Labour and the unit price for equipment: Backhoe rental rate is $135.00 per hour...

kiwi

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Hello so I'm just showing my work that I have so far. I'm asked to calculate the unit price for labour and the unit price for equipment. The highlighted text in red are figures at I don't know what to do with. I've showed my work in the attachment.
I'm wondering if I could get some help thank you.
Calculate the unit price for labour and the unit price for equipment for excavating the basement and removing soil to thedump based on the following data:
Backhoe rental rate is $135.00 per hour and its output is42m^3/hour
Wage of operator for backhoe is $47.00 per hour
Dump truck rental rate is $85.00 per hour and their averagespeed is 33km/hour
Wage of truck driver is $65.00 per/ hour
Capacity of dump truck is 7.42m3 (bank measure)
Distance from site to dump is 60km
Time to unload truck at dump is 6 minutes
 

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Hello so I'm just showing my work that I have so far. I'm asked to calculate the unit price for labour and the unit price for equipment. The highlighted text in red are figures at I don't know what to do with. I've showed my work in the attachment.
I'm wondering if I could get some help thank you.
Calculate the unit price for labour and the unit price for equipment for excavating the basement and removing soil to thedump based on the following data:
Backhoe rental rate is $135.00 per hour and its output is42m^3/hour
Wage of operator for backhoe is $47.00 per hour
Dump truck rental rate is $85.00 per hour and their averagespeed is 33km/hour
Wage of truck driver is $65.00 per/ hour
Capacity of dump truck is 7.42m3 (bank measure)
Distance from site to dump is 60km
Time to unload truck at dump is 6 minutes
How long does it take for the dump truck to take load to the dump-site, dump it and come back - ready to carry the next load?
 
I'm just showing my work that I have so far. I'm asked to calculate the unit price for labour and the unit price for equipment.
Your work on the unit labor price shows that you divided one hour's labor cost by 42 cubic meters. That works only if they're moving 42 cubic meters in one hour. The truck holds only 7.42 cubic meters, and it has to drive 120 km to the dump site and back. There's no way to move 42 cubic meters in one hour.

There's one backhoe and one truck.

The truck driver must wait for the time it takes the backhoe operator to move 7.42 cubic meters of dirt into the truck. (She's paid for this wait time.)

While she drives the truck to the dump site, unloads the dirt, and returns to the excavation site, the backhoe operator must wait. (He's paid for this wait time.)

I'm thinking that you need to determine the total time it takes (in hours) to load the truck, drive it round trip, and dump the load. That amount of hours gets multiplied by the sum of the two worker's hourly rates. That total dollar amount is the labor cost for handling 7.42 cubic meters, so divide it by 7.42 to get unit labor cost.


The highlighted text in red are figures at I don't know what to do with.
averagespeed is 33km/hour
Capacity of dump truck is 7.42m3 (bank measure)
Distance from site to dump is 60km
Time to unload truck at dump is 6 minutes
These amounts are used to determine times:

Time to load one truck
Time to drive to the dump site and back

Distance = Rate × Time

You can use a proportion, to calculate the time to load one truck:

[42 m^3] / [1 hour] = [7.42 m^3] / [? hour]
 
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Hmmmm...since backhoe total hourly cost (182)
is higher than truck's (150), seems that hiring
a 2nd truck would greatly reduce "total net cost",
as "waiting time" by backhoe would be accordingly
reduced...do I need my head to be examined? :shock:
Denis mon ami.

I have not bothered with this problem because I have suspected that it was not stated in full. Normally in an economics problem you are trying to minimize unit cost. So I have been wondering whether the question is to calculate the minimum unit cost. As far as I can see, we need to know the volume of dirt to be removed to figure out the optimum number of backhoes and trucks.
 
… seems that hiring a 2nd truck would greatly reduce "total net cost", as "waiting time" by backhoe would be accordingly reduced...do I need my head to be examined? :shock:
Agree! Maybe more than two trucks; loading takes less than 15 minutes, and truck takes over 3.5 hours to return.

However, minimizing costs is not the exercise posted.

Perhaps, JeffM is correct (part of the exercise is missing), or maybe this exercise is just practice calculating unit costs, using a simplified senario (adding to students' toolkit of skills, for handling more realistic economic problems).

Hmmm -- if the contractor were a one-person show, they could operate the backhoe and the truck, and bill for both wages!
 
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