Domains and Branding
Domains
The primary way users quickly determine if they are on an official U.S. government website is to look for the .gov or .mil designation as part of the domain name. The .gov and .mil domains are widely viewed as zones of increased trust, where the public can confidently access government information and services in a secure environment knowing that the site is legitimate and authoritative. The Department of Transportation (DOT) and Operating Administration (OA) websites use only an approved .gov domain for their official public-facing websites.
This requirement does not apply in circumstances where DOT and/or OA's are users or a customer of a third-party website or service that resides on a non-governmental domain.
Branding
DOT uses two ribbons (“branding bars”) on DOT and OA websites. These ribbons allow customers to know that the administration or program is part of DOT. The link in the ribbon and on the DOT logo also provide customers with easy access to Transportation.gov.