广东交通职业技术学院的前身是1959年成立的广东交通学校和1960年成立的广东省航运学校。1999年经教育部批准，两校合并组建为广东交通职业技术学院。2008年7月，学院由广东省交通运输厅整建制划转广东省教育厅管理；2022年10月，广东省华侨职业技术学校、广东省科技职业技术学校通过省属职业院校集团办学并入学院。

The predecessor of Guangdong Communication Polytechnic was Guangdong Traffic School founded in 1959 and Guangdong Shipping School founded in 1960. Approved by the Ministry of Education in 1999, the two schools were merged to form Guangdong Communication Polytechnic. In July 2008, the college was transferred from the Department of Transportation of Guangdong Province to the Department of Education of Guangdong Province as a whole; in October 2022, Guangdong Overseas Chinese Vocational and Technical School and Guangdong Science and Technology Vocational and Technical School were merged into the college through the group办学 of provincial vocational colleges.

学院坚持立足交通、服务粤港澳区域经济社会发展的办学定位，注重培养具有“铺路石品格、航标灯精神”的创新型、复合型和发展型高素质技术技能人才，荣获国家教学成果一等奖1项、二等奖2项。截至2023年6月，学院有天河、国际、清远等校区，占地面积1300余亩，全日制在校生2.8万余人，开设56个专业，涵盖土木工程、汽车制造、轨道交通、智能交通等多个领域，形成了“公路水路轨道三路引领，多学科协同发展”的专业布局。

The college adheres to the school-running orientation of being based on transportation and serving the economic and social development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, focusing on cultivating innovative, compound and developmental high-quality technical and skilled talents with "paving stone character and beacon spirit", and has won 1 first prize and 2 second prizes of National Teaching Achievements. As of June 2023, the college has campuses in Tianhe, International, Qingyuan, etc., covering an area of more than 1,300 mu, with more than 28,000 full-time students and 56 majors, covering civil engineering, automobile manufacturing, rail transit, intelligent transportation and other fields, forming a professional layout of "leading by road, waterway and rail, and coordinated development of multiple disciplines".