Ward Industries

Ward Industries is a former umbrella company for businesses owned and operated by Dave Ward and his son Charles Ward of Conway, Arkansas. The major businesses associated with the company were Ward School Bus Manufacturing and Demographics, Inc.

In the 1960s the company conducted a study of school bus safety called the "Rivet Survey" which became a basis for national specifications issued in a 1970 report. Ward Industries discovered that buses contained anywhere from 232 to 4,000 rivets in their construction, leading to new standards for school bus joint strength.