Civil Engineering Reference
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3. Overtime, if needed, is compensated at 1.5 times the regular rate
(of wages only, assuming benefits are constant per hour).
4. A second engineer costs the same amount as the first one.
What is the maximum distance between the two projects that makes shar-
ing the same engineer efficient?
Solution
Let's consider two situations.
First—no overtime
: No overtime means that the engineer travels between
the two jobs (round trip) for no more than 2 hours
(
3 hours at job A
+
3 hours at job B
+
2 hours' travel time
=
8 hours per day
)
.
Maximum distance
=
2 hours
∗
40 mph
=
80 miles round-trip or 40 miles
one way. Car cost
=
80
∗
$1
∕
mile
=
$80 per day. Total cost per day
=
$63
∗
8
+
$80
=
$584 and
Average cost per hour
=
$584
∕
8
=
$73
It is clearly more economical to use one engineer than to hire two engi-
neers at a combined cost of $63
∗
2
=
$126 per hour.
Second—with overtime
: Let us assume that the two jobs are 100 miles
apart. The engineer will have 5 hours of driving time (2.5 hours each way), or
11 hours of work per day.
Car cost
=
200
∗
$1
∕
mile
=
$200 per day
Overtime compensation
=
3
∗
$50
∗
1
5
=
$225
Regular-time compensation
=
8
∗
$50
=
$400
Beneits
=
11
∗
$13
=
$143
2
and
Total cost per day
=
200
+
225
+
400
+
143
=
$968
.
008 per day (for two
engineers), but the difference is less and hiring a second engineer may be
a good idea, depending on other factors, such as the length of need and
future expected need, the long-term effect of driving and working overtime on
the engineer (fatigue, low morale, higher probability of a traffic accident), the
consequences of suddenly needing the engineer while he/she is on the other
project.
This cost is slightly less than $63
∗
8
∗
2
=
$1
,
2
The benefits may actually be a little less, since some of them are based on regular hours only. However, this
small error is ignored here for simplicity.
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