A universal mathematical model of vehicle routing problem with time windows is stated.On the basis of analyzing the weakness of genetic algorithm in local search,a new stochastic approach called the genetic simulated annealing algorithm is proposed to vehicle routing problem with time windows,and makes some experimental computations.The computational results demonstrate that the genetic simulated annealing algorithm can overcome the weakness of genetic algorithm and local search algorithm,so the high quality solutions to the vehicle routing problem with time windows is obtained.