diff --git a/.github/workflows/postgres-service.yml b/.github/workflows/postgres-service.yml
index 691bde8..6c769e6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/postgres-service.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/postgres-service.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ jobs:
   build:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     
+    container:
+      image:  node:10.16-jessie
+
     services:
       postgres:
         image: postgres:10.8
@@ -27,3 +30,8 @@ jobs:
       working-directory: ./postgres
     - run: node client.js
       working-directory: ./postgres
+      env:
+        # use postgres for the host here because we have specified a contaienr for the job.
+        # If we were running the job on the VM this would be localhost
+        POSTGRES_HOST: postgres
+        POSTGRES_PORT: ${{ job.services.postgres.ports[5432] }}
diff --git a/postgres/client.js b/postgres/client.js
index 7f50bb3..7385df7 100644
--- a/postgres/client.js
+++ b/postgres/client.js
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-const { Client } = require('pg')
+const { Client } = require('pg');
 
 const pgclient = new Client({
-    host: 'postgres',
-    port: 5432,
+    host: process.env.POSTGRES_HOST,
+    port: process.env.POSTGRES_PORT,
     user: 'postgres',
     password: 'postgres',
     database: 'postgres'