Companies are losing out on a staggering £53 billion a year because of missed deliveries and appointments, a new study has shown.

Conducted by web SMS firm Esendex, the research indicated that businesses are being hit extremely hard in the pocket when scheduled drop-offs or meetings do not take place, with each failure costing £238 on average.

The survey - which included logistics companies, transport organisations and customer service specialists - suggested that the bulk of this lost revenue is attributed to people going out and missing appointments.

One in three enterprises felt that they were probably to blame, as they did not issue a precise arrival time. As a result, 65 per cent of the survey respondents said they would introduce customer SMS alerts in the near future.

These figures come at a time when many logistics enterprises are fighting tooth and nail to stay afloat, with many being blighted by the sky-high price of fuel and other overheads.