The name date back to 1903 , when most deliveries were made by horse - drawn wagons . The number one wood was refer to as a " truck driver , " because he was the one who manage the squad that was pulling the load .
Before they unionized , the middling truck driver in the late 1800s often worked 18 - hour days and was have a bun in the oven to not only haul lading , but load and unload it — and be financially responsible for for it — from shipping peak to delivery point . All that for an fair pay of $ 2 per day . union are sometimes look upon with some derision today , but when the Teamsters first organized , it was to forbid worker victimisation and ply a more humane and safe environment ( along with a livable wage ) for the humble laborer .
Today the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has more or less 1.4 million members , professional and non - professional , in both the public and private sphere symbolise all form of transportation worker from UPS and FedEx driver and package handlers to locomotive engineers and trainman . As of 2009 they also typify railroad maintenance workers and the Graphics Communications Locals , which lie in of employee in various craft and acquirement domain in the printing process and publishing industry .
When the Teamsters are mentioned , the name Jimmy Hoffa immediately comes to mind . Hoffa was president of that union from 1958 until 1971 , the last four class of which he distribute while behind legal community after being convicted of attempted graft and panel tampering .
Hoffa was last regard in the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox eating place in Bloomfield Township , Michigan , in 1975 . The Red Fox close down in 1996 , but in all the intervening years , waitstaff report that not a week went by without at least one customer asking which booth Jimmy Hoffa had sit down in that fatal July afternoon .
