Texas Freight Advisory Committee

How the Texas Freight Advisory Committee Shapes Freight Across Texas

Freight keeps the Texas economy moving, and the state plans for it deliberately. The Texas Freight Advisory Committee, known as TxFAC, gives private-sector freight leaders a direct line into how the Texas Department of Transportation plans, funds, and prioritizes freight projects. For any company that moves heavy equipment or breakbulk cargo through Houston, the committee’s work reaches the roads, ports, and corridors you depend on.

What does the committee do, who leads it now, and why should a Houston shipper care? Here is a clear look, updated for 2026.

What the Texas Freight Advisory Committee Does

TxFAC advises TxDOT on freight priorities, projects, and funding needs. The committee seats port authorities, trucking leaders, border-trade experts, and logistics professionals, so the people who move goods help shape the plans that affect them. Members weigh in on corridor investments, truck parking, border crossings, and the statewide freight plan. You can read the committee’s charge on the official TxDOT page.

The committee also guides the Texas Freight Mobility Plan, the state’s roadmap for freight investment. Its input helps TxDOT aim money at the bottlenecks and corridors that carry the heaviest freight loads.

New Leadership Heading Into 2026

The committee has a new chair. In December 2025, members elected Gerry Schwebel to lead TxFAC. Schwebel is executive vice president of the Corporate International Division at IBC Bank in Laredo and a long-standing voice on United States and Mexico trade. He has served on the committee since 2016.

He succeeds Judge Ed Emmett, the former Harris County Judge, who stepped down after 13 years in the chair. The handover places a border-trade and supply-chain specialist at the head of the table as Texas updates its long-range freight plans.

The 2027 Texas Freight Mobility Plan

TxDOT is developing the 2027 Texas Freight Mobility Plan, a four-year update of the 2023 plan. The work profiles freight across highways, rail, maritime, air cargo, and pipelines, then sets priorities for the next round of investment. Public involvement runs through 2027, with the committee reviewing freight data, corridor needs, and economic trends along the way.

For shippers, the plan signals where the state will spend on capacity, safety, and resilience. The corridors that win attention today shape your transit times tomorrow.

Border Trade and the Texas Corridors

Much of the committee’s focus sits on the border. Laredo handles a large share of United States and Mexico trade, and projects like the World Trade Bridge expansion and Interstate 35 improvements aim to keep trucks moving. The USMCA review and driver rules at the crossings also shape how quickly cargo clears.

That border focus matters if you run freight south. Our cross-border trucking to Mexico and Mexico shipping lanes ride the same corridors the committee works to improve.

Why It Matters for Houston Freight

Texas has led the nation in exports for more than two decades, 23 years running, and Houston sits at the center of that trade. Port Houston holds a seat on the committee, which keeps Gulf Coast cargo in the conversation next to the border crossings and the corridors that connect them.

When you ship oversized machinery, oil and gas modules, or breakbulk cargo out of Houston, you rely on the roads and port access that TxFAC helps prioritize. Stronger freight corridors mean fewer delays on your heavy haul moves and cleaner runs to the terminal. Texas International Freight follows the committee’s work closely, because its priorities shape the lanes and ports your cargo depends on.

Move Your Freight With a Houston Forwarder

Texas International Freight works in the freight network the committee plans around. We ship heavy equipment overseas, handle project logistics for oil, gas, mining, and construction cargo, and support Texas oil and gas logistics. As Houston freight forwarders, we keep your machinery moving from the job site to the port and on to its destination.

Have an oversized or heavy shipment to plan? Send us the dimensions, weight, and destination, and we will route it.