diff --git a/cmd/input.go b/cmd/input.go
index c348ef3acf5..239b0405be9 100644
--- a/cmd/input.go
+++ b/cmd/input.go
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ type Input struct {
 	autodetectEvent                    bool
 	eventPath                          string
 	reuseContainers                    bool
+	uniqueContainerNames               bool
 	bindWorkdir                        bool
 	secrets                            []string
 	vars                               []string
diff --git a/cmd/root.go b/cmd/root.go
index 1fbb55bcfe1..779de9d9851 100644
--- a/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmd/root.go
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ func createRootCommand(ctx context.Context, input *Input, version string) *cobra
 	rootCmd.Flags().StringArrayVarP(&input.inputs, "input", "", []string{}, "action input to make available to actions (e.g. --input myinput=foo)")
 	rootCmd.Flags().StringArrayVarP(&input.platforms, "platform", "P", []string{}, "custom image to use per platform (e.g. -P ubuntu-18.04=nektos/act-environments-ubuntu:18.04)")
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&input.reuseContainers, "reuse", "r", false, "don't remove container(s) on successfully completed workflow(s) to maintain state between runs")
+	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&input.uniqueContainerNames, "unique-container-names", "", false, "container names will include a (quasi-)unique (random) component to avoid conflicts with other instances of act running against the same Docker server (disabled if --reuse is present)")
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&input.bindWorkdir, "bind", "b", false, "bind working directory to container, rather than copy")
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&input.forcePull, "pull", "p", true, "pull docker image(s) even if already present")
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&input.forceRebuild, "rebuild", "", true, "rebuild local action docker image(s) even if already present")
@@ -611,6 +612,7 @@ func newRunCommand(ctx context.Context, input *Input) func(*cobra.Command, []str
 			ForcePull:                          !input.actionOfflineMode && input.forcePull,
 			ForceRebuild:                       input.forceRebuild,
 			ReuseContainers:                    input.reuseContainers,
+			UniqueContainerNames:               input.uniqueContainerNames,
 			Workdir:                            input.Workdir(),
 			ActionCacheDir:                     input.actionCachePath,
 			ActionOfflineMode:                  input.actionOfflineMode,
diff --git a/pkg/runner/run_context.go b/pkg/runner/run_context.go
index 5d4277123ed..57a32559334 100644
--- a/pkg/runner/run_context.go
+++ b/pkg/runner/run_context.go
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"math/big"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"regexp"
@@ -28,6 +29,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/opencontainers/selinux/go-selinux"
 )
 
+var uniqueIdentifier = ""
+
 // RunContext contains info about current job
 type RunContext struct {
 	Name                string
@@ -55,6 +58,38 @@ type RunContext struct {
 	nodeToolFullPath    string
 }
 
+func init() {
+	var charset = []rune("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789")
+
+	// To allow multiple concurrent instances of ACT, we need to use
+	// a unique identifier that will differentiate all containers
+	// spawned by this instance from those spawned by others. If we
+	// don't do that, then weird conflicts will arise due to possible
+	// container name collsions. We use a secure random string of
+	// alphanumeric characters for this purpose.
+	//
+	// We don't use a UUID due to its length - we don't want too long
+	// a string ... just long enough to provide sufficient randomness
+	//
+	// This function will try to generate a secure random string. If
+	// that fails for some reason, it will use the PID as its
+	// "unique identifier"
+	length64 := int64(len(charset))
+	target := make([]rune, 8)
+	for i := range target {
+		p, err := rand.Int(rand.Reader, big.NewInt(length64))
+		if err != nil {
+			// TODO: Should we log this error? How (without a lot of hoops)?
+			// If we had some sort of issue with the randomness,
+			// let's just use the PID as the "randomness"
+			uniqueIdentifier = fmt.Sprintf("%08X", os.Getpid())
+			return
+		}
+		target[i] = charset[p.Int64()]
+	}
+	uniqueIdentifier = string(target)
+}
+
 func (rc *RunContext) AddMask(mask string) {
 	rc.Masks = append(rc.Masks, mask)
 }
@@ -90,6 +125,13 @@ func (rc *RunContext) GetEnv() map[string]string {
 }
 
 func (rc *RunContext) jobContainerName() string {
+	// Assume we want to use the consistent, constant identifier
+	if rc.Config.UniqueContainerNames && !rc.Config.ReuseContainers {
+		// If we're not going to reuse the containers, and we want to be
+		// able to run multiple instances of act concurrently, then we
+		// must use the instance-specific (random) identifier
+		return createContainerName("act", uniqueIdentifier, rc.String())
+	}
 	return createContainerName("act", rc.String())
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/runner/runner.go b/pkg/runner/runner.go
index b72bbc69746..fddc371669a 100644
--- a/pkg/runner/runner.go
+++ b/pkg/runner/runner.go
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ type Config struct {
 	EventPath                          string                       // path to JSON file to use for event.json in containers
 	DefaultBranch                      string                       // name of the main branch for this repository
 	ReuseContainers                    bool                         // reuse containers to maintain state
+	UniqueContainerNames               bool                         // make container names for this instance unique
 	ForcePull                          bool                         // force pulling of the image, even if already present
 	ForceRebuild                       bool                         // force rebuilding local docker image action
 	LogOutput                          bool                         // log the output from docker run