diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/output/OutputFrame.java b/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/output/OutputFrame.java
index 9948bb451d1..d5ddcada8c8 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/output/OutputFrame.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/output/OutputFrame.java
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ public byte[] getBytes() {
     public String getUtf8String() {
 
         if (bytes == null) {
-            return null;
+            return "";
         }
 
         return new String(bytes, Charsets.UTF_8);
diff --git a/modules/jdbc-test/pom.xml b/modules/jdbc-test/pom.xml
index d025dc7780f..2ce69f20476 100644
--- a/modules/jdbc-test/pom.xml
+++ b/modules/jdbc-test/pom.xml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId>
             <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
-            <version>9.3-1101-jdbc41</version>
+            <version>42.0.0</version>
             <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
diff --git a/modules/postgresql/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/PostgreSQLContainer.java b/modules/postgresql/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/PostgreSQLContainer.java
index 725f73d639c..f8229f4131c 100644
--- a/modules/postgresql/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/PostgreSQLContainer.java
+++ b/modules/postgresql/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/PostgreSQLContainer.java
@@ -1,11 +1,17 @@
 package org.testcontainers.containers;
 
+import org.testcontainers.containers.wait.LogMessageWaitStrategy;
+
+import java.time.Duration;
+
+import static java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit.SECONDS;
+
 /**
  * @author richardnorth
  */
 public class PostgreSQLContainer<SELF extends PostgreSQLContainer<SELF>> extends JdbcDatabaseContainer<SELF> {
-    public static final String NAME = "postgresql";
-    public static final String IMAGE = "postgres";
+    static final String NAME = "postgresql";
+    static final String IMAGE = "postgres";
     public static final Integer POSTGRESQL_PORT = 5432;
     private String databaseName = "test";
     private String username = "test";
@@ -17,6 +23,10 @@ public PostgreSQLContainer() {
 
     public PostgreSQLContainer(final String dockerImageName) {
         super(dockerImageName);
+        this.waitStrategy = new LogMessageWaitStrategy()
+                .withRegEx(".*database system is ready to accept connections.*\\s")
+                .withTimes(2)
+                .withStartupTimeout(Duration.of(60, SECONDS));
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -73,4 +83,9 @@ public SELF withPassword(final String password) {
         this.password = password;
         return self();
     }
+
+    @Override
+    protected void waitUntilContainerStarted() {
+        getWaitStrategy().waitUntilReady(this);
+    }
 }