diff --git a/docs/source/user_guide/installation/install-from-docker.rst b/docs/source/user_guide/installation/install-from-docker.rst
index 82f75bebf4..1d49ae8f54 100644
--- a/docs/source/user_guide/installation/install-from-docker.rst
+++ b/docs/source/user_guide/installation/install-from-docker.rst
@@ -85,6 +85,13 @@ Once you have pulled the Docker image, you can run a Docker container with the P
 
 3. You can execute PyBaMM-related commands, run tests develop & contribute from the container.
 
+.. note::
+
+    The default user for the container is ``pybamm`` with ``pybamm`` as password. The user belongs to
+    ``sudoers`` and ``root`` group, so the sudo command can be issued to install additional packages to
+    the container.  After a clean install, ``sudo apt-get update`` should be executed to update the source
+    list. Additional packages can be installed using ``sudo apt-get install [package_name]``.
+
 Exiting the Docker container
 ----------------------------
 
diff --git a/scripts/Dockerfile b/scripts/Dockerfile
index 888f5f197d..152c8f01d9 100644
--- a/scripts/Dockerfile
+++ b/scripts/Dockerfile
@@ -3,10 +3,11 @@ FROM continuumio/miniconda3:latest
 WORKDIR /
 
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade
-RUN apt-get install -y libopenblas-dev gcc gfortran graphviz git make g++ build-essential cmake pandoc texlive-latex-extra dvipng
+RUN apt-get install -y libopenblas-dev gcc gfortran graphviz git make g++ build-essential cmake pandoc texlive-latex-extra dvipng sudo
 RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-RUN useradd -m -s /bin/bash pybamm
+RUN useradd -m -s /bin/bash pybamm && echo "pybamm:pybamm" | chpasswd && adduser pybamm sudo
+RUN usermod -ou 1000 -g 0 pybamm
 USER pybamm
 
 WORKDIR /home/pybamm/