In 1925, representatives of the Federated Carters' and Drivers' Industrial Union, the Trolley Draymen and Carters' Union and the Motor Transport and Chauffeurs' Association met to plan the establishment of a new union to represent all persons employed in connection with the transport of people or goods by road. The Amalgamated Road Transport Workers' Union was federally registered in 1928 (though the Motor Transport and Chauffeurs' Association withdrew beforehand) and ten years later it changed its name to the Transport Workers' Union of Australia. In 1947 members of the deregistered Federated Carters' and Drivers' Industrial Union of Australia, which had continued in parallel, joined the union. By the end of 1987 the Transport Workers' Union had amalgamated with the Motor Transport and Chauffeurs' Association and retained the same name.

The Federated Carters' and Drivers' Industrial Union was registered under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act in 1906. A union had existed from at least 1890 known as the United Carters' and Drivers' Industrial Union. By 1947 the carters and drivers industry had become virtually obsolete and the union was forced to deregister. Most of its members however, who remained in the general transport industry, went on to join the Transport Workers' Union of Australia.