a particular costn item could be variable with respect to one cost object and fixed with respect to annother cost object. consider super shuttle, an airport transportation company. if the flrrt of vans it owns is the cost object, then the annual van registration and licensecost would be variable cost with respect to the number of vans owned. but if a particular van is the cost object, then the registration and license costs for that van are fixed costs with respect to the miles driven during a year