A marking system may hold a container from which markers are dispensed to mark the presence or absence of an underground facility in a dig area. The container may identify a marker characteristic regarding the markers in the container. The marking system may receive activation of a trigger, dispense a marker from the container when the trigger is activated, and store the marker characteristic and time data when the trigger is activated. In other embodiments, the marking system may dispense a marker, determine location data and/or time data, and substantially simultaneously trigger the dispensing of the marker and logging of the location data and/or the time data. The location data identifies a geographic location where the marker is dispensed and the time data identifies the time when the marker is dispensed.