There is a wide range of effective protective components for protection against solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Nevertheless, these protective components have so far found little or no use in everyday working life. There are many reasons for this, in particular a lack of employee acceptance of the available protective measures. In particular, the frequently propagated long clothing has met with very little acceptance. The arguments against it range from ‘uncomfortable’ to ‘too warm’. In order to find out the reasons why employees reject long-sleeved outerwear in particular a wearing test of different items of clothing was carried out in various branches of the transportation sector. Part of this wearing test was also to determine the ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of the garments provided to check whether the manufacturer's UPF information is reliable. In addition, the UPF was determined after repeated industrial laundering in order to analyse the influence of the washing process on the UPF. The measurements showed that for the majority of the garments, the UPF stated by the manufacturer corresponded to the values determined by us. For a few garments, the UPF stated by the manufacturer could not be reproduced in our measurements. Repeated washing increased the UPF for all garments. The measurements show that UV protective clothing available on the market can provide good and effective protection against solar UV radiation. In order to increase the acceptance of such protective measures in the occupational context, it is essential to involve employees in the actual selection process.