Final answer:
The student's queries involve business operations, including production scheduling, market segment preferences, fuel efficiency, shipping logistics, and economics of independent trucking, which are covered in college-level business or economics courses.
Step-by-step explanation:
The queries you have presented involve different concepts linked to business operations, including production scheduling, market preferences, fuel efficiency of long-haul trucks, shipping logistics, decision-making in small businesses, and economics of independent trucking. These questions would typically be discussed in a business or economics course at the college level. They cover both theoretical and practical aspects of business operations, such as the effects of production choices on cost and labor, the preferences of various market segments for trucks, and the characteristics of perfect competition within the independent trucking industry.
Your question about the number of trucks Solvo needs to produce is incomplete. However, it seems that you are looking for help with determining production quantities or operations scheduling. For small businesses, like the one that shovels sidewalks, the decision on whether to use hand shovels, snow blowers, or a plow truck depends on cost-benefit analysis and efficiency considerations. In terms of independent trucking, if market prices increase and total costs are held constant, profits would increase. This follows basic economic principles that when market price increases, so does marginal revenue, leading to an increase in production if the new price exceeds marginal cost.