The ITF works to improve the lives of transport workers globally, encouraging and organising international solidarity among its network of affiliates.

The ITF's headquarters is located in London and it has offices in Abidjan, Amman, Brussels, Singapore, Montreal, Hong Kong, Nairobi, New Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney and Tokyo.

It also sees the neoliberal economic policies being promoted by regional blocks including the EU, MERCOSUR, ASEAN, NAFTA, and SADC as being generally injurious to transport workers.

It believes it is necessary to create solidarity networks between trade unions, and to improve the coordination between ITF sections, so that effective responses can be made to large multinational business entities which span several regions and many sectors of workers.

The ITF was founded in 1896 at a meeting in London, organised by Havelock Wilson, Ben Tillett, Tom Mann and Charles Lindley.

It has campaigned heavily against flags of convenience, and in the late 1990s, the ITF operated a floating museum, the mV Global Mariner, which sailed around the world.

[4][5] The vessel was originally built in England in 1979 as the mV Ruddbank, and sank in 2000 off the Venezuelan coast after colliding with a container ship.