Fifteen Mexican trucking companies have applied for operating authority to make deliveries in the United States under the cross-border pilot program, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said last week.

Mexico-based Transportes Olympic sent the first Mexican truck into the United States in more than two years this month as part of the cross-border trucking agreement between the countries, kicking off the three-year test of Mexican carriers.

The first Mexican truck crossed the United States border Friday as part of the cross-border trucking pilot program between the countries, the Associated Press reported.

The United States opened its border to Mexican trucks this month for the first time in more than two years, granting Mexico-based Transportes Olympic permission to operate throughout the country as part of a cross-border pilot program.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s decision to allow a Mexico-based carrier to operate in the United States received praise from U.S. groups whose exports to Mexico will soon be free from retaliatory tariffs.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said Friday it will issue a permit for a Mexican carrier to begin operations in the U.S. under the cross-border trucking program.

Allowing Mexican trucks to haul freight across the U.S. border does not pose the kind of “significant” truck-emissions issues that would require a full environmental impact study, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said.

It’s disappointing to see that the Department of Transportation’s own inspector general doesn’t think the agency is ready to proceed with the interminably delayed cross-border trucking pilot program with Mexico.

The Obama administration’s contentious cross-border trucking program with Mexico could be delayed until November after a Department of Transportation audit found that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has failed to set up several procedures aimed at monitoring and inspecting trucks that would enter the United States.