Tool Review: PPG AdjustRite Commercial Estimating System

Calculating larger collision repair estimates in the $10,000 to $15,000 range used to take about three hours, says Matt Berg, estimator for Transteck’s Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, location body shop. Since the truck dealership group started using PPG’s AdjustRite Commercial Estimating System, however, that time has been cut by about two-thirds.

“It has everything categorized by truck system,” Berg explains. “Your hood is in one spot, your radiator cooling pack is in one spot, and so on and so forth. You don't have to jump around back and forth and look up your own paint times, look up your own blend times, [et cetera].”

Berg says he had tried other systems before Transteck first purchased PPG's AdjustRite system, but none of the others were as user-friendly.

“They have tutorials built into the system that you can go to and watch,” he says. “I learn more with hands-on type things, so I kind of just did it myself and learned how to do it.”

While PPG offers training on the estimating software, Berg did not attend his session until about six months after he had already been using it. By that point, he says he was able to actually help teach the training, attesting to the intuitive design of the product.

PPG also offers customer service, which Berg has reached out to, asking questions and also to provide feedback, which he says the company uses to provide improvements.

“If you would like to have something changed, you give them the idea, and if they think it's going to work, they'll change it and basically make it better for the system,” he says. “I believe a majority of their changes over the years have happened because of that input from all the users. They take everybody's input very seriously.”

One of Berg’s favorite PPG AdjustRite system features is the professionalism of the estimates.

“My customers can read their estimates a lot easier than they can [with] other estimating systems,” he explains. “Like I said, it's all categorized, so if they're trying to understand how it works, it basically breaks everything out by section of the truck, by part of the truck. [That makes the estimate easier to] explain to somebody who doesn't understand what parts of trucks are.”

Between the ease of use, intuitive interface, and polished estimates, Berg thinks highly of PPG’s AdjustRite system.

“I would recommend it,” he says. “If every estimating system was like this one, life would be a lot easier for everybody.”