Question

Part 2. Forge On! provides wilderness experiences for groups of any size. Each group chooses its destination and then a custom experience is planned around that location. Clients must arrange their own transportation to the nearest city with an airport. After that everything is provided. Clients will walk a little every day and then sleep out under the stars. All necessary equipment is provided by Forge On!, including sleeping bags, walking sticks, backpacks and water bottles and any other equipment that is needed. Exactly what is provided varies depending on the destination, the season and the fitness of the group. After the experience the equipment is taken home by the clients. Each group is accompanied by expert wilderness guides. By contract, there must can be no more than 10 people for each guide. All meals are also prepared for the group by the camp cook (who is not a guide), who brings all the food and necessary cooking gear on a llama or pack mule. Meals are prepared to reflect the local cuisine and are determined by Forge On!’s expert nutritionist in consultation with the group.

The firm uses an ABC system. There are four cost pools: food, which includes the cost of food, the equipment required to prepare it and the time of the cook who accompanies the group (the cost driver is person/days[number of people times number of days), equipment (the cost driver is number of people) and staff (the cost driver is number of staff days required for the trek) and other (the cost driver is number of groups). Other includes all administrative costs as well as transportation from the airports to the beginning of the trek. For the upcoming summer season, the following estimates have been made:

         Number of treks                                                                          56

         Average duration of trek                                                              7 days

         Average number in group                                                             9 people

        

         Equipment cost                                                                $850,000

         Food cost                                                                           592,000

         Staff cost                                                                            998,000

         Miscellaneous cost                                                            326,000

The Jones family (there are 13 of them) has booked a trek along the Inca Trail. They will walk the entire trail, requiring 12 days. Because the nights can be quite cold in the higher elevations, they require special cold weather sleeping bags, but otherwise their equipment needs are similar to other treks. They will fly into Cuzco to meet their guides.

Compute the cost of the Jones trek.

Answer 1