diff --git a/.buildkite/scripts/setup_docker_env.sh b/.buildkite/scripts/setup_docker_env.sh
index e313d047b..3aded737b 100644
--- a/.buildkite/scripts/setup_docker_env.sh
+++ b/.buildkite/scripts/setup_docker_env.sh
@@ -18,6 +18,12 @@ setup_environment() {
   # shellcheck disable=1091
   source /etc/environment
 
+  if [ -z "${BUILDKITE_COMMIT:-}" ]; then
+    echo "ERROR: BUILDKITE_COMMIT environment variable is not set." >&2
+    echo "This script expects BUILDKITE_COMMIT to tag the Docker image." >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+
   # Cleanup of existing containers and images.
   echo "Starting cleanup for ${IMAGE_NAME}..."
   # Get all unique image IDs for the repository
@@ -49,20 +55,10 @@ setup_environment() {
 
   echo "Cleanup complete."
 
-  echo "Installing Python dependencies"
-  python3 -m pip install --progress-bar off buildkite-test-collector==0.1.9
-  echo "Python dependencies installed"
-  if [ -z "${BUILDKITE:-}" ]; then
-      VLLM_COMMIT_HASH=""
-      TPU_INFERENCE_HASH=$(git log -n 1 --pretty="%H")
-  else
-      VLLM_COMMIT_HASH=$(buildkite-agent meta-data get "VLLM_COMMIT_HASH" --default "")
-      TPU_INFERENCE_HASH="$BUILDKITE_COMMIT"
-  fi
+  VLLM_COMMIT_HASH=$(buildkite-agent meta-data get "VLLM_COMMIT_HASH" --default "")
 
   docker build \
       --build-arg VLLM_COMMIT_HASH="${VLLM_COMMIT_HASH}" \
       --build-arg IS_FOR_V7X="${IS_FOR_V7X:-false}" \
-      --no-cache -f docker/Dockerfile -t "${IMAGE_NAME}:${TPU_INFERENCE_HASH}" .
-
+      --no-cache -f docker/Dockerfile -t "${IMAGE_NAME}:${BUILDKITE_COMMIT}" .
 }