The International Transport Workers' Federation was founded in 1896 as the International Federation of Ship, Dock and River Workers, adopting its current name in 1898 when it expanded to include transport workers in non-maritime industries. Its initial foundation was in London, in the hands of J. Havelock Wilson of the NSFU, in association with Ben Tillett and Tom Mann, the leaders of the 1889 London dock strike, and also Charles Lindley, the Swedish seamen's unionist, who was to serve the International Transport Workers' Federation for over 50 years.

In 1904, financial problems caused the International Transport Workers' Federation to move to Germany under the secretaryship of the German railwaymen's leader, Hermann Jochade, who rapidly placed the organisation on a more stable administrative and financial footing. The First World War broke down associations between trade unionists and in 1915 the Federation virtually ceased to exist when Jochade was conscripted.

Jochade had established a liaison office in the neutral Netherlands in 1914, supervised by the Dutch Transport Federation (NVV); it was from this base that the international International Transport Workers' Federation was re-established in 1919, with an Amsterdam office, under the secretaryship of Edo Fimmen, joint secretary of the International Federation of Trade Unions and the Dutch trade union federation. Membership again flourished under Fimmen's leadership and major international campaigns, most notably against fascism, marked this period in the International Transport Workers' Federation's history.

By 1939, the imminent outbreak of war caused the International Transport Workers' Federation to move to England, initially to a temporary war-time home in Bedford and later to London. Since the end of World War II the International Transport Workers' Federation has continued to grow, connecting trade unions from 150 countries and engaging in world-wide campaigns on a range of issues. Its headquarters is located in London with offices in Amman, Brussels, Nairobi, New Delhi, Ouagadougou, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.