In this paper we propose a heuristic algorithm to solve the Vehicle Routing
Problem with Time Windows. Its framework is a smart combination of three s
imple procedures: the classical k-opt exchanges improve the solution, an ad
hoc procedure reduces the number of vehicles and a second objective functi
on drives the search out of local optima. No parameter tuning is required a
nd no random choice is made: these are the distinguishing features with res
pect to the recent literature. The algorithm has been tested on benchmark p
roblems which prove it to be more effective than comparable algorithms.