Parliament has rejected a plan put forward by the Scottish National Party(SNP) to introduce a new fuel duty regulator.
Stewart Hosie MP, the SNP's treasury spokesman, had called on Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs to support his amendment to the Budget Finance Bill for a regulator, to help "protect jobs in the transport industry".
However, the House of Commons voted by 310 votes to 15 to reject the amendment.
The proposed regulator would have resulted in an automatic freeze on fuel duty increases if world oil prices rose above levels forecast by the Chancellor, and a parallel reduction in duty to match the extra revenue from VAT from higher pump prices.
Phil Flanders, Scotland and Northern Ireland director for the RHA, says: "This is a disappointing but not unexpected development.
"With a number of haulage firms going bust in Scotland, what is needed is a mechanism to ensure a measure of financial stability in this difficult economic climate."