diff --git a/test/utils/shippable/shippable.sh b/test/utils/shippable/shippable.sh
index 05efc942de..4dde3766dc 100755
--- a/test/utils/shippable/shippable.sh
+++ b/test/utils/shippable/shippable.sh
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ pip --version
 pip list --disable-pip-version-check
 
 export PATH="test/runner:${PATH}"
+export PYTHONIOENCODING='utf-8'
 
 # remove empty core/extras module directories from PRs created prior to the repo-merge
 find lib/ansible/modules -type d -empty -print -delete