{"recordId":"st_ceybjvl3v5gwf1ps","canonicalUrl":"https://sotwire.com/stories/marks-clearing-grading-machinery-trader-contractor-of-the-week","jsonUrl":"https://sotwire.com/stories/marks-clearing-grading-machinery-trader-contractor-of-the-week/record","slug":"marks-clearing-grading-machinery-trader-contractor-of-the-week","headline":"Machinery Trader names Marks Clearing & Grading its Contractor of the Week","dek":"The used-equipment marketplace's feature, which Marks announced Oct. 6, spotlights a Wendell sitework company that said in March it runs 265 pieces of equipment.","articleBody":"Marks Clearing & Grading, a sitework company in Wendell, said in March that it runs 265 pieces of equipment. Machinery Trader has named Marks its Contractor of the Week.\n\nMachinery Trader is a marketplace for buying and selling used construction equipment. Marks announced the feature on Oct. 6, 2026, and said it came through the Sandhills Global Contractor Program.\n\nMarks described its fleet management as an approach that \"increases equipment exposure, reaches more buyers, and maximizes returns throughout the equipment lifecycle.\" The graphic Marks posted shows Marks-branded excavators, an articulated dump truck and wheel loaders, and tells readers to \"check out their inventory on MachineryTrader.com.\" Marks did not say which machines it has listed for sale.\n\nMachinery Trader is published by Sandhills Global of Lincoln, Nebraska. Sandhills launched the title in 1978 as a print magazine for the used construction equipment market, and today also runs it online at MachineryTrader.com.\n\nJustin Smith, named vice president of asset management in July, leads the company's fleet and equipment shop. Marks credited the people who run and maintain the fleet.\n\n\"Equipment is the backbone of what we do,\" the company wrote. \"Moving dirt, laying pipe and building roads all depend on machines that are well managed from the day they arrive to the day they move on.\"","category":"other","categoryLabel":"Company news","location":"Wendell, NC","company":{"name":"Marks Clearing & Grading","domain":"marksclearingandgrading.com"},"sample":false,"sampleDisclaimer":null,"publishedAt":"2026-10-07T12:17:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T04:12:45.170Z","badge":"Desk reported","trust":{"level":"desk_reported","doctrine":"Sotwire verifies who at the company stood behind the submission. It does not independently certify every underlying company claim as true.","verifies":"which named Sotwire editor wrote this from the cited sources","doesNotCertify":"independent truth of every claim","badge":"Desk reported","verificationMethod":"Named Sotwire editor, from the cited sources. Not a company attestation, and not an independent fact-check of every sentence.","domainChecked":false},"attestation":{"attested":false},"confirmation":null,"facts":[{"label":"Feature","value":"Machinery Trader Contractor of the Week"},{"label":"Program","value":"Sandhills Global Contractor Program"},{"label":"Publisher","value":"Sandhills Global, Lincoln, Nebraska"},{"label":"Machinery Trader","value":"Launched in 1978 as a print magazine; also online at MachineryTrader.com"},{"label":"Equipment in the graphic","value":"Marks-branded excavators, an articulated dump truck, a compact track loader, wheel loaders and a broom attachment"},{"label":"Fleet size","value":"265 pieces of equipment, per the company in March 2026"},{"label":"Fleet lead","value":"Justin Smith, vice president of asset management"},{"label":"Not in the announcement","value":"How the Contractor Program works and when the feature ran"}],"keyEvents":[{"date":"2026-03","label":"Marks said it runs 265 pieces of equipment"},{"date":"2026-07","label":"Marks named Justin Smith vice president of asset management"},{"date":"2026-10-06","label":"Marks announced the Machinery Trader Contractor of the Week feature"}],"sources":[{"url":"https://marksclearingandgrading.com/2026/10/marks-clearing-grading-featured-as-machinery-traders-contractor-of-the-week/","title":"Marks Clearing & Grading Featured as Machinery Trader's Contractor of the Week","publisher":"Marks Clearing & Grading"},{"url":"https://www.sandhills.com/about","title":"About Us","publisher":"Sandhills Global"},{"url":"https://www.sandhills.com/","title":"Sandhills Global home page (About Sandhills Global; Lincoln, Nebraska)","publisher":"Sandhills Global"},{"url":"https://marksclearingandgrading.com/2026/03/tyler-marks-triangle-business-journal/","title":"Tyler Marks profiled by the Triangle Business Journal (215 people, 265 machines)","publisher":"Marks Clearing & Grading"},{"url":"https://marksclearingandgrading.com/2026/07/marks-clearing-grading-welcomes-justin-smith/","title":"Marks Clearing & Grading Welcomes Justin Smith","publisher":"Marks Clearing & Grading"}],"source":{"url":"https://marksclearingandgrading.com/2026/10/marks-clearing-grading-featured-as-machinery-traders-contractor-of-the-week/","publisher":"Marks Clearing & Grading","publishedAt":"2026-10-06T22:28:44.000Z"},"cover":{"url":"https://sotwire.com/covers/marks-clearing-grading-machinery-trader-contractor-of-the-week.webp","alt":"Machinery Trader names Marks Clearing & Grading its Contractor of the Week","provenance":"unknown","provenanceLabel":"Unknown origin","credit":null},"images":[{"id":"med_50u37xogpuidowa9","url":"https://pub-ec2c7475154f4c22ba3162ee6eef7802.r2.dev/wire/marksclearingandgrading.com/obj_n5058p6a7jlpmvbq-1791244827283.jpg","alt":"A collage headed Contractor of the Week with the Marks Clearing & Grading logo, photos of yellow and orange Marks-branded excavators, an articulated dump truck, a compact track loader, wheel loaders and a broom attachment, and a MachineryTrader.com logo.","caption":"The Contractor of the Week graphic Marks Clearing & Grading posted with its Oct. 6 announcement, showing Marks-branded equipment.","credit":"Image: Machinery Trader feature graphic, via Marks Clearing & Grading","lead":true,"provenance":"unknown","filename":"1791244827283.jpg"}],"provenanceMethod":"EXIF, XMP, and filename heuristic. Not C2PA cryptographic proof, and not a judgment that the depicted event is true.","provenanceDisclaimer":"v1 labels are heuristic (EXIF, XMP, filename), not cryptographic C2PA proof. Treat them as disclosure of observed metadata, not a guarantee that the image is genuine or that the depicted event is true.","citation":"Sotwire Desk, Marks Clearing & Grading. \"Machinery Trader names Marks Clearing & Grading its Contractor of the Week.\" Sotwire, October 7, 2026, https://sotwire.com/stories/marks-clearing-grading-machinery-trader-contractor-of-the-week. Record ID: st_ceybjvl3v5gwf1ps. Desk reported.","sampleLabel":null,"correctionStatus":"No public corrections recorded","integrity":{"algorithm":"sha-256","hex":"863309d3e25363b4c0527e42cc5a606bdc15e682342717ae9210d7622eacbe64","contentDigest":"sha-256=:hjMJ0+JTY7TAUn5CzFpga9wV5oI0JxeukhDXYi6svmQ=:","scope":"Canonical JSON record excluding the integrity object"}}