2019_QC_CS-186472, 10_13_2020_QC_CS-234647, 10_13_2020_QC_CS-234650 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.