This seems more like a free-market problem where there just isn't any incentive to capture a market below a minimum.
I suspect when he looks at the distribution costs he will find the same
Even if an estimating tool comes up with a higher price, as long as they can reduce the time to do a quote, it helps.
I think problem here is thinking that eliminating the cost of the manpower to do the estimate will bring cost down enough to do the job.
When really, they need to introduce a premium for small/odd jobs. A lot of people understand that small/odd orders are going to cost more. So a tool to efficiently get them a small/odd cost is still good. The order is going to cost more, but if you are ordering small/odd, you accept that.
The goal is to get the companies to have a tool that is efficient enough to even take peoples calls.